Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/284

* NAPOLEON I. 242 NAPOLEON I. of Bavaria, which had recently joined the Allies. Napoleon made a serious mistake iu leaving able lieutenants with large garrisons to hold the great Cierman fortresses, thus depriving himself of the assistance of Rapp, who held Danzig with 8000 men; Davout, who was shut up in Hamburg with 12,000 men, and many others. These places were besieged and captured by the Allies during the ensuing months, but the bulk of the allied army pressed on toward Paris. Bliicher with the Prussians and part of the Russians crossed the Rhine at Caub (December 31st) and began the invasion of France : Schwarzeiiberg. with the Austrians and the rest of the Russians, entered France by the way of Basel. To meet this double invasion. Napoleon could only muster a Bniall army. This he interpo.sed between Bliicher and Schwarzenberg, whom he defeated in turn. Bliicher's army was disper.sed in the battles of Bricnne, Champaubert. ilontmirail. and Vau- chanips. between January 2nth and February 14, 1814. while divisions of Scliwarzenberg's army were severely worsted at Nangis ( February 17th) and Montereau (February 18th). This first defensive campaign of 1814 is one of the most brilliant defensive tiglits in military history. The military genius of Napoleon never shone more brightly, though the dulling of his political sense made his failure inevitable. With a little army of worn out and defeated men, reenforced by a few hastily collected and un- trained conscripts, he thrust himself between two vastly superior forces against which he hurled himself alternately with such swiftness, skill, and violence as to shatter the hostile armies and frustrate the plans of the opposing generals. Finally, worn out, he had to succumb to tlie over- whehning numbers of the foe and to the in- separable obstacles of time and space. Napoleon, who had refused to accept the pro- posals of Frankfort .submitted by the Allies on November 9, 181.3. now sent C'ailaincourt to meet their representatives in the (mgress of Chntillon (February .-iMarch 19. 1814), hut with instructions to 'sign nothing.' The Allies once more (lelined their relations to one another in the Treaty of Chaumont (March 1st), brought up new troojis. and prepared to crush Napoleon. Napoleon's second defensive cam- paign of 1814 was a brilliant failure — a stubborn struggle against the inevitable. The first blows were struck at Bliicher on JIarch 7th and Oth at Craonnc and l.aon. l)>it failed to interrupt Bliicher's campaign seriously. .- attack upon a part of Scliwarzenberg's army at Areis-sur- .Aube met with no better success, and so Napoleon turned to the eastward to threaten Schwarzcn- berg's line of eomnuinieation. But the great dis- parity of forces enabled the Allies to neglect this movement and to concentrate nn Paris. Schwarz- enlierg and Bliicher arrived before Paris on March .'iOtb. and after hard fighting with Marmont. ]Mortier. and Moneey, occupied the French cap- ital. The Fniperor arrived just a few hours too late to strike a blow in defense of his capital. and could only make an obstinate attempt to re- new the struggle south of Paris, but Ney and the other marshals finally forced him to listen to reason (April 4th) and to bring the campaign to a clo.se. In the southwest, ."^oult had been driven from position to position and was about to lose his Inst battle at Toulouse. Suchet had withdrawn from Spain too late to help Soult ; Augereau at Lyons had failed to disturb Schwarzcnberg's left flank. In Italy Murat had deserted to the enemy, negotiated with Austria, and turned the Neapolitan army against Kugfrne Beauharnais. the Viceroy of Italy, who faith- fully and ably faced the triple danger of JIurat's treachery, the invasion of the Austrians, and the occupation of Genoa by an Englisli force under Lord William Bentinck. On April lllh Napoleon, the Emperor of the French, formally abdicated at Fontainebleau in favor of his infant son, the King of Rome. In the stipulations with the .llies. Napoleon was allowed to retain the title and state of Emiieror, but was to be detained as a prisoner on the island of Elba. The relations between the newly restored Bourbons and the Allies were settled by the First Treaty of Paris on May .'iOth. The changes which had taken place in Europe since the outbreak of war in 1792 had been such that the old order could not be restored, and accordingly a Congress of tho Powers was sunnnoned to meet at icnna to make the necessary new arrangements. These were completed on Jvme 9. 1S1.">. But in the meantime Napoleon had left Elba, landed in France on March 1st, made his way to Paris, reestablislied his power, gathered a new army and advanced to attack the Allies, whose representa- tives at Vienna planned at once to place new armies in the field and overthrow him a second time. (See HiKDEEn Day.s.) The campaign, which lasted only a week, included Napoleon's defeat of Bliicher at Ligny (q.v.) on .hme IGth, Ney's figlit with Wellington at (.^uatreBras on the same day. and the final overthrow of NajjO- leon on the field of Waterloo (q.v. ) by Welling- ton and Bliicher on June 18. ISl.?. After tliia last battle Napoleon fied to Paris, where he abdi- cated a second time on .lune 22d. For a few days he hesitated between dreams of again playing a part in France and plans for an escape to Amer- ica. The first was preposterous, the second im- possil>le, and on .luly 15th be surrendered him- self to Captain Maitland on hoard tlie English ship Iirll(ii>phi>it. The Allies under Bliicher had entered I'aris a second time on July 7th and made the final adjustments for the settlement of Euro])c in the Second Treaty of I'aris on November 20th. Napoleon was taken to England, and after some dclib<>ration his request to be permitted to settle in England was refused. He was transferred to the ship XorlhiiDilitrliind and on October llith landed on the island of Saint Helena. In his captivity he was accompanied In' his faithful friend Bertrand. and by (Jour- gaud. Montholon, Las Cases, and a number of other indiviiluals of minor importance. In 1816 Sir Hudson Lowe, a British soldier, arrived as Governor of the island. Napoleon's chief occu- ])ation8 as a captive were his quarrels with Lowe, and his monologni's with Gourgaud and Montho- lon. which they wrote out and sulimifted for cor- rection to the Kmperor. These documents form a parti.il autobiography, valualile not for its facts, but for llic liglit which it sheds upon Napoleon's character. Napolc(m gave himself up to long periods of gloom and humored liimself in the mo-it inexcusable obstinacies when a more ra- tional behavior would have improved his health and rendered his surroundings more agreeable socially. Cancer of the stiuuacb, which had car- ried off his father, and which was to cause the