The first Russian army, seventeen thousand strong, under Wittgenstein, pushed forward to Magdeburg, and, at Mokern, repulsed forty thousand French, who were advancing upon Berlin. The Prussians, under their veteran general, Blucher, entered Saxony and garrisoned Dresden, on the 27th of March, 1813; an arch of the fine bridge across the Elbe having been uselessly blown up by the French. Blucher, whose gallantry in the former wars had gained for him the general esteem, and whose kind and generous disposition had won the affection of the soldiery, was nominated generalissimo of the Prussian forces, but subordinate in command to Wittgenstein, who replaced Kutusow[4] as generalissimo of the united forces of Russia and Prussia. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia accompanied the army and were received with loud acclamations by the people of Dresden and Leipzig. The allied army was merely seventy thousand strong, and Blucher had not formed a junction with Wittgenstein when Napoleon invaded the country by Erfurt and Merseburg at the head of one hundred and sixty thousand men. Ney attacked, with forty thousand men, the Russian vanguard under Winzingerode, which, after gallantly defending a defile near Weissenfels, made an orderly retreat before forces far their superior in number. The French, on this occasion, lost Marshal Bessieres. Napoleon, incredulous of attack, marched in long columns upon Leipzig, and Wittgenstein, falling upon his right flank, committed great havoc among the forty thousand men under Ney, which he had first of all encountered, at Gross-Gorschen. This place was alternately lost and regained owing to his ill-judged plan of attack by single brigades, instead of breaking Napoleon's lines by charging them at once with the whole of his forces. The young Prussian volunteers here measured their strength in a murderous conflict, hand to hand, with the young French conscripts, and excited by their martial spirit the astonishment of the veterans. Wittgenstein's delay and Blucher's too late arrival on the field[5] gave Napoleon time to wheel his long lines round and to encircle the allied forces, which immediately retired. On the eve of the bloody engagement of the 2d of May, the allied cavalry attempted a general attack in the dark, which was also unsuccessful on account of the superiority of the enemy's forces. The allies had, nevertheless, captured some cannons, the French, none. The most painful loss was that of the noble Scharnhorst, who was mortally wounded. Bulow had, on the same day, stormed Halle with a Prussian corps, but was now compelled to resolve upon a retreat, which was conducted in the most orderly manner by the allies. At Koldiz, the Prussian rearguard repulsed the French van in a bloody engagement on the 5th of May. The allies marched through Dresden[6] and took up a firm position in and about Bautzen, after being joined by a reinforcement of eighty thousand Bavarians. Napoleon was also reinforced by a number of French, Bavarian, Wurtemberg, and Saxon troops,[7] and despatched Lauriston and Ney toward Berlin; but the former encountering the Russians under Barclay de Tolly at Konigswartha, and the latter the Prussians under York at Weissig, both were constrained to retreat. Napoleon attacked the position at Bautzen from the 19th to the 21st of May, but was gloriously repulsed by the Prussians under Kleist, while Bluecher, who was in danger of being completely surrounded, undauntedly defended himself on three sides. The allies lost not a cannon, not a single prisoner, although again compelled to retire before the superior forces of the enemy. The French had suffered an immense loss; eighteen thousand of their wounded were sent to Dresden. Napoleon's favorite, Marshal Duroc, and General Kirchner, a native of Alsace, were killed, close to his side, by a cannon ball. The allied troops, forced to retire after an obstinate encounter, neither fled nor dispersed, but withdrew in close column and repelling each successive attack.[8] The French avant-garde under Maison was, when in close pursuit of the allied force, almost entirely cut to pieces by the Prussian cavalry, which unexpectedly fell upon it at Heinau. The main body of the Russo-Prussian army, on entering Silesia, took a slanting direction toward the Riesengebirge and retired behind the fortress of Schweidnitz. In this strong position they were at once partially secure from attack, and, by their vicinity to the Bohemian frontier, enabled to keep up a communication, and, if necessary, to form a junction with the Austrian forces. The whole of the lowlands of Silesia lay open to the French, who entered Breslau on the 1st of June.[9] Berlin was also merely covered by a comparatively weak army under General Bulow,[10] who, notwithstanding the check given by him to Marshal Oudinot in the battles of Hoyerswerda and Luckau, was not in sufficient force to offer assistance to the main body of the French in case Napoleon chose to pass through Berlin on his way to Poland. Napoleon, however, did not as yet venture to make use of his advantage. By the seizure of Prussia and Poland, both of which lay open to him, the main body of the allied army and the Austrians, who had not yet declared themselves, would have been left to the rear of his right flank and could easily have cut off his retreat. His troops, principally young conscripts, were moreover worn out with fatigue, nor had the whole of his reinforcements arrived. To his rear was a multitude of bold partisans, Tettenborn, the Hanseatic legion, Czernitscheff, who, at Halberstadt, captured General Ochs together with the whole of the Westphalian corps and fourteen pieces of artillery, Colomb, the Herculean captain of horse, who took a convoy and twenty-four guns at Zwickau, and the Black Prussian squadron under Lutzow. Napoleon consequently remained stationary, and, with a view of completing his preparations and of awaiting the decision of Austria, demanded an armistice, to which the allies, whose force was still incomplete and to whom the decision of Austria was of equal importance, gladly assented.

On this celebrated armistice, concluded on the 4th of June, 1813, at the village of Pleisswitz, the fate of Europe was to depend. To the side that could raise the most powerful force, that on which Austria ranged herself, numerical superiority insured success. Napoleon's power was still terrible; fresh victory had obliterated the disgrace of his flight from Russia; he stood once more an invincible leader on German soil. The French were animated by success and blindly devoted to their emperor. Italy and Denmark were prostrate at his feet. The Rhenish confederation was also faithful to his standard. Councillor Crome published at Giessen, in obedience to Napoleon's mandate and with the knowledge of the government at Darmstadt, a pamphlet entitled "Germany's Crisis and Salvation," in which he declared that Germany was saved by the fresh victories of Napoleon, and promised mountains of gold to the Germans if they remained true to him.[11] Crome was at that time graciously thanked in autograph letters by the sovereigns of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Lutzow's volunteer corps was, during the armistice, surprised at Kitzen by a superior corps of Wurtembergers under Normann and cut to pieces. Germans at that period opposed Germans without any feeling for their common fatherland.[12] The king of Saxony, who had already repaired to Prague under the protection of Austria, also returned thence, was received at Dresden with extreme magnificence by Napoleon, and, in fresh token of amity, ceded the fortress of Torgau to the French.[13] These occurrences caused the Saxon minister, Senfft von Pilsach, and the Saxon general, Thielmann, who had already devoted themselves to the German cause, to resign office. The Polish army under Prince Poniatowsky (vassal to the king of Saxony, who was also grandduke of Warsaw) received permission (it had at an earlier period fallen back upon Schwarzenberg) to march, unarmed, through the Austrian territory to Dresden, in order to join the main body of the French under Napoleon. The declaration of the emperor of Austria in favor of his son-in-law, who, moreover, was lavish of his promises, and, among other things, offered to restore Silesia, was, consequently, at the opening of the armistice, deemed certain.

The armistice was, meanwhile, still more beneficial to the allies. The Russians had time to concentrate their scattered troops, the Prussians completed the equipment of their numerous Landwehren, and the Swedes also took the field. Bernadotte landed on the 18th of May in Pomerania, and advanced with his troops into Brandenburg for the purpose, in conjunction with Bulow, of covering Berlin. A German auxiliary corps, in the pay of England, was also formed, under Wallmoden, on the Baltic. The defence of Hamburg was extremely easy; but the base intrigues of foreigners, who, as during the time of the thirty years' war, paid themselves for their aid by the seizure of German provinces and towns, delivered that splendid city into the hands of the French. Bernadotte had sold himself to Russia for the price of Norway, which Denmark refused to cede unless Hamburg and Lubeck were given in exchange. This agreement had already been made by Prince Dolgorucki in the name of the emperor Alexander, and Tettenborn yielded Hamburg to the Danes, who marched in under pretext of protecting the city and were received with delight by the unsuspecting citizens. The non-advance of the Swedes proceeded from the same cause. The increase of the Danish marine by means of the Hanse towns, however, proved displeasing to England; the whole of the commerce was broken up, and the Danes, hastily resolving to maintain faith with Napoleon, delivered luckless Hamburg to the French, who instantly took a most terrible revenge. Davoust, as he himself boasted, merely sent twelve German patriots to execution,[14] but expelled twenty-five thousand of the inhabitants from the city, while he pulled down their houses and converted them into fortifications, at which the principal citizens were compelled to work in person. Dissatisfied, moreover, with a contribution of eighteen millions, he robbed the great Hamburg bank, treading underfoot every private and national right, all, as he, miserable slave as he was,[15] declared, in obedience to the mandate of his lord.

