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ment; but nothing has since appeared to give room for suspecting that any germ of it is still in being.

The desertion of Moscow by Napoleon (who quitted it the day after the defeat of Murat) was equally a subject of surprise and speculation at Paris, the public papers of which exhausted their ingenuity in finding excuses and motives for this event. One of them thus concludes its reasonings : "To say that the emperor has left Moscow is only to say, that this father of the soldiers marches wherever great operations demand his presence. His presence commands victory; it will still watch over the safety of the victorious army." We shall see in the sequel how well this expectation was verified. The first proof of the great change of situation between the two armies, was the mission of Lauriston to Kutusoff, in order to propose an armis tice and treat of peace. The answer given was, that no negociation of this kind could be entered upon till the French had repassed the Vistula; and when Lauriston observed in reply, that they must then retire fighting every inch, since the Russian armies were marching on all sides, Kutusoff rejoined, that as the French had not been invited to Moscow, they must get back as they could. Murat also is stated to have gone to the advanced posts, and held a conference with General Milardovitch, probably for the purpose of bringing about an armistice, but from which he derived no satisfaction. At this time the Russians had cleared both banks of the Duna, as far as Witepsk, from the invaders; and the province of Volhynia

was entirely freed from the enemy.

was

The French grand army first directed its march upon Kaluga; but finding obstacles in that quarter, the route was changed towards Mojaisk. The Russians pressing upon it, an engagement brought on at Malo-yaroslavetz, on the 24th, in which, as usual, the French claim a victory; at least, it appears that they checked their pursuers. On November 9, Napoleon arrived with the imperial guard at Smolensko. Of the encounters in this interval, between the retreating and the pursuing armies, the relations by the two parties are so irreconcilable that we shall not attempt to form them into a consistent narrative. It is only certain that much loss was sustained by the French, which they were not in a condition to repair. The Russian winter, which began on the 7th with deep snow, greatly added to their difficulties and sufferings, and their bulletins acknowledge the loss of many men by cold and fatigue in their night bivouackings. Two intercepted letters from the viceroy of Italy, Eugene Napoleon, to the Prince of Neufchatel, afford undeniable evidence of the extreme distress to which the retreating French were reduced. In the first, dated November 8, he speaks of an attack on the head, rear, and center of his columns by the enemy, in which two of his cannon were carried off; and after mentioning his embarrassments, and his critical situation, he says,

"I must not conceal from your highness, that after using every effort in my power, I have yet found it impossible to drag my artillery, and that, in this respect,

great

great sacrifices must be expected." In the second, on the following day, he mentions the incredible efforts he has made for a small advance, and says, "These three last days have cost us two-thirds of the artillery of this corps of the army. Yesterday about 400 horses died; and to-day perhaps double that number have perished, exclusive of the great number which I have caused to be put on for the military bag gage, and for that of individuals. Whole trains of horses have perished in the harness at once. must not conceal from your highness, that these three days of suffering have so dispirited the soldier, that I believe him at this moment very little capable of making any effort. Numbers of men are dead of hunger or cold, and others in despair have suffered themselves to be taken by the enemy." In this dreadful condition he was again attacked by General Platoff, at the head of his Cossaks, who, in his report to Marshal Kutusoff, speaks of 3,000 prisoners, and 62 pieces of cannon, as the result of his victory.

The pursuit of the retreating army, on its route to Smolensko, still continued; and on the 10th, a body of 2,000 men, with 60 officers, being a division of General Augereau's corps, was surrounded by the cavalry of Count Orloff Denizoff, and laid down their arms, after a feeble resistance. On the 14th. Count Witgenstein, who had made himself master of Witepsk, was attacked by Marshal Victor, in consequence of an order to drive him beyond the Duna. After an obstinate action, which continued the greatest part of the day, the French retired with considerable

loss, having failed of their purpose. Several other actions took place, which are represented as being uniformly favourable to the Rus sians, and were preludes to much more important successes. The French, who, after blowing up the fortifications of Smolensko, were marching upon Krasnoi, a town to the south-west of that city, were overtaken by the advanced troops of Marshal Kutusoff's army, which had made prodigious exertions for that purpose, and on November 16, the corps of Marshal Davoust, which had been turned by Prince Galitzin, was brought to action. The battle lasted the whole day, Napoleon himself being in the field, which he quitted without waiting for the issue. It terminated in the complete destruction or dispersion of Davoust's army, which, besides a very heavy loss in killed and wounded, had above 9,000 men, with two generals and many inferior officers, taken prisoners, and lost 70 pieces of cannon. An additional force was then sent to reinforce General Millardovitch, in order to stop the advance of Marshal Ney with the rear divisions of the French. On the 17th, under cover of a thick fog, Ney's troops got unperceived to the foot of the Russian batteries, and endeavoured to pierce through the lines of their opponents. Their efforts, however, were ineffectual, and after great carnage from the Russian cannon and musketry, the remainder, in number 12,000, at midnight, laid down their arms, giving up their cannon, baggage, and military chest. Ney himself escaped, wounded, by flight across the Dnieper.

