Part 2

And with this force he met an Austrian army of 40,000 and defeated it signally after a bitter engagement.

COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

EMPEROR NAPOLEON, from the painting by François Gérard, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

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EMPEROR NAPOLEON

“I shall now give myself to the administration of France.” That was the statement of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 after he had overthrown the government and had instituted a consulate, to which he was elected first for ten years, and then for life. There were three consuls, and Napoleon was known as the first consul. To one of his sublime ambition, however, the thought of association in government was unbearable. Two years later, despite his attitude expressed in his own words, “I am a friend of the Republic; I am a son of the Revolution; I stand for the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Napoleon determined to make an office for himself that would be absolute and hereditary. The title of king had grown hateful to the people of France; so Napoleon chose “emperor” instead, and in 1804 he assumed the title and the office.

Many were shocked; but none could resist his assumption of imperial power. A popular vote showed that only 2,500 people opposed the new government. Pope Pius VII accepted Napoleon’s request to take part in the coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804. The event occurred at Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope poured the mystic oil on the head of the kneeling sovereign. It was ten centuries since any pope had left Rome for a coronation, and in the minds of the Latin peoples this was a consecration of a monarch that put him on an equal plane with the proudest rulers of Europe, whose power reposed on the basis of Divine Right. When the pope lifted the crown Napoleon performed an act so striking in its originality that the people held their breath. He took the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. He then crowned Empress Josephine.

A few months later Napoleon journeyed to Milan, the capital of what was called the Cisalpine Republic, and there proclaimed the kingdom of Italy. He crowned himself then with “the iron crown of the Lombards” and named Prince Eugène, his stepson, heir to the throne.

During the ceremonies the republic of Genoa sent ambassadors to Paris with the request to be incorporated into the French empire. This offended Austria, and led to the third war with that empire since 1792, when the republic of France was proclaimed.

FRIEDLAND--“1807,” from the painting by Meissonier, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

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FRIEDLAND--“1807”

Emperor Napoleon’s brilliant victory at Friedland was the event that placed him at the topmost height of his military power. In a fierce battle, noted for the strategy characteristic of Bonaparte, he defeated a large Russian army. This was on June 14, 1807.

Czar Alexander of Russia had refused to comply with the demands of Napoleon regarding trade with England. England would not recognize Napoleon as emperor, and he retorted by forcing several of the European nations to sever commercial connections with England. Czar Alexander held out. The forces of both emperors met at a small town called Heilsberg, near Friedland. Napoleon disposed his army in such a way that he led the Russian general, Bennigsen, to believe that he had to conquer only a small number at Friedland. Part of the French army was hidden in the semi-circle of wooded hills that surrounded Friedland.

From one of these hills Napoleon watched the movement of Bennigsen and his army of 30,000. The Russian general believed that a corps of 1,500 men in command at Lannes, stationed at Friedland, was the extent of the forces opposing him. Bennigsen engaged in a skirmish with this corps, and drove it back into the city. The Russian army then followed, and crossed the River Albe. Napoleon waited, feeling assured that Bennigsen would not have time to retreat. Then he brought his army of 60,000 men to the aid of Lannes, and surrounded the Russians, pouring upon them a converging fire which worked disastrous results. The fragments of Bennigsen’s army retreated to the Russian border, whither Napoleon’s forces pursued them.

At the Russian frontier Napoleon received a communication from Czar Alexander requesting peace. It was agreed that the two emperors should meet on a floating raft near the city of Tilsit.

The result of this conference was the foundation of what has been called “Napoleon’s dream to build a vast European empire.”

Whatever may be said of that, it was surely the beginning of his downfall.

RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, from the painting by Meissonier, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

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RETREAT FROM MOSCOW

Napoleon’s invasion of Russia was one of the most disastrous military enterprises in the history of the world. It was not the Russians that defeated the emperor. During much of his advance he was left alone. Sometimes he was harrassed by skirmish forces. Several great battles were fought, notably that of Borodino. But for the most part he was allowed to go on his way; for his enemies knew that he had greater than human forces to face and battle with,--the vast Russian solitudes and the cruel, killing Russian winter. The terrible story is summed up in the statement that Napoleon invaded Russia with an armed force numbering more than 500,000 men, and that he returned with less than 30,000.

Bonaparte had once said, “I will never lead an army to destruction as did Charles XII on the steppes of Russia. My soldiers are my children.” However, when Czar Alexander of Russia refused to accept his terms, Napoleon assembled his grand army of Frenchmen, Italians, Austrians, and Germans and invaded Russia as far as Moscow, a distance of 2,000 miles from Paris.