Austria, at first, instead of aiding the allies, allowed the Poles[16] to range themselves beneath the standard of Napoleon, whom she overwhelmed with protestations of friendship, which served to mask her real intentions, and meanwhile gave her time to arm herself to the teeth and to make the allies sensible of the fact of their utter impotency against Napoleon unless aided by her. The interests of Austria favored her alliance with France, but Napoleon, instead of confidence, inspired mistrust. Austria, notwithstanding the marriage between him and Maria Louisa, was, as had been shown at the congress of Dresden, merely treated as a tributary to France, and Napoleon's ambition offered no guarantee to the ancient imperial dynasty. There was no security that the provinces bestowed in momentary reward for her alliance must not, on the first occasion, be restored. Nor was public opinion entirely without weight.[17] Napoleon's star was on the wane, whole nations stood like to a dark and ominous cloud threatening on the horizon, and Count Metternich prudently chose rather to attempt to guide the storm ere it burst than trust to a falling star. Austria had, as early as the 27th of June, 1813, signed a treaty, at Reichenbach in Silesia, with Russia and Prussia, by which she bound herself to declare war against France, in case Napoleon had not, before the 20th of July, accepted the terms of peace about to be proposed to him. Already had the sovereigns and generals of Russia and Prussia sketched, during a conference held with the crown prince of Sweden, the 11th July, at Trachenberg, the plan for the approaching campaign, and, with the permission of Austria, assigned to her the part she was to take as one of the allies against Napoleon, when Metternich again visited Dresden in person for the purpose of repeating his assurances of amity, for the armistice had but just commenced, to Napoleon. The French emperor had an indistinct idea of the transactions then passing, and bluntly said to the Count, "As you wish to mediate, you are no longer on my side." He hoped partly to win Austria over by redoubling his promises, partly to terrify her by the dread of the future ascendency of Russia, but, perceiving how Metternich evaded him by his artful diplomacy, he suddenly asked him, "Well, Metternich, how much has England given you in order to engage you to play this part toward me?" This trait of insolence toward an antagonist of whose superiority he felt conscious, and of the most deadly hatred masked by contempt, was peculiarly characteristic of the Corsican, who, besides the qualities of the lion, fully possessed those of the cat. Napoleon let his hat drop in order to see whether Metternich would raise it. He did not, and war was resolved upon. A pretended congress for the conclusion of peace was again arranged by both sides; by Napoleon, in order to elude the reproach cast upon him of an insurmountable and eternal desire for war, and by the allies, in order to prove to the whole world their desire for peace. Each side was, however, fully aware that the palm of peace was alone to be found on the other side of the battle-field. Napoleon was generous in his concessions, but delayed granting full powers to his envoy, an opportune circumstance for the allies, who were by this means able to charge him with the whole blame of procrastination. Napoleon, in all his concessions, merely included Russia and Austria to the exclusion of Prussia.[18] But neither Russia nor Austria trusted to his promises, and the negotiations were broken off on the termination of the armistice, when Napoleon sent full powers to his plenipotentiary. Now, was it said, it is too late. The art with which Metternich passed from the alliance with Napoleon to neutrality, to mediation, and finally to the coalition against him, will, in every age, be acknowledged a master-piece of diplomacy. Austria, while coalescing with Russia and Prussia, in a certain degree assumed a rank conventionally superior to both. The whole of the allied armies was placed under the command of an Austrian general, Prince von Schwarzenberg, and if the proclamation published at Calisch had merely summoned the people of Germany to assert their independence, the manifesto of Count Metternich spoke already in the tone of the future regulator of the affairs of Europe.[19] Austria declared herself on the 12th of August, 1813, two days after the termination of the armistice.

[Footnote 1: Literally, the general levy of the people.—Trans.]

[Footnote 2: The exasperation of the people had risen to the utmost pitch. The French rascals in office, especially the custom-house officers, set no bounds to their tyranny and license. No woman of whatever rank was allowed to pass the gates without being subjected to the most indecent inquisition. Goods that had long been redeemed were continually taken from the tradesmen's shops and confiscated. The arbitrary enrolment of a number of young men as conscripts at length produced an insurrection, in which the guard-houses, etc., were destroyed. It was, however, quelled by General St. Cyr, and six of the citizens were executed. On the approach of the Russians, St. Cyr fled with the whole of his troops. The bookseller Perthes, Prell, and von Hess, formed a civic guard.—Von Hess's Agonies.]

[Footnote 3: The people rose en masse at Ronsdorf, Solingen, and Barmen, and marched tumultuously to Elberfeld, the great manufacturing town, but were dispersed by the French troops. The French authorities afterward declared that the sole object of the revolt was to smuggle in English goods, and, under this pretext, seized all the foreign goods in Elberfeld.]

[Footnote 4: Kutusow had, just at that conjuncture, expired at Bautzen.]

[Footnote 5: The nature of the ground rendered a night march impossible. The Russian, Michaelofski Danilefski, however, throws the blame upon an officer in Blucher's headquarters, who laid the important orders committed to his charge under his pillow and overslept himself.]

[Footnote 6: It may here be mentioned as a remarkable characteristic of those times that Goethe, Ernest Maurice Arndt, and Theodore Koerner at that period met at Dresden. The youthful Koerner, a volunteer Jaeger, was the Tyrtaeus of those days: his military songs were universally sung: his father also expressed great enthusiasm. Goethe said almost angrily, "Well, well, shake your chains, the man (Napoleon) is too strong for you, you will not break them!"—E. M. Arndt's Reminiscences.]

[Footnote 7: "Unfortunately there were German princes who, even this time, again sent their troops to swell the ranks of the oppressor; Austria had, unfortunately, not yet concluded her preparations; consequently, it was only possible to clog the advance of the conqueror by a gallant resistance."—Clausewitz. The Bavarians stood under Raglowich, the Wuertembergers under Franquemont, the Saxons under Reynier. There was also a contingent of Westphalians and Badeners.]

[Footnote 8: Bluecher exclaimed on this occasion: "He's a rascally fellow that dares to say we fly." Even Fain, the Frenchman, confesses in his manuscript of 1813, in which he certainly does not favor the Germans: "The best Marshals, as it were, killed by spent balls. Great victories without trophies. All the villages on our route in flames which obstructed our advance. 'What a war! We shall all fall victims to it!' are the disgraceful expressions uttered by many, for the iron hearts of the warriors of France are rust-grown." Napoleon exclaimed after the battle, "How! no result after such a massacre? No prisoners? They leave me not even a nail!" Duroc's death added to the catastrophe. Napoleon was so struck that for the first time in his life he could give no orders, but deferred everything until the morrow.]

[Footnote 9: But they merely encamped in the streets, showed themselves more anxious than threatening, and were seized with a terrible panic on a sudden conflagration breaking out during the night, which they mistook for a signal to bring the Landsturm upon them. And yet there were thirty thousand French in the city. How different to their spirit in 1807!]

[Footnote 10: Brother to the unfortunate Henry von Bulow.]

[Footnote 11: Crome was afterward barefaced enough to boast of this work in his Autobiography, published in 1833. Napoleon dictated the fundamental ideas of this work to him from his headquarters. His object was to pacify the Germans. He promised them henceforward to desist from enforcing his continental system, to restore liberty to commerce, no longer to force the laws and language of France upon Germany. L'empereur se fera aimer des Allemands. The Germans were, on the other hand, warned that the allies had no intention to render Germany free and independent, they being much more interested in retaining Germany in a state of division and subjection. The unity of Germany, it was also declared, was alone possible under Napoleon, etc.]

