Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/653

 FALL OF NAPOLEON.] FRANCE G17 13. as it was heroic ; at any rate, it was completely successful. The emperor Alexander spurned all overtures for peace ; his armies grew more threatening ; the French communica tions were clearly unsafe ; the winter was not far off ; it looked as if Napoleon might even be shut up in Moscow. The great retreat was inevitable. In the middle of October the French army began to pour out of the gates of Moscow, and then began a running battle at every point. The army bled at every pore, and Ney with the utmost heroism protected the rear. At last Napoleon reached Wilua ; there the worst of the pursuit seemed to be over, and there was both food and raiment ; there he, leaving Murat in com mand, abandoned the shattered remnants of the grand army, and took flight to France (5th December 1812). The remainder of the retreat was even more ruinous than what had gone before ; it was but a handful out of so great a host that reached the frontiers of France again. Of 450,000 men who set forth, probably not 100,000 returned. war In Spain affairs had been almost as bad for France. Early ain - in 1812 Wellington had taken Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and then advancing into Spain, defeated Marmont and the French at Salamanca (22d July 1812), and occupied Madrid. In the autumn Soult, by able dispositions and a stronger force, compelled him to retreat again to Ciudad Rodrigo. The campaign had shown the weakness of the French, occupation, while it had greatly lessened their resources and the part of the Spanish territory at their disposal. Franco still worshipped her chief. The new and severe conscription gave him another vast army ; and he set forth iia- to punish Prussia, which had declared war against him, in concert with Russia. The Germans always have honoured this period of their history as a great resurrection, and as the birthtimo of their true national life. The emperor passed through Mainz to Erfurt, and fought his first battle, a severe one, on the plain of Liitzen ; the defeated Prussians and Russians fell back in good order through Dresden, Napoleon following them hard, defeating them and .driving them out of their intrenched camp at Bautzen (20th and 21st May 1813), whence they retreated again in perfect order. It was evident that the temper of Ger many had entirely changed since Jena. An armistice, which followed, led to much negotiation at Dresden, where Napoleon s headquarters lay. The upshot of it all was that Austria joined Russia and Prussia, and the war went on. The attack of the allies on Dresden, which lasted two days (2Gth and 27th August), ended in their repulse and defeat ; Russian supports came up in October, and it was plain that they were going to cut the French communications, and coop Napoleon up in Dresden for the winter. The king of Bavaria at this moment joined the allies, and made the emperor s position still more precarious. He now withdrew from Dresden, and near Leipsic came into collision with his enemies, who were . of waiting for him there. On the IGth of October 1813 began one of the decisive battles in the world s history. Napoleon s forces were far outnumbered by those of the allies ; and some of his German troops deserted in the thick of the fight. The battle raged on the 16th and the 18th ; on the 19th Napoleon, completely defeated, began to withdraw. At Hanau he overthrew Wrede, and cut a passage for his army ; the victorious emperors followed closely on his heels, and barely half his men reached home. The campaign had broken to pieces the dominance of France in Europe ; and all the imperial creations, the confederation of the Rhine, the kingdom of Westphalia, the Batavian republic, came to an end. George III. resumed the electorate of Hanover ; Austria recovered her lost provinces; in Spain the throne of Joseph Bonaparte fell, for the battle of Vittoria (21st June 1813) had utterly destroyed the power of the French in the 1813 14. peninsula. Wellington drove them out of Spain, and in spite of the vigour and ability of Soult, the two great fron tier fortresses of Pampeluna and St Sebastian fell. Wellington entered southern France, and in November threatened Bayonne. Napoleon could only complain, with the tone of an irritated master, that he had been defeated by the treason of his servants, that is, of his German subjects. On his return to Paris, the emperor found the tone of feeling very much changed. In the legislative body men ventured to denounce his rule ; such outspoken words had not been heard for years. He angrily replied with his &quot; 1 etat, c est moi,&quot; &quot; to attack me is to attack the nation,&quot; and abruptly closed their session. Henceforth he would rule alone, and alone with the ruins of his armies face the ; terrible invasion that was coming on. The whole conditions The in- of his warfare changed ; he must now act on the defensive, vasion of and bear to see France trodden under foot, even as France 1&amp;lt;rauce - till now had trodden all Europe under her feet. The allies came in almost without resistance in three armies, the Austrians from Basel advancing to Langres ; Bliicher with the Prussians crossed the Vosges to Nancy ; the army of the north, Russians and Prussians, came clown to Namur, and thence to Laon. In all there were full 200,000 of them, a force quite double that at the emperor s disposal. They all sat on the inner slopes of the mountains which form the northern, north-eastern, and eastern defences of France, awaiting the moment to advance. Napoleon had the one great advantage of the inner line. But after fighting the severe battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, he tried to paralyse tho allies by striking at their communications, and so lost his one advantage; for they, instead of hesitating, marched boldly on for Paris, defeated Mortier and Marmont in tho very suburbs, and forced the proud capital to surrender before Napoleon could come up to its defence. The allied emperors were received with cries of &quot; Long live the king,&quot; &quot; Long live the emperor Alexander.&quot; A provisional govern ment of senators decreed the downfall of Napoleon ; the other constituted bodies followed ; the imperial government was swept away as in an instant. The emperor, amazed at this sudden impulse of the country, abdicated (6th April 1814) on behalf of his son, and finally (llth April) ho abdicated completely, offering himself, as he said, a &quot; per sonal sacrifice&quot; to France. His titles, honours, an ample income, and the island of Elba in full sovereignty, were left to him. The restoration of the Bourbons followed at once. Louis Louis XVIII. appeared in Paris, the prote ge of foreign bayonets, XVIII. and not ashamed to own that he owed his return to English help. Peace followed at once ; France shrank back to her old dimensions, as she had been in 1792, with some slight modifications. Louis XVIII. lastly promulgated a new charter, granting some constitutional rights to his subjects. The document was dated as of the 19th year of his reign, as though Napoleon and the Revolution had never been. Tho peerage was restored, its numbers now unlimited except by the king s will, who alone could appoint peers ; a chamber of deputies, elected by a limited suffrage, had really but little power, as the king reserved to himself the initiative of all laws ; the Roman Catholic religion was declared the faith of the state, and full toleration granted to all dis sidents. This was the constitutionalism of the reaction. It showed how far France had travelled from the days of the old regime. There was no question of ancient privileges or of feudal usages ; the very name of States-General had disappeared. No reaction, however severe, ever brings things back to the point from which they had drifted ; France could never again bo what she had been under Louis XIV. IX. 78