He was victorious at Moscow; but the Russians burned the city, and thus destroyed it for purposes of winter quarters. The czar delayed in his negotiations for peace so long that Napoleon was compelled to order a retreat, which began on October 19, 1812. His army was then harassed from the rear, and many lives were lost in these engagements. After two weeks of marching the soldiers met the first wave of Russian winter. The roads were frozen sheets of ice, and in a week nearly all the horses perished. The cavalry could no longer ward off the attacks of Cossacks. Many of the guns had to be abandoned. The army lacked the artillery necessary to fight a big battle. Food supplies had to be abandoned, as there were no horses to draw them. Thousands stretched out by the fire at night never to awaken in the morning. Cold and starvation killed them.

At Smolensk the army presented an appalling spectacle. Napoleon headed it, clad in furs, his expression set and stern. Behind him came the captains, majors, and lieutenants, then a few harnessed wagons with the emperor’s war chest and papers; after that the straggling forces, many of them unarmed, limping, half frozen, some wandering away with wild looks, others falling by the roadside never to rise again.

At the frontier Napoleon left this pitiful fragment of an army in charge of the king of Naples, took a horse, and rode to Paris.

NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON, from the painting by W. Q. Orchardson, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

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ON BOARD THE BELLEROPHON

The Battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815, was the final blow to Napoleon’s power. On that day hung the fate of Europe. Napoleon faced the allied forces of Prussia, England, Germany, and the Dutch, and had assembled an army of 70,000 to meet them. The allied forces were under command of the Duke of Wellington. They were bound together by one stern purpose,--to annihilate once for all the man whom they called the scourge of Europe. A heavy rainstorm prevented the emperor from carrying out his original plan of attack, which was to meet the enemy in two sections. The night of June 17 was stormy. A heavy rainstorm made the roads so heavy that the emperor could not move his cannon into the place desired until a short time before the enemy’s forces joined. Then, too, General Grouchy had been instructed to intercept the Prussian forces under Blücher, and hold them back while Napoleon fought his fight with Wellington. If he could not do that, he was at least to follow Blücher to Waterloo. The arrival, therefore, of Blücher and his forces in good fighting trim put the French into such confusion that a crushing defeat was inevitable. In the rout men had to save themselves as best they could.

Napoleon left the field, and took the road to Paris, where he found his power gone. He resigned as emperor in favor of his son, and went to Rochefort in hope of finding a ship going to the United States. The English vessel Bellerophon blockaded the harbor, and Napoleon boarded it, throwing himself on the mercy of Great Britain. He reckoned, however, without his host; for England had never forgotten that Napoleon had threatened an invasion of Great Britain. Moreover, within the year Napoleon had been declared an international outlaw, “outside the pale of social and civil relations, and liable to public vengeance.”

So, as Napoleon crossed the English Channel from Rochefort to Portsmouth, with Captain Maitland, on board his Majesty’s ship Bellerophon, he had sought safety in the lion’s mouth. England assumed charge of him on behalf of all Napoleon’s European enemies, and consigned him to exile on the island of St. Helena.

NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA, from the painting by Paul Belaroche, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”

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AT ST. HELENA

On a rock-bound island in the South Atlantic the greatest military genius of all time spent the last six years of his life. There Napoleon dragged out the months in company with a number of his former associates, recalling the glories of the past and complaining of the bitter conditions of the present. There he wrote interesting memorial papers and gave expression to the ripe results of his military training.

Sir Hudson Lowe, a British military officer with little tact or diplomacy, was his jailer. It was not possible for such a man and Napoleon Bonaparte to meet on terms of amity. Writers on the subject differ, as they do on almost all the episodes of Napoleon’s life. Some say that Sir Hudson abused and insulted Napoleon shamefully. However, there are French writers who try to prove that Napoleon continually lied to and intrigued against the governor.

Napoleon’s mind during these days turned frequently toward his son, “the little king of Italy,” and he dictated many instructions as to the boy’s future. It might have been with the hope that at some future time an empire might come to his son that he also dictated those elaborate memoirs in which he gave an account of himself.

During a terrific storm of wind and rain on the night of May 5, 1821, Napoleon died. The dash of the waves and the roar of the storm seemed to stir his fading faculties and to arouse in him a memory of the din of battle; for his last words were “Tête d’armée” (the head of the army), and with that ejaculation in a sharp military tone his lips closed forever.

He was buried near his favorite haunt,--a fountain shaded by weeping willows, at Longwood, the estate on which he had lived at St. Helena. British soldiers accompanied his body to rest with reversed arms and fired a parting salute over his grave.

In his will the following extraordinary statement appeared: “My wish is to be buried on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I so dearly loved.”

In 1840 his body was ceremoniously transferred to Paris and buried in the Hôtel des Invalides with every circumstance of military pomp and national mourning.

Transcriber’s Notes

Simple typographical errors were corrected; punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.