[Footnote 12: This arose from hatred to the party that dared to uphold the German cause instead of a Prussian, Saxon, etc., one, and by no means by chance, but, as Manso remarks, intentionally, "through low cunning and injustice."]

[Footnote 13: The king of Saxony was, in return, insulted by Napoleon, in an address to the ministers was termed une veille hete, and compelled to countenance immoral theatrical performances by his presence, a sin for which he each evening received absolution from his confessor. Vide Stein's Letter to Muenster in the Sketches of the War of Liberation.]

[Footnote 14: He also said, like his master, "I know of no Germans, I only know of Bavarians, Wuertembergers, Westphalians," etc.]

[Footnote 15: His written defence, in which he so lyingly, so humbly and mournfully exculpates himself that one really "compassionates the devil," is a sort of satisfaction for the Germans.]

[Footnote 16: Poniatowsky's dismissal with the Polish army from Poland was apparently a service rendered to Napoleon, but was in reality done with a view of disarming Poland. Poniatowsky might have organized an insurrection to the rear of the allies, and would in that case have been far more dangerous to them than when ranged beneath the standard of Napoleon.]

[Footnote 17: The people in Austria fully sympathized with passing events. How could those be apathetic who had such a burden of disgrace to redeem, such deep revenge to satisfy? An extremely popular song contained the following lines:

"Awake, Franciscus! Hark! thy people call! Awake! acknowledge the avenger's hand! Still groans beneath the foreign courser's hoof The soil of Germany, our fatherland.

"To arms! so long as sacred Germany Feels but a finger of Napoleon. Franciscus! up! Cast off each private tie! The patriot has no kindred, has no son."

All the able-bodied men, as in Prussia, crowded beneath the imperial standard and the whole empire made the most patriotic sacrifices. Hungary summoned the whole of her male population, the insurrection, as it was termed, to the field.]

[Footnote 18: Russia was to receive the whole of Poland, the grandduchy of Warsaw was to be annihilated. Such was Napoleon's gratitude toward the Poles!—Illyria was to be restored to Austria. Prussia, however, was not only to be excluded from all participation in the spoil, but the Rhenish confederation was to be extended as far as the Oder. Prussia would have been compelled to pay the expenses of the alliance between France, Russia, and Austria.]

[Footnote 19: "Everywhere," said this manifesto, "do the impatient wishes of the people anticipate the regular proceedings of the government. On all sides, the desire for independence under separate laws, the feeling of insulted nationality, rage against the heavy abuses inflicted by a foreign tyrant, burst simultaneously forth. His Majesty the emperor, too clear-sighted not to view this turn in affairs as the natural and necessary result of a preceding and violent state of exaggeration, and too just to view it with displeasure, had rendered it his principal object to turn it to the general advantage, and, by well-weighed and well-combined measures, to promote the true and lasting interests of the whole commonwealth of Europe."]



CCLXI. The Battle of Leipzig

Immediately after this—for all had been previously arranged—the monarchs of Russia and Prussia passed the Riesengebirge with a division of their forces into Bohemia, and joined the emperor Francis and the great Austrian army at Prague. The celebrated general, Moreau, who had returned from America, where he had hitherto dwelt incognito, in order to take up arms against Napoleon, was in the train of the czar. His example, it was hoped, would induce many of his countrymen to abandon Napoleon. The plan of the allies was to advance, with their main body under Schwarzenberg, consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand Austrians and seventy thousand Russians and Prussians, through the Erzgebirge to Napoleon's rear. A lesser Prussian force, principally Silesian Landwehr, under Blucher, eighty thousand strong, besides a small Russian corps, was, meanwhile, to cover Silesia, or, in case of an attack by Napoleon's main body, to retire before it and draw it further eastward. A third division, under the crown prince of Sweden, principally Swedes, with some Prussian troops, mostly Pomeranian and Brandenburg Landwehr under Bulow, and some Russians, in all ninety thousand men, was destined to cover Berlin, and in case of a victory to form a junction to Napoleon's rear with the main body of the allied army. A still lesser and equally mixed division under Wallmoden, thirty thousand strong, was destined to watch Davoust in Hamburg, while an Austrian corps of twenty-five thousand men under Prince Reuss watched the movements of the Bavarians, and another Austrian force of forty thousand, under Hiller, those of the viceroy Eugene in Italy.

Napoleon had concentrated his main body, that still consisted of two hundred and fifty thousand men, in and around Dresden. Davoust received orders to advance with thirty thousand men from Hamburg upon Berlin; in Bavaria, there were thirty thousand men under Wrede; in Italy, forty thousand under Eugene. The German fortresses were, moreover, strongly garrisoned with French troops. Napoleon had it in his power to throw himself with his main body, which neither Blucher nor the Swedes could have withstood, into Poland, to levy the people en masse and render that country the theatre of war, but the dread of the defection of the Rhenish confederation and of a part of the French themselves, were the country to his rear to be left open to the allies and to Moreau, coupled with his disinclination to declare the independence of Poland, owing to a lingering hope of being still able to bring about a reconciliation with Russia and Austria by the sacrifice of that country and of Prussia, caused that idea to be renounced, and he accordingly took up a defensive position with his main body at Dresden, whence he could watch the proceedings and take advantage of any indiscretion on the part of his opponents. A body of ninety thousand men under Oudinot meantime acted on the offensive, being directed to advance, simultaneously with Davoust from Hamburg and with Girard from Magdeburg, upon Berlin, and to take possession of that metropolis. Napoleon hoped, when master of the ancient Prussian provinces, to be able to suppress German enthusiasm at its source and to induce Russia and Austria to conclude a separate peace at the expense of Prussia.

In August, 1813, the tempest of war broke loose on every side, and all Europe prepared for a decisive struggle. About this time, the whole of Northern Germany was visited for some weeks, as was the case on the defeat of Varus in the Teutoburg forest, with heavy rains and violent storms. The elements seemed to combine, as in Russia, their efforts with those of man against Napoleon. There his soldiers fell victims to frost and snow, here they sank into the boggy soil and were carried away by the swollen rivers. In the midst of the uproar of the elements, bloody engagements continually took place, in which the bayonet and the butt-end of the firelock were almost alone used, the muskets being rendered unserviceable by the wet. The first engagement of importance was that of the 21st of August between Wallmoden and Davoust at Vellahn. A few days afterward, Theodore Korner, the youthful poet and hero, fell in a skirmish between the French and Wallmoden's outpost at Gadebusch.—Oudinot advanced close upon Berlin, which was protected by the crown prince of Sweden. A murderous conflict took place, on the 23d of August, at Gross-Beeren between the Prussian division under General von Bulow and the French. The Swedes, a troop of horse artillery alone excepted, were not brought into action, and the Prussians, unaided, repulsed the greatly superior forces of the French. The almost untrained peasantry comprising the Landwehr of the Mark and of Pomerania rushed upon the enemy, and, unhabituated to the use of the bayonet and firelock, beat down entire battalions of the French with the butt-end of their muskets. After a frightful massacre, the French were utterly routed and fled in wild disorder, but the gallant Prussians vainly expected the Swedes to aid in the pursuit. The crown prince, partly from a desire to spare his troops and partly from a feeling of shame—he was also a Frenchman—remained motionless. Oudinot, nevertheless, lost two thousand four hundred prisoners. Davoust, from this disaster, returned once more to Hamburg. Girard, who had advanced with eight thousand men from Magdeburg, was, on the 27th, put to flight by the Prussian Landwehr under General Hirschfeld.

