Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/67

 BETWEEN THE CZAH AND THE SULTAN. 25 Vienna itself, all men saw that it was not only chap for the interest of Europe at large, but also for the. interest of Prussia herself, that she should come forward to prevent the catastrophe. She hung hack and stood still whilst Austria succumbed ; but acting thus, Prussia incurred the ill opinion of Europe ; and the ruin which follows degrada- tion did not at all lag, for in the very next year Bonaparte was issuing his decrees from Berlin, and the Prussians were yielding up their provinces and their strong places to France, and handing over their stores of gold and silver, and of food and clothing, to cruel French intendants, and French soldiery were quartered upon them at their hearths. A brave and warlike people had been brought down into this abyss because their rulers had shrank from taking up arms in obedience to the great Usage ; and Europe set it down and remembered that Prussia's dereliction of duty in 1805 was fol- lowed by shame and ruin in the autumn of 1806. But if the wars of 1805 and 180(3 supplied a instances in signal instance of this kind of defection and of its usage was speedy chastisement, they also furnished examples obeyed.' of loyal obedience to the great Usage. From the rupture of the peace of Amiens to the summer of 1805 Bonaparte was at peace with the Continent and at war with this country. During that in- terval of more than two years he bent his whole energy, and devoted the vast resources at his command, to the one object of invading and crushing England. It was against the interest of Europe that England should be ruined, but more