Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/293



"The bas-reliefs begin with the breaking up of the Camp de Boulogne. The first represents the troops in review, and the Havre flotilla rounding Cape d'Alpreck. The commentator construes the appearance of the ships while Napoleon was inspecting his army into a desire on the part of Ocean to pay also its tribute to the Emperor. Then we have the departure of the various corps from Boulogne, Brest, Utrecht, and Hanover on the great converging march, which, until last year, was perhaps the finest campaign opening ever planned. The troops are represented taking farewell of the sailors who were to have ferried them over to a battle of Dorking; we see them on the march, crossing rivers, entering towns, etc., and in their various arms of artillery, cavalry, and infantry. In the sixth tableaux the Emperor appears before his servile Senators at Paris, and informs them that the war against the third coalition has begun. The will of the eternal enemies of Europe is accomplished (said the Emperor on that occasion), the peace I hoped would continue is broken; blood will flow, but the French name will win a new lustre. A few words like these were quite enough to cover the demand for 80,000 men of the next year's conscription. The tableaux continue; the soldiers are still on their road, crossing the Rhine at Mayence, Mannheim, Spires, Dourlach, Strasburg—no less than five different places. Then comes the Emperor himself, riding over the bridge of Kehl, with his headquarter staff, on the 1st of October, exactly one month after the breaking up of the camp. The submissive Electors of Baden and Würtemberg, who were rewarded with crowns after Austerlitz, receive their benefactor; and in the 15th tableau the first blow is struck at Donowerth by the 4th corps, thirty-six days from Boulogne. Then we have Murat clearing the road to Augsburg and Ulm by the combat at Wertingen, and the passage of the Danube at Neuburg by the 2d