Napoleon's plan of attack against Prussia had completely failed, and his sole alternative was to act on the defensive. But on perceiving that the main body of the allied forces under Schwarzenberg was advancing to his rear, while Blucher was stationed with merely a weak division in Silesia, he took the field with immensely superior forces against the latter, under an idea of being able easily to vanquish his weak antagonist and to fall back again in time upon Dresden. Blucher cautiously retired, but, unable to restrain the martial spirit of the soldiery, who obstinately defended every position whence they were driven, lost two thousand of his men on the 21st of August. The news of Napoleon's advance upon Silesia and of the numerical weakness of the garrison left at Dresden reached Schwarzenberg just as he had crossed the Erzgebirge, and induced him and the allied sovereigns assembled within his camp to change their plan of operations and to march straight upon the Saxon capital. Napoleon, who had pursued Blucher as far as the Katzbach near Goldberg, instantly returned and boldly resolved to cross the Elbe above Dresden, to seize the passes of the Bohemian mountains, and to fall upon the rear of the main body of the allied army. Vandamme's corps d'armee had already set forward with this design, when Napoleon learned that Dresden could no longer hold out unless he returned thither with a division of his army, and, in order to preserve that city and the centre of his position, he hastily returned thither in the hope of defeating the allied army and of bringing it between two fires, as Vandamme must meanwhile have occupied the narrow outlets of the Erzgebirge with thirty thousand men and by that means have cut off the retreat of the allied army. The plan was on a grand scale, and, as far as related to Napoleon in person, was executed, to the extreme discomfiture of the allies, with his usual success. Schwarzenberg had, with true Austrian procrastination, allowed the 25th of August, when, as the French themselves confess, Dresden, in her then ill-defended state, might have been taken almost without a stroke, to pass in inaction, and, when he attempted to storm the city on the 26th, Napoleon, who had meanwhile arrived, calmly awaited the onset of the thick masses of the enemy in order to open a murderous discharge of grape upon them on every side. They were repulsed after suffering a frightful loss. On the following day, destined to end in still more terrible bloodshed, Napoleon assumed the offensive, separated the retiring allied army by well-combined sallies, cut off its left wing, and made an immense number of prisoners, chiefly Austrians. The unfortunate Moreau had both his legs shot off in the very first encounter. His death was an act of justice, for he had taken up arms against his fellow- countrymen, and was moreover a gain for the Germans, the Russians merely making use of him in order to obscure the fame of the German leaders, and, it may be, with a view of placing the future destinies of France in his hands. The main body of the allied army retreated on every side; part of the troops disbanded, the rest were exposed to extreme hardship owing to the torrents of rain that fell without intermission and the scarcity of provisions. Their annihilation must have inevitably followed had Vandamme executed Napoleon's commands and blocked up the mountain passes, in which he was unsuccessful, owing to the gallantry with which he was held in check at Culm by eight thousand Russian guards, headed by Ostermann,[1] who, although merely amounting in number to a fourth of his army, fought during a whole day without receding a step, though almost the whole of them were cut to pieces and Ostermann was deprived of an arm, until the first corps of the main body, in full retreat, reached the mountains. Vandamme was now in turn overwhelmed by superior numbers. One way of escape, a still unoccupied height, on which he hastened to post himself, alone remained, but Kleist's corps, also in full retreat, unexpectedly but opportunely appeared above his head and took him and the whole of his corps prisoners, the 29th of August, 1813.[2]

At the same time, the 26th of August, a most glorious victory was gained by Blucher in Silesia. After having drawn Macdonald across the Katzbach and the foaming Neisse, he drove him, after a desperate and bloody engagement, into those rivers, which were greatly swollen by the incessant rains. The muskets of the soldiery had been rendered unserviceable by the wet, and Blucher, drawing his sabre from beneath his cloak, dashed forward exclaiming, "Forward!" Several thousand of the French were drowned or fell by the bayonet, or beneath the heavy blows dealt by the Landwehr with the butt-end of their firelocks. It was on this battlefield that the Silesians had formerly opposed the Tartars, and the monastery of Wahlstatt, erected in memory of that heroic day,[3] was still standing. Blucher was rewarded with the title of Prince von der Wahlstatt, but his soldiers surnamed him Marshal Vorwarts. On the decline of the floods, the banks of the rivers were strewn with corpses sticking in horrid distortion out of the mud. A part of the French fled for a couple of days in terrible disorder along the right bank and were then taken prisoner together with their general, Puthod.[4] The French lost one hundred and three guns, eighteen thousand prisoners, and a still greater number in killed; the loss on the side of the Prussians merely amounted to one thousand men. Macdonald returned almost totally unattended to Dresden and brought the melancholy intelligence to Napoleon, "Votre arme du Bobre n'existe plus."

The crown prince of Sweden and Bulow had meanwhile pursued Oudinot's retreating corps in the direction of the Elbe. Napoleon despatched Ney against them, but he met with the fate of his predecessor, at Dennewitz, on the 6th of September. The Prussians, on this occasion, again triumphed, unaided by their confederates.[5] Bulow and Tauenzien, with twenty thousand men, defeated the French army, seventy thousand strong. The crown prince of Sweden not only remained to the rear with the whole of his troops, but gave perfectly useless orders to the advancing Prussian squadron under General Borstel, who, without attending to them, hurried on to Bulow's assistance, and the French were, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, completely driven off the field, which the crown prince reached just in time to witness the dispersion of his countrymen. The French lost eighteen thousand men and eighty guns. The rout was complete. The rearguard, consisting of the Wurtembergers under Franquemont, was again overtaken at the head of the bridge at Zwettau, and, after a frightful carnage, driven in wild confusion across the dam to Torgau. The Bavarians under Raglowich, who, probably owing to secret orders, had remained, during the battle, almost in a state of inactivity, withdrew in another direction and escaped.[6] Davoust also again retired upon Hamburg, and his rearguard under Pecheux was attacked by Wallmoden, on the 16th of September, on the Gorde, and suffered a trifling loss. On the 29th of September, eight thousand French were also defeated by Platow, the Hetman of the Cossacks, at Zeitz: on the 30th, Czernitscheff penetrated into Cassel and expelled Jerome. Thielemann, the Saxon general, also infested the country to Napoleon's rear, intercepted his convoys at Leipzig, and at Weissenfels took one thousand two hundred, at Merseburg two thousand, French prisoners; he was, however, deprived of his booty by a strong force under Lefebvre-Desnouettes, by whom he was incessantly harassed until Platow's arrival with the Cossacks, who, in conjunction with Thielemann, repulsed Lefebvre with great slaughter at Altenburg. On this occasion, a Baden battalion, that had been drawn up apart from the French, turned their fire upon their unnatural confederates and aided in their dispersion.[7]

Napoleon's generals had been thrown back in every quarter, with immense loss, upon Dresden, toward which the allies now advanced, threatening to enclose it on every side. Napoleon manoeuvred until the beginning of October with the view of executing a coup de main against Schwarzenberg and Blucher; the allies were, however, on their guard, and he was constantly reduced to the necessity of recalling his troops, sent for that purpose into the field, to Dresden. The danger in which he now stood of being completely surrounded and cut off from the Rhine at length rendered retreat his sole alternative. Blucher had already crossed the Elbe on the 5th of October, and, in conjunction with the crown prince of Sweden, had approached the head of the main body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg, which was advancing from the Erzgebirge. On the 7th of October, Napoleon quitted Dresden, leaving a garrison of thirty thousand French under St. Cyr, and removed his headquarters to Duben, on the road leading from Leipzig to Berlin, in the hope of drawing Blucher and the Swedes once more on the right side of the Elbe, in which case he intended to turn unexpectedly upon the Austrians; Blucher, however, eluded him, without quitting the left bank. Napoleon's plan was to take advantage of the absence of Blucher and of the Swedes from Berlin in order to hasten across the defenceless country, for the purpose of inflicting punishment upon Prussia, of raising Poland, etc. But his plan met with opposition in his own military council. His ill success had caused those who had hitherto followed his fortunes to waver. The king of Bavaria declared against him on the 8th of October,[8] and the Bavarian army under Wrede united with instead of opposing the Austrian army and was sent to the Maine in order to cut off Napoleon's retreat. The news of this defection speedily reached the French camp and caused the rest of the troops of the Rhenish confederation to waver in their allegiance; while the French, wearied with useless manoeuvres, beaten in every quarter, opposed by an enemy greatly their superior in number and glowing with revenge, despaired of the event and sighed for peace and their quiet homes. All refused to march upon Berlin, nay, the very idea of removing further from Paris almost produced a mutiny in the camp.[9] Four days, from the 11th to the 14th of October, were passed by Napoleon in a state of melancholy irresolution, when he appeared as if suddenly inspired by the idea of there still being time to execute a coup de main upon the main body of the allied army under Schwarzenberg before its junction with Blucher and the Swedes. Schwarzenberg was slowly advancing from Bohemia and had already allowed himself to be defeated before Dresden. Napoleon intended to fall upon him on his arrival in the vicinity of Leipzig, but it was already too late.—Blucher was at hand. On the 14th of October,[10] the flower of the French cavalry, headed by the king of Naples, encountered Blucher's and Wittgenstein's cavalry at Wachau, not far from Leipzig. The contest was broken off, both sides being desirous of husbanding their strength, but terminated to the disadvantage of the French, notwithstanding their numerical superiority, besides proving the vicinity of the Prussians. This was the most important cavalry fight that took place during this war.

On the 16th of October, while Napoleon was merely awaiting the arrival of Macdonald's corps, that had remained behind, before proceeding to attack Schwarzenberg's Bohemian army, he was unexpectedly attacked on the right bank of the Pleisse, at Liebert-wolkwitz, by the Austrians, who were, however, compelled to retire before a superior force. The French cavalry under Latour-Maubourg pressed so closely upon the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia that they merely owed their escape to the gallantry of the Russian, Orlow Denisow, and to Latour's fall. Napoleon had already ordered all the bells in Leipzig to be rung, had sent the news of his victory to Paris, and seems to have expected a complete triumph when joyfully exclaiming, "Le monde tourne pour nous!" But his victory had been only partial, and he had been unable to follow up his advantage, another division of the Austrian army, under General Meerveldt, having simultaneously occupied him and compelled him to cross the Pleisse at Dolnitz; and, although Meerveldt had been in his turn repulsed with severe loss and been himself taken prisoner, the diversion proved of service to the Austrians by keeping Napoleon in check until the arrival of Bluecher, who threw himself upon the division of the French army opposed to him at Moeckern by Marshal Marmont. Napoleon, while thus occupied with the Austrians, was unable to meet the attack of the Prussians with sufficient force. Marmont, after a massacre of some hours' duration in and around Moeckern, was compelled to retire with a loss of forty guns. The second Prussian brigade lost, either in killed or wounded, all its officers except one.

The battle had, on the 16th of October, raged around Leipzig; Napoleon had triumphed over the Austrians, whom he had solely intended to attack, but had, at the same time, been attacked and defeated by the Prussians, and now found himself opposed and almost surrounded—one road for retreat alone remaining open—by the whole allied force. He instantly gave orders to General Bertrand to occupy Weissenfels during the night, in order to secure his retreat through Thuringia; but, during the following day, the 17th of October, neither seized that opportunity in order to effect a retreat or to make a last and energetic attack upon the allies, whose forces were not yet completely concentrated, ere the circle had been fully drawn around him. The Swedes, the Russians under Bennigsen, and a large Austrian division under Colloredo, had not yet arrived. Napoleon might with advantage have again attacked the defeated Austrians under Schwarzenberg or have thrown himself with the whole of his forces upon Bluecher. He had still an opportunity of making an orderly retreat without any great exposure to danger. But he did neither. He remained motionless during the whole day, which was also passed in tranquillity by the allies, who thus gained time to receive fresh reinforcements. Napoleon's inactivity was caused by his having sent his prisoner, General Meerveldt, to the emperor of Austria, whom he still hoped to induce, by means of great assurances, to secede from the coalition and to make peace. Not even a reply was vouchsafed. On the very day, thus futilely lost by Napoleon, the allied army was reintegrated by the arrival of the masses commanded by the crown prince, by Bennigsen and Colloredo, and was consequently raised to double the strength of that of France, which now merely amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men. On the 18th, a murderous conflict began on both sides. Napoleon long and skilfully opposed the fierce onset of the allied troops, but was at length driven off the field by their superior weight and persevering efforts. The Austrians, stationed on the left wing of the allied army, were opposed by Oudinot, Augereau, and Poniatowsky; the Prussians, stationed on the right wing, by Marmont and Ney; the Russians and Swedes in the centre, by Murat and Regnier. In the hottest of the battle, two Saxon cavalry regiments went over to Bluecher, and General Normann, when about to be charged at Taucha by the Prussian cavalry under Billow, also deserted to him with two Wuertemberg cavalry regiments, in order to avoid an unpleasant reminiscence of the treacherous ill-treatment of Luetzow's corps. The whole of the Saxon infantry, commanded by Regnier, shortly afterward went, with thirty-eight guns, over to the Swedes, five hundred men and General Zeschau alone remaining true to Napoleon. The Saxons stationed themselves behind the lines of the allies, but their guns were instantly turned upon the enemy.[11]

In the evening of this terrible day, the French were driven back close upon the walls of Leipzig.[12] On the certainty of victory being announced by Schwarzenberg to the three monarchs, who had watched the progress of the battle, they knelt on the open field and returned thanks to God. Napoleon, before nightfall, gave orders for full retreat; but, on the morning of the 19th, recommenced the battle and sacrificed some of his corps d'armee in order to save the remainder. He had, however, foolishly left but one bridge across the Elster open, and the retreat was consequently retarded. Leipzig was stormed by the Prussians, and, while the French rearguard was still battling on that side of the bridge, Napoleon fled, and had no sooner crossed the bridge than it was blown up with a tremendous explosion, owing to the inadvertence of a subaltern, who is said to have fired the train too hastily. The troops engaged on the opposite bank were irremediably lost. Prince Poniatowsky plunged on horseback into the Elster in order to swim across, but sank in the deep mud. The king of Saxony, who to the last had remained true to Napoleon, was among the prisoners. The loss during this battle, which raged for four days, and in which almost every nation in Europe stood opposed to each other, was immense on both sides. The total loss in dead was computed at eighty thousand. The French lost, moreover, three hundred guns and a multitude of prisoners; in the city of Leipzig alone twenty-three thousand sick, without reckoning the innumerable wounded. Numbers of these unfortunates lay bleeding and starving to death during the cold October nights on the field of battle, it being found impossible to erect a sufficient number of lazaretti for their accommodation. Napoleon made a hasty and disorderly retreat with the remainder of his troops, but was overtaken at Freiburg on the Unstrutt, where the bridge broke, and a repetition of the disastrous passage of the Beresina occurred. The fugitives collected into a dense mass, upon which the Prussian artillery played with murderous effect. The French lost forty of their guns. At Hanau, Wrede, Napoleon's former favorite, after taking Wuerzburg, watched the movements of his ancient patron, and, had he occupied the pass at Gelnhausen, might have annihilated him. Napoleon, however, furiously charged his flank, and, on the 20th of October, succeeded in forcing a passage and in sending seventy thousand men across the Rhine. Wrede was dangerously wounded.[13] On the 9th of November, the last French corps was defeated at Hochheim and driven back upon Mayence.

In the November of this ever memorable year, 1813, Germany, as far as the Rhine, was completely freed from the French.[14] Above a hundred thousand French troops, still shut up in the fortresses and cut off from all communication with France, gradually surrendered. In October, the allies took Bremen; in November, Stettin, Zamosk, Modlin, and those two important points, Dresden and Dantzig. In Dresden, Gouvion St. Cyr capitulated to Count Klenau, who granted him free egress on condition of the delivery of the whole of the army stores. St. Cyr, however, infringed the terms of capitulation by destroying several of the guns and sinking the gunpowder in the Elbe; consequently, on the non-recognition of the capitulation by the generalissimo, Schwarzenberg, he found himself without means of defence and was compelled to surrender at discretion with a garrison thirty-five thousand strong. Rapp, the Alsatian, commanded in Dantzig. This city had already fearfully suffered from the commercial interdiction, from the exactions and the scandalous license of its French protectors, whom the ravages of famine and pestilence finally compelled to yield.[15] Lubeck and Torgau fell in December; the typhus, which had never ceased to accompany the armies, raged there in the crowded hospitals, carrying off thousands, and greater numbers fell victims to this pestilential disease than to the war, not only among the troops, but in every part of the country through which they passed. Wittenberg, whose inhabitants had been shamefully abused by the French under Lapoype, Custrin, Glogau, Wesel, Erfurt, fell in the beginning of 1814; Magdeburg and Bremen, after the conclusion of the war.

The Rhenish confederation was dissolved, each of the princes securing his hereditary possessions by a timely secession. The kings of Westphalia and Saxony, Dalberg, grand-duke of Frankfort, and the princes of Isenburg and von der Leyen, who had too heavily sinned against Germany, were alone excluded from pardon. The king of Saxony was at first carried prisoner to Berlin, and afterward, under the protection of Austria, to Prague. Denmark also concluded peace at Kiel and ceded Norway to Sweden, upon which the Swedes, quasi re bene gesta, returned home.[16]

[Footnote 1: This general belonged to a German family long naturalized in Russia.]

[Footnote 2: He was led through Silesia, which he had once so shamefully plundered, and, although no physical punishment was inflicted upon him, he was often compelled to hear the voice of public opinion, and was exposed to the view of the people to whom he had once said, "Nothing shall be left to you except your eyes, that you may be able to weep over your wretchedness."—Manso's History of Prussia.]

[Footnote 3: An ancient battle-axe of serpentine stone was found on the site fixed upon for the erection of a fresh monument in honor of the present victory.—Allgemenie Zeitung, 1817.]

[Footnote 4: This piece of good fortune befell Langeron, the Russian general, who belonged to the diplomatic party at that time attempting to spare the forces of Russia, Austria, and Sweden at the expense of Prussia, and, at the same time, to deprive Prussia of her well-won laurels. Langeron had not obeyed Blucher's orders, had remained behind on his own responsibility, and the scattered French troops fell into his hands.]

[Footnote 5: The proud armies of Russia and Sweden (forty-six battalions, forty squadrons, and one hundred and fifty guns) followed to the rear of the Prussians without firing a shot and remained inactive spectators of the action.—Plotho.]

[Footnote 6: In order to avoid being carried along by the fugitive French, they fired upon them whenever their confused masses came too close upon them.—Boelderndorf.]

[Footnote 7: Vide Wagner's Chronicle of Altenburg.]

[Footnote 8: Maximilian Joseph declared in an open manifesto; Bavaria was compelled to furnish thirty-eight thousand men for the Russian campaign, and, on her expressing a hope that such an immense sacrifice would not be requested, France instantly declared the princes of the Rhenish confederation her vassals, who were commanded "under punishment of felony" unconditionally to obey each of Napoleon's demands. The allies would, on the contrary, have acceded to all the desires of Bavaria and have guaranteed that kingdom. Even the Austrian troops, that stood opposed to Bavaria, were placed under Wrede's command.—Raglowich received permission from Napoleon, before the battle of Leipzig, to return to Bavaria; but his corps was retained in the vicinity of Leipzig without taking part in the action, and retired, in the general confusion, under the command of General Maillot, upon Torgau, whence it returned home.—Bolderndorf. In the Tyrol, the brave mountaineers were on the eve of revolt. As early as September, Speckbacher, sick and wasted from his wounds, but endued with all his former fire and energy, reappeared in the Tyrol, where he was commissioned by Austria to organize a revolt. An unexpected reconciliation, however, taking place between Bavaria and Austria, counter orders arrived, and Speckbacher furiously dashed his bullet- worn hat to the ground.—Brockhaus, 1814. The restoration of the Tyrol to Austria being delayed, a multitude of Tyrolese forced their way into Innsbruck and deposed the Bavarian authorities; their leader, Kluibenspedel, was, however, persuaded by Austria to submit. Speckbacher was, in 1816, raised by the emperor Francis to the rank of major; he died in 1820, and was buried at Hall by the south wall of the parish church. His son, Andre, who grew up a fine, handsome man, died in 1835, at Jenbach (not Zenbach, as Mercy has it in his attacks upon the Tyrol), in the Tyrol, where he was employed as superintendent of the mines. Mercy's Travels and his account of Speckbacher in the Milan Revista Buropea, 1838, are replete with falsehood.]

[Footnote 9: According to Fain and Coulaincourt.]

[Footnote 10: On the evening of the 14th of October (the anniversary of the battle of Jena), a hurricane raged in the neighborhood of Leipzig, where the French lay, carried away roofs and uprooted trees, while, during the whole night, the rain fell in violent floods.]

[Footnote 11: Not so the Badeners and Hessians. The Baden corps was captured almost to a man; among others, Prince Emilius of Darmstadt. Baden had been governed, since the death of the popular grandduke, Charles Frederick, in 1811, by his grandson, Charles.—Franquemont, with the Wuertemberg infantry, eight to nine thousand strong, acted independently of Normann's cavalry. But one thousand of their number remained after the battle of Leipzig, and, without going over to the allies, returned to Wuertemberg. Normann was punished by his sovereign.]

[Footnote 12: The city was in a state of utter confusion. "The noise caused by the passage of the cavalry, carriages, etc., by the cries of the fugitives through the streets, exceeded that of the most terrific storm. The earth shook, the windows clattered with the thunder of artillery," etc.—The Terrors of Leipzig, 1813.]

[Footnote 13: The king of Wuertemberg, 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 Goerres 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, assumed the authority at Berne with so much assurance as to succeed in deposing the existing government and reinstating the ancient oligarchy. In Zurich, the constitution was also revised and the citizens reassumed their authority over the peasantry. The whole of Switzerland was in a state of ferment. Ancient claims of the most varied description were asserted. 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 Nassau regiments under Colonel Kruse and the Frankfort battalion deserted with their arms and baggage to the English. The other Nassau 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 assembled 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 assault. 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 massacred 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 masse, 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 masse, 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 assault. 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 assigned 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 participate in the internal affairs of Germany, but also afterward sent to the great Congress of Vienna an ambassador 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 assented 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 circumstances 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 principal thesis consisted of "We are not Prussians, Westphalians, Saxons, etc., but Germans."]

[Footnote 2: This prince took the title 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 shores 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.]

[Footnote 7: Several regiments sacrificed themselves in order to cover the retreat of the rest. Napoleon ordered a twelve-pounder to be loaded and twice directed the gun with his own hand upon the crown prince.—Campaigns of the Wuerterribergers.]

[Footnote 8: Bluecher's conduct simply proceeded from his impatience to obtain by force of arms the most honorable terms of peace for Prussia, while the other allied powers, who were far more indulgently disposed toward France and who began to view the victories gained by Prussia with an apprehension which was further strengthened by the increasing popularity of that power throughout Germany, were more inclined to diplomatize than to fight. Bluecher was well aware of these reasons for diplomacy and more than once cut the negotiations short with his sabre. A well-known diplomatist attempting on one occasion to prove to him that Napoleon must, even without the war being continued, "descend from his throne," a league having been formed within France herself for the restoration of the Bourbons—he answered him to his face, "The rascality of the French is no revenge for us. It is we who must pull him down—we. You will no doubt do wonders in your wisdom!—Patience! You will be led as usual by the nose, and will still go on fawning and diplomatizing until we have the nation again upon us, and the storm bursts over our heads." He went so far as to set the diplomatists actually at defiance. On being, to Napoleon's extreme delight, ordered to retreat, he treated the order with contempt and instantly advanced.—Rauschnick's Life of Bluecher. "This second disjunction on Bluecher's part," observes Clausewitz, the Prussian general, the best commentator on this war, "was of infinite consequence, for it checked and gave a fresh turn to the whole course of political affairs."]

[Footnote 9: Goerres said in the Rhenish Mercury, "It is easy to see how all are inclined to conceal beneath the wide mantle of love the horrors there perpetrated. The Germans have from time immemorial been subjected to this sort of treatment, because ever ready to forgive and forget the past." Davoust was arrested merely for form's sake and then honorably released. He was allowed to retain the booty he had seized. The citizens of Hamburg vainly implored the re-establishment of their bank.]

[Footnote 10: Bluecher took no part in these affairs. "I have," said he to the diplomatists, "done my duty, now do yours! You will be responsible both to God and man should your work be done in vain and have to be done over again. I have nothing further to do with the business!"—Experience had, however, taught him not to expect much good from "quill-drivers."]

