Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/652

 616 FRANCE [HISTORY. 1807-9. Prussian power, and the conquest of Prussia was completed before the end of the year, and before the Russians had time to come up to the succour of their allies. A winter campaign followed, in which the sufferings of the troops and the obstinate resistance of the Russians at Pultusk and Eylau (8th February 1807) arrested the triumphant move, ment of the emperor for a time. In the summer of 1807, having secured the line of the Vistula, he defeated the Russians at Friedland (14th June), and took Konigsberg. The The treaty of Tilsit (7th July 1807) followed; for Russia treaty of neec i e (j regt, and Napoleon was not sorry to pause. It 91 is the highest point of the emperor s renown. His hand was felt throughout all Europe ; it seemed as if Eugland alone was beyond his power. The determination of the emperor to rearrange the whole map of Europe, and to assert his power in every quarter, led The him to that Spanish war whence sprang the resistance which Spanish at last overthrew him. For he decided on subduing the war. whole Peninsula, including Portugal; the Portuguese court took flight to Brazil on the approach of Junot, and Charles IV. of Spain abdicated when Murat threatened Madrid. Na poleon at once placed Joseph Bonaparte, a very incompetent person, on the Spanish throne ; and when the Spaniards showed their irritation with him, he too abdicated, and gave place to Murat, who had married Caroline, sister of the em peror. Then the Spaniards rose in revolt, and that wearing guerilla warfare began which opened the way for the suc cessful arms of England. The capitulation of Baylen ruined for the time the French power in Spain ; Dupont and Vedel were compelled to lay down their arms ; in Portugal England now began to appear, and on 21st August 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley won the battle of Vimiera. When Napoleon found that, as thus in Spain, the peoples rose against him, he ought to have recognized the hollowness of his friendships with the kings. He longed, however, to be one of their comity, as well as to have vassal kings and princes under himself ; to this end he had created a new and high-sounding aristocracy around his throne; for this end when Germany, led by Austria, now began again to move against him, Napoleon drew towards Russia, and was com pletely duped by the emperor Alexander. Having, as he thought, made all safe on that side, he turned his attention to Spain, and, in spite of guerilla warfare, entered Madrid (4th December 1808). Sir John Moore, who from the west coast had penetrated as far as to Salamanca, was driven back by Soult supported by the emperor, and after the battle of Corunna (14th January 1809), in which he fought at bay and lost his life, the English had to embark and withdraw. The siege of Saragossa, however, contested with all the tenacity and devotion of the Spanish character, wore out the strength of the French forces, and their tenure of Spain was felt to be most precarious. Fifth Now followed a fifth coalition against Napoleon, whose coalition, subjects at home were beginning to show signs of exhaus tion. Still, when his army marched into Bavaria, it seemed as strong, as enthusiastic, as well commanded as ever. By splendid combinations and a series of victories, Napoleon swept down the Danube valley, and took Vienna. Ere long he was checked by the terrible battle of Gross Aspern or Essling (21st and 22d May 1809) just below Vienna, in which his victory was purchased at a price he could ill afford. He had to pause, while the Austrian court gathered itself together in Moravia. When he saw this, and felt that all Europe was beginning to move behind him, he too gathered his strength up, and marching against the Austrians defeated them, under the command of the archduke Battle of Charles, in the decisive battle of Wagram (5th and 6th Wagram. j uly 1809), a victory which, while it ruined for the time the military power of Austria, also weakened him to a dangerous point. It was therefore at once followed by the armistice of Znaim, which led, in a short time, to the 18K 3 hollow peace of Vienna, This agreement broke up the p ea( J coalition, handed over to Napoleon the Illyrian provinces Viei with a part of Tyrol, and gave him an imperial bride in Maria Louisa, daughter of the Austrian emperor. Napoleon at once returned to Paris, to celebrate his marriage, and to organize afresh his vast empire. Nothing escaped his care ; he coerced the press, rearranged finance, which had grown to be a very heavy burden, saw that the church was duly submissive and duly paid, and held the pope in honourable bondage at Savona. In other parts things went not amiss : the foolish Waieheren expedition mouldered away; in Spain Wellington with difficulty held out against Spanish indolence and corruption, and the genius of Marshal Soult. The lines of Torres Vedras (1810-1811), which the English general defended against Mass6na, form the turning-point of the history of Napo leon s triumphs. His last great victory was Essling; henceforward his successes will bring no lasting good ; his failures will draw him towards his fall. The successful winter in the Torres Vedras lines was followed by Wellington s famous campaign of Almeida, Badajoz, and Ciudad-Rodrigo (1811-1812), in which the English general separated Soult and Massdna, while he secured for himself a splendid base of operations for the future. But before this, the flattering friendship of Russia had Th a turned to gall. Ever since the end of 1809 Napoleon had* 11 seen how hollow all was in the north, and at last, early in ^ 1812, war broke out. Napoleon, misled by brilliant schemes, and ever trustful in his star, determined at once to crush the resistance of Russia ; as he had entered Berlin, Madrid, and Vienna, so he would also enter Moscow, and thence at last dictate peace to all the world. He seemed to think he had two things only to do, &quot; conscrire et prescire,&quot; to sum mon up and sacrifice the whole youth of France as conscripts, and then to prescribe his own terms to Europe. This terrible blunder cost him his throne. He left his soldiers in Spain to take care of themselves ; though he must have seen that they were almost as much in want of help as that army had been which he so selfishly left behind him in Egypt. With this difficulty in his rear, and the vast dis tances, huge armies, and terrible climate of Russia before him, he set forth in the spring of 1812 on his famous and fatal march to Moscow. He crossed the Niemen, and reaching Wilna, the capital of Lithuania, halted there to re cruit his troops (June 1812), which were: in unusual dis order. Here he proclaimed his sympathy for Poland, while he tried not to offend the Austrians or to unsettle their share of the dismembered kingdom. Negotiations also went on ; the emperor of Russia offered terms, which were refused at once ; Bernadotte, now by election prince-royal of Sweden (21st August 1810), who knew the character of hisS i ] late master, also had dealings with Napoleon, while at the C( JM same time he made alliance with the czar, and began a sixth coalition against France ; England joined the new league, and Turkey made peace with Russia. Still Napoleon per severed ; he won the hard-fought battle of Smolensk (17th August 1812), though he did not succeed in cutting off tho retreat of the Russians, who burnt everything as they with drew, leaving a desert for the French. The terrible battle of Borodino, one of the hardest struggles in history, gave Napoleon a victory, though the Russians again with drew in good order (7th September). They did not attempt to defend Moscow, retiring thence, and leaving the capital as &quot; a snare in which the ruin of the foe was inevitable,&quot; And so it proved ; the French army entered Moscow in triumph, and Napoleon established himself at the Kremlin (15th September) ; the next day the whole town burst into flames ; after five days nothing was standing save tho churches, and perhaps a tenth of the city. It was savage-