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 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE its greatest extent and its highest glory. In ad- dition to the original 86 departments of France (including Corsica), it embraced three depart- ments along the Alps, 15 W. of the Rhine, 15 beyond the Alps in upper and central Italy, and 7 Illyrian provinces, besides exercising control in Holland, in Spain, in the Italian kingdoms, in Switzerland, and in the confed- eration of the Rhine. The French code and French ideas were predominant at Warsaw, at Milan, at Naples, in Holland, Westphalia, and Bavaria. To Sweden a king was given in the person of Bernadotte. Holland, after having had his brother Louis as king, was an- nexed to France by decree of the senate, July 9, 1810. But in the Spanish peninsula the progress of the French was slow. Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had recently been made Vis- count Wellington, exhibited a degree of mili- tary skill and activity which easily held the marshals of Napoleon in check, and called for the presence of the grand master of war him- self. On July 1.0, 1810, the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo capitulated to Ney, but on Sept. 27 Massena was defeated by Wellington at the heights of Busaco, and on Nov. 14 driven from before the fortified lines of Torres Vedras. Early in 1811 Soult besieged Badajoz, and cap- tured it on March 11, but on May 16 he was routed at Albuera. Thus a series of alternate successes and reverses marked the campaign throughout the year. The surrender of Va- lencia to Suchet, Jan. 9, 1812, was, however, the last of the French triumphs. Ten days afterward Wellington recaptured Ciudad Ro- drigo; April 6, he recaptured Badajoz; July 22, he worsted Marmont at Salamanca; and 20 days later the capital of Spain was in the possession of the victorious English captain. But not until the battle of Vitoria, June 21, 1813, were the French driven entirely beyond the Pyrenees. Napoleon was personally oc- cupied at the time with a greater enterprise than that of the reduction of Spain. His good understanding with Alexander of Russia had come to an end. The czar complained of his encroachments upon the interests of Russia, especially upon her commerce in the northern seas, and the commencement of the year 1812 saw both emperors engaged in formidable prep- arations for war. The scheme of a univer- sal monarchy, which dazzled the ambition of Napoleon, seems to have blinded him to the consequences of his acts, or to have allured him to conquest with utter indifference to oth- er results. A " grand army " of more than 500,000 men was gathered on the frontiers of Poland to enter upon the Russian campaign one of the most stupendous as it was one of the most disastrous events in the records of history. Three hundred thousand Russians assembled on the banks of the Niemen to oppose the mighty force of the French. On Juno 24, 1812, Napoleon crossed the river, and the Russians retired step by step before the invaders. Tempests, rains, and famine scourged the camps of the French, and yet they pushed forward. Under the walls of Smolensk, on the evening of Aug. 16, a divi- sion of the Russians ventured to make a stand against an advanced division of the French, and before the morning of the 18th the entire city was a heap of smoking ruins. Both the main armies drove rapidly on toward the city of Moscow. On Sept. 6, at the small village of Borodino, they halted, and came face to face with each other, resolved to risk a trial of strength. As the morning of the 7th dawned, a solitary gun announced the beginning of the fight; immediately 1,000 cannon belched forth their fire of death ; more than 250,000 men were enveloped in the dense smoke of the conflict ; and when the night fell more than 80,000 killed and wounded heaped the field. On the following day the Russians retired into Moscow, only to prepare the inhabitants to withdraw in a body before the irresistible arms of France. On the 15th, when Napoleon rode into the ancient capital, it was as silent as the desert, and he took up his residence in the Kremlin. But suddenly, at midnight, the city burst into flames in every direction, and the baffled French, enveloped in fire, were com- pelled to seek refuge in the desolate surround- ing country. Napoleon- lingered over the splendid ruins till Oct. 19, when, all his pro- posals for a peaceful adjustment of difficulties being rejected, he was reluctantly compelled to order a retreat. At first the weather was fine, and only moderately cold; but soon the snow, the rain, fatigue, and swarms of har- assing Cossacks threw the dispirited French- men into disorder. Then commenced that ter- rible retreat of 120,000 men, which for various suffering and horror has no parallel in the annals of our race. Napoleon himself returned immediately to France, and was almost the first to announce his disaster in his own cap- ital, so rapidly had he fled from the scene. The loss of the French and their auxiliaries in this campaign was 125,000 slain, 132,000 dead of fatigue, hunger, disease, and cold, and 193,000 made prisoners ; yet the emperor had scarcely reached Paris when he issued orders for. new conscriptions, and still thought of prosecuting the war. This dreadful reverse encouraged the European powers to a sixth coalition, com- posed of Russia, England, Sweden, Prussia, and Spain, which early in the year 1813 sent for- ward its forces toward the Elbe, with a view to hem in the indomitable general, who seemed to set e.very misfortune at defiance. With an army of 350,000 men, in great part young troops, Napoleon repaired to Germany, where he won the battle of Lutzen on May 2, and the battle of Bautzen on the 20th and 21st, but neither with decisive results. On June 4 an armistice was agreed upon, when Napoleon re- paired to Dresden, where Metternich on the part of Austria offered a mediation with a view to closing the war. But Napoleon would not agree to the terms which were proposed to