[Footnote 11: The Rhenish Mercury more than all. It was opposed by the Messenger of the Tyrol, which declared that the victory was gained, not by the "people," as they were termed, but by the princes and their armies.—July, 1814.]



CCLXIII. The Congress of Vienna—Napoleon's Return and End

From Paris the sovereigns of Prussia[1] and Russia and the victorious field-marshals proceeded, in June, to London, where they, Blucher most particularly, were received with every demonstration of delight and respect by the English, their oldest and most faithful allies.[2] Toward autumn, a great European congress, to which the settlement of every point in dispute and the restoration of order throughout Europe were to be committed, was convoked at Vienna. At this congress, which, in the November of 1814, was opened at Vienna, the emperors of Austria and Russia, the kings of Prussia, Denmark, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and the greater part of the petty princes of Germany, were present in person; the other powers were represented by ambassadors extraordinary. The greatest statesmen of that period were here assembled; among others, Metternich, the Austrian minister, Hardenberg and Humboldt, the Prussian ministers, Castlereagh, the English plenipotentiary, Nesselrode, the Russian envoy, Talleyrand and Dalberg, Gagern, Bernstorff, and Wrede, the ambassadors of France, Holland, Denmark, and Bavaria, etc. The negotiations were of the utmost importance, for, although one of the most difficult points, the new regulation of affairs in France, was already settled, many extremely difficult questions still remained to be solved. Talleyrand, who had served under every government, under the republic, under the usurper, Napoleon; who had retaken office under the Bourbons and the Jesuits who had returned in their train, and who, on this occasion, was the representative of the criminal and humbled French nation, ventured, nevertheless, to offer his perfidious advice to the victors, and, with diabolical art, to sow the seed of discord among them. This conduct was the more striking on account of its glaring incongruity with the proclamation of Calisch, which expressly declared that the internal affairs of Germany were wholly and solely to be arranged by the princes and nations of Germany, without foreign, and naturally, least of all, without French interference.[3] Talleyrand's first object was to suppress the popular spirit of liberty throughout Germany, and to rouse against it the jealous apprehensions of the princes. He therefore said, "You wish for constitutions; guard against them. In France, desire for a constitution produced a revolution, and the same will happen to you." He it was who gave to the congress that catchword, legitimacy. The object of the past struggle was not the restoration of the liberties of the people but that of the ancient legitimate dynasties and their absolute sovereignty. The war had been directed, not against Napoleon, but against the Revolution, against the usurpation of the people. By means of this legitimacy the king of Saxony was to be re-established on his throne, and Prussia was on no account to be permitted to incorporate Saxony with her dominions. Prussia appealed to her services toward Germany, to her enormous sacrifices, to the support given to her by public opinion; but the power of public opinion was itself questioned. The seeds of discord quickly sprang up, and, on the 3d of January, 1815, a secret league against Prussia was already formed for the purpose of again humbling the state that had sacrificed all for the honor of Germany, of frustrating her schemes of aggrandizement, and of quenching the patriotic spirit of German idealists and enthusiasts.[4]

The want of unanimity amid the members of the congress had at the same time a bad effect upon the ancient Rhenish confederated states. In Nassau, the Landwehr was, on its return home after the campaign, received with marks of dissatisfaction. In Baden and Hesse, many of the officers belonging to the army openly espoused Napoleon's cause. In Baden, the volunteer corps was deprived of its horses and sent home on foot.[5] In Wurtemberg, King Frederick refused to allow the foreign troops and convoys a passage along the highroad through Cannstadt and Ludwigsburg, and forbade the attendance of civil surgeons upon the wounded belonging to the allied army. In Wurtemberg and Bavaria, the Rhenish Mercury was suppressed on account of its patriotic and German tendency. At Stuttgard, the festival in commemoration of the battle of Leipzig was disallowed; and in Frankfort on the Maine, the editor of a French journal ventured, unreprimanded, to turn this festival into ridicule.

Switzerland was in a high state of ferment. The people of the Grisons, who had taken possession of the Valtelline, and the people of Uri, who had seized the Livinenthal, had been respectively driven out of those territories by the Austrians. The Valais, Geneva, Neufchatel, and Pruntrut were, on the other hand, desirous of joining the confederation. The democratic peasantry were almost everywhere at war with the aristocratic burghers. Berne revived her claim upon Vaud and Aargau, which armed in self-defence.[6] Reinhard of Zurich, the Swiss Landammann, went, meanwhile, at the head of an embassy to Vienna, for the purpose of settling in the congress the future destinies of Switzerland by means of the intervention of the great powers. Talleyrand, with unparalleled impudence, also interfered in this affair, threatened to refuse his recognition to every measure passed without his concurrence, and compelled the Swiss to entreat him to honor the deliberations with his presence. On Austria's demanding a right of conscription in the Grisons alone, France having enjoyed that right throughout the whole of Switzerland at an earlier period, Talleyrand advised the Swiss to make a most violent opposition against an attempt that placed their independence at stake. "Cry out," he exclaimed, "cry out, as loud as you can!"[7]

The disputes in the congress raised Napoleon's hopes. In France, his party was still powerful, almost the whole of the population being blindly devoted to him, and an extensive conspiracy for his restoration to the imperial throne was secretly set on foot. Several thousands of his veteran soldiery had been released from foreign durance; the whole of the military stores, the spoil of Europe, still remained in the possession of France; the fortresses were solely garrisoned with French troops; Elba was close at hand, and the emperor was guarded with criminal negligence. Heavy, indeed, is the responsibility of those who, by thus neglecting their charge, once more let loose this scourge upon the earth![8] Napoleon quitted his island, and, on the 1st of March, 1815, again set foot on the coast of France. He was merely accompanied by one thousand five hundred men, but the whole of the troops sent against him by Louis XVIII. ranged themselves beneath his eagle. He passed, as if in triumph, through his former empire. The whole nation received him with acclamations of delight. Not a single Frenchman shed a drop of blood for the Bourbon, who fled hastily to Ghent; and, on the 20th of March, Napoleon entered Paris unopposed. His brother-in-law, Murat, at the same time revolted at Naples and advanced into Upper Italy against the Austrians. But all the rest of Napoleon's ancient allies, persuaded that he must again fall, either remained tranquil or formed a close alliance with the combined powers. The Swiss, in particular, showed excessive zeal on this occasion, and took up arms against France, in the hope of rendering the allied sovereigns favorable to their new constitution, The Swiss regiments, which had passed from Napoleon's service to that of Louis XVIII., also remained unmoved by Napoleon's blandishments, were deprived of their arms and returned separately to Switzerland.

The allied sovereigns were still assembled at Vienna, and at once allowed every dispute to drop in order to form a fresh and closer coalition. They declared Napoleon an outlaw, a robber, proscribed by all Europe, and bound themselves to bring a force more than a million strong into the field against him. All Napoleon's cunning attempts to bribe and set them at variance were treated with scorn, and the combined powers speedily came to an understanding on the points hitherto so strongly contested. Saxony was partitioned between her ancient sovereign and Prussia, and a revolt that broke out in Liege among the Saxon troops, who were by command of Prussia to be divided before they had been released from their oath of allegiance to their king, is easily explained by the hurry and pressure of the times, which caused all minor considerations to be forgotten.[9] Napoleon exclusively occupied the mind of every diplomatist, and all agreed in the necessity, at all hazards, of his utter annihilation. The lion, thus driven at bay, turned upon his pursuers for a last and desperate struggle. The French were still faithful to Napoleon, who, with a view of reinspiring them with the enthusiastic spirit that had rendered them invincible in the first days of the republic, again called forth the old republicans, nominated them to the highest appointments, re-established several republican institutions, and, on the 1st of June, presented to his dazzled subjects the magnificent spectacle of a field of May, as in the times of Charlemagne and in the commencement of the Revolution, and then led a numerous and spirited army to the Dutch frontiers against the enemy.