In the further retreat to the [N 2] banks

banks of the Berezyna, various encounters took place, the result of which is, as usual, very differently related by the two parties. The most considerable was one which terminated, on the 28th, in the capture, by General Witgenstein, of a French division, said to consist of 8,800 men. During this time the cold was intensely severe, occasioning dreadful sufferings to the fugitives, and almost annihilating their cavalry. When they arrived at the spot where the roads to Minsk and Wilna divide, they took the route to the latter town, first sending off their wounded, with the baggage. In these movements, Napoleon always marched in the midst of his guards, whom, by care and indulgence, he had preserved in tolerable plight. It is mentioned in the French accounts, that to such a degree was the cavalry of the army dismounted, that it was necessary to collect the officers who had still a horse remaining, in order to form four companies of 150 men each. This sacred squadron, as it is termed, in which generals performed the functions of captains, and colonels of subalterns, never lost sight of the emperor. At length, all danger from the pursuers being passed, Napoleon, on December 5, having called together his principal officers, and informed them of the appointment of the king of Naples as his lieutenant-general, set off in a single sledge under the title of the Duke of Vicenze. He passed through Wilna, Warsaw, Dresden, Leipzic, and Mentz, and arrived at Paris on the 18th, at half past eleven at night.

Thus terminated a campaign more destructive of human lives

than perhaps any other in which the ruler of France has been engaged, and certainly more injurious than any other to his political and military reputation. He was able, indeed, at the head of an immense force, to penetrate to another and remoter European capital; but instead of attaining the professed object of his mighty preparations-an object apparently incommensurate with his exertions

all he effected was, the destruction of a fine city, and the devastation of a large tract of country, at the price of leaving the hostile plains thronged with the carcases of his subjects and allies, a still greater number in a state of captivity, and all his artillery and stores in the hands of the enemy. He obtained no addition of glory, either as a statesman or a general, and returned like a fugitive, escaping from danger and disgrace. Every art, however, had been employed to palliate these misfortunes, or conceal their extent from the eyes of the French people; and the recent suppression of a conspiracy had, as usually happens, strengthened the authority of the government. He was, therefore, received at Paris with the accustomed tokens of reverence and attachment; and on the 20th, being seated on his throne, surrounded by all the great officers of state, he was waited upon in full ceremony by the senate, whose president, the Count Lacepede, delivered an address to him as loyal and adulatory as if he had been an hereditary monarch returning in triumph. His reply was remarkable: it particularly alluded to the duty of courage in magistrates, and their obligation to die in defence

of

of their sovereign and his throne. “When (said he) I undertook the regeneration of France, I entreated of Providence a determinate number of years. Destruction is the work of a moment; but to rebuild requires the aid of time. The ral. lying cry of our fathers was, The king is dead-long live the king. These few words comprehend the principal advantages of the monarchy." This was a manifest intimation of the necessity of supporting an hereditary succession in the new dynasty. The council of state being next introduced to pay their homage, the Count Defermon, minister of the finances, pronounced a speech, in which he touched upon the delicate topic of the late conspiracy, planned, he says, " by a maniac, who, for a previous offence, had deserved a punishment which his Majesty had been so generous as to remit." Napoleon's answer contains a sentence which might become our warmest opposers of theoretical principles of government. "It is to that ideal system, to those dark metaphysics which, in pursuing with subtlety the

search after first causes, seek to found upon their basis the legislation of nations, instead of accommodating laws to the knowledge of the human heart, and to the lessons of history, that we must attribute all the misfortunes which our favoured France has experienced." He makes the same allusion to the necessity of courage in a magistrate that was contained in his reply to the senate, and reminds the council of the examples of the presidents Harlay and Molé in the time of the League.

Notwithstanding these public exhibitions of loyalty, it is affirmed in private accounts, that on the arrival of intelligence, which could not be suppressed, of the disastrous condition in which Napoleon had left his army, many symptoms broke out of popular discontent and indignation. Nothing, however, occurred which indicated any serious danger to his authority; and the year closed with the most ostentatious declarations of a resolution to persist in the same political plans, and with confident presages of final success.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XVIII.

Russia.-War with Turkey-Treaty of Peace-Treaties with Sweden and England-French Invasion and Retreat.-Sweden: its Policy— Diet-Treaty with England-Warlike Preparations-DenmarkAustria-Hungarian Diet-Germany-Sicily: its new Constitution -Turkey.

UCