Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/356

 Confederation of the Rhine, and the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin gave the first example of an adhesion to the new Alliance.

Napoleon, with Caulaincourt in the same vehicle, had reached Paris before the intelligence of his retreat from Moscow had become known. With his accustomed vigour he soon restored tranquillity and confidence in the capital, raised three hundred and fifty thousand men by a conscription voted by the obsequious Senate, and contrived to wring from the Pope a Concordat, wherein his Holiness yielded up the point for which he had lost the papal throne and suffered so long an exile. Confident in the moral and religious powers thus acquired by a reconciliation with the Church, Napoleon's joy was intense. He put forth the whole strength of his varied resources to place his army upon the best footing. In the meantime, however, the forces under the Duke of Wellington were advancing; and while the storm gathered fast in Spain, outraged Germany was marshalling her forces to expel the invader from her confines. The decisive battle of Vittoria was fought on the 21st of June, 1813, and Pampeluña besieged in the latter end of July. The British army under Wellington entered France on the 8th of October, and Pampeluña surrendered on the 31st of the same month. England had also secretly opened negotiations with Austria, which, favoured by Wellington's victories, were brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and, with the view of crushing her formidable enemy, she poured out her treasure like water. Portugal received from her a loan of two millions sterling; Sicily four hundred thou