Here stood a Prussian army under Blucher, and an Anglo-German one under Wellington, comprehending the Dutch under the Prince of Orange, the Brunswickers under their duke, the recruited Hanoverian Legion under Wallmoden. These corps d'armee most imminently threatened Paris. The main body of the allied army, under Schwarzenberg, then advancing from the south, was still distant. Napoleon consequently directed his first attack against the two former. His army had gained immensely in strength and spirit by the return of his veteran troops from foreign imprisonment. Wellington, ignorant at what point Napoleon might cross the frontier, had followed the old and ill-judged plan of dividing his forces; an incredible error, the allies having simply to unite their forces and to take up a firm position in order to draw Napoleon to any given spot. Wellington, moreover, never imagined that Napoleon was so near at hand, and was amusing himself at a ball at Brussels, when Blucher, who was stationed in and around Namur, was attacked on the 14th of June, 1815.[10] Napoleon afterward observed in his memoirs that he had attacked Blucher first because he well knew that Blucher would not be supported by the over-prudent and egotistical English commander, but that Wellington, had he been first attacked, would have received every aid from his high-spirited and faithful ally. Wellington, after being repeatedly urged by Blucher, collected his scattered corps, but neither completely nor with sufficient rapidity; and on Blucher's announcement of Napoleon's arrival, exerted himself on the following morning so far as to make a reconnaissance. The duke of Brunswick, with impatience equalling that of Blucher, was the only one who had quitted the ball during the night and had hurried forward against the enemy. Napoleon, owing to Wellington's negligence, gained time to throw himself between him and Blucher and to prevent their junction; for he knew the spirit of his opponents. He consequently opposed merely a small division of his army under Ney to the English and turned with the whole of his main body against the Prussians. The veteran Blucher perceived his intentions[11] and in consequence urgently demanded aid from the Duke of Wellington, who promised to send him a reinforcement of twenty thousand men by four o'clock on the 16th. But this aid never arrived, Wellington, although Ney was too weak to obstruct the movement, making no attempt to perform his promise. Wellington retired with superior forces before Ney at Quatre Bras, and allowed the gallant and unfortunate Duke William of Brunswick to fall a futile sacrifice. Blucher meanwhile yielded to the overwhelming force brought against him by Napoleon at Ligny, also on the 16th of June. Vainly did the Prussians rush to the attack beneath the murderous fire of the French, vainly did Blucher in person head the assault and for five hours continue the combat hand to hand in the village of Ligny. Numbers prevailed, and Wellington sent no relief. The infantry being at length driven back, Blucher led the cavalry once more to the charge, but was repulsed and fell senseless beneath his horse, which was shot dead. His adjutant, Count Nostitz, alone remained at his side. The French cavalry passed close by without perceiving them, twilight and a misty rain having begun to fall. The Prussians fortunately missed their leader, repulsed the French cavalry, which again galloped past him as he lay on the ground, and he was at length drawn from beneath his horse. He still lived, but only to behold the complete defeat of his army.

Blucher, although a veteran of seventy-three, and wounded and shattered by his fall, was not for a moment discouraged.[12] Ever vigilant, he assembled his scattered troops with wonderful rapidity, inspirited them by his cheerful words, and had the generosity to promise aid, by the afternoon of the 18th of June, to Wellington, who was now in his turn attacked by the main body of the French under Napoleon. What Wellington on the 16th, with a fresh army, could not perform, Blucher now effected with troops dejected by defeat, and put the English leader to the deepest shame by—keeping his word.[13] He consequently fell back upon Wavre in order to remain as close as possible in Wellington's vicinity, and also sent orders to Bulow's corps, that was then on the advance, to join the English army, while Napoleon, in the idea that Blucher was falling back upon the Meuse, sent Grouchy in pursuit with a body of thirty-five thousand men.[14]

Napoleon, far from imagining that the Prussians, after having been, as he supposed, completely annihilated or panic-stricken by Grouchy, could aid the British, wasted the precious moments, and, instead of hastily attacking Wellington, spent the whole of the morning of the 18th in uselessly parading his troops, possibly with a view of intimidating his opponents and of inducing them to retreat without hazarding an engagement. His well-dressed lines glittered in the sunbeams; the infantry raised their tschakos on their bayonet points, the cavalry their helmets on their sabres, and gave a general cheer for their emperor. The English, however, preserved an undaunted aspect. At length, about midday, Napoleon gave orders for the attack, and, furiously charging the British left wing, drove it from the village of Hougumont. He then sent orders to Ney to charge the British centre. At that moment a dark spot was seen in the direction of St. Lambert. Was it Grouchy? A reconnoitring party was despatched and returned with the news of its being the Prussians under Bulow. The attack upon the British centre was consequently remanded, and Ney was despatched with a considerable portion of his troops against Bulow. Wellington now ventured to charge the enemy with his right wing, but was repulsed and lost the farm of La Haye Sainte, which commanded his position on this side as Hougumont did on his right. His centre, however, remained unattacked, the French exerting their utmost strength to keep Bulow's gallant troops back at the village of Planchenoit, where the battle raged with the greatest fury, and a dreadful conflict of some hours' duration ensued hand to hand. But about five o'clock, the left wing of the British being completely thrown into confusion by a fresh attack on the enemy's side, the whole of the French cavalry, twelve thousand strong, made a furious charge upon the British centre, bore down all before them, and took a great number of guns. The Prince of Orange was wounded. The road to Brussels was already thronged with the fugitive English troops, and Wellington, scarcely able to keep his weakened lines together,[15] was apparently on the brink of destruction, when the thunder of artillery was suddenly heard in the direction of Wavre. "It is Grouchy!" joyfully exclaimed Napoleon, who had repeatedly sent orders to that general to push forward with all possible speed. But it was not Grouchy, it was Blucher.

The faithful troops of the veteran marshal (the old Silesian army) were completely worn out by the battle, by their retreat in the heavy rain over deep roads, and by the want of food. The distance from Wavre, whence they had been driven, to Waterloo, where Wellington was then in action, was not great, but was rendered arduous owing to these circumstances. The men sometimes fell down from extreme weariness, and the guns stuck fast in the deep mud. But Blucher was everywhere present, and notwithstanding his bodily pain ever cheered his men forward, with "indescribable pathos," saying to his disheartened soldiers, "My children, we must advance; I have promised it, do not cause me to break my word!" While still distant from the scene of action, he ordered the guns to be fired in order to keep up the courage of the English, and at length, between six and seven in the evening, the first Prussian corps in advance, that of Ziethen, fell furiously upon the enemy: "Bravo!" cried Blucher, "I know you, my Silesians; to-day we shall see the backs of these French rascals!" Ziethen filled up the space still intervening between Wellington and Bulow. Exactly at that moment, Napoleon had sent his old guard forward in four massive squares in order to make a last attempt to break the British lines, when Ziethen fell upon their flank and dealt fearful havoc among their close masses with his artillery. Bulow's troops, inspirited by this success, now pressed gallantly forward and finally regained the long-contested village of Planchenoit from the enemy. The whole of the Prussian army, advancing at the double and with drums beating, had already driven back the right wing of the French, when the English, regaining courage, advanced, Napoleon was surrounded on two sides, and the whole of his troops, the old guard under General Cambronne alone excepted, were totally dispersed and fled in complete disorder. The old guard, surrounded by Bulow's cavalry, nobly replied, when challenged to surrender, "La garde ne se rend pas"; and in a few minutes the veteran conquerors of Europe fell beneath the righteous and avenging blows of their antagonists. At the farm of La Belle Alliance, Blucher offered his hand to Wellington. "I will sleep to-night in Bonaparte's last night's quarters," said Wellington. "And I will drive him out of his present ones!" replied Blucher. The Prussians, fired by enthusiasm, forgot the fatigue they had for four days endured, and, favored by a moonlight night, so zealously pursued the French that an immense number of prisoners and a vast amount of booty fell into their hands and Napoleon narrowly escaped being taken prisoner. At Genappe, where the bridge was blocked by fugitives, the pursuit was so close that he was compelled to abandon his carriage leaving his sword and hat behind him. Blucher, who reached the spot a moment afterward, took possession of the booty, sent Napoleon's hat, sword, and star to the king of Prussia, retained his cloak, telescope, and carriage for his own use, and gave up everything else, including a quantity of the most valuable jewelry, gold, and money, to his brave soldiery. The whole of the army stores, two hundred and forty guns, and an innumerable quantity of arms thrown away by the fugitives, fell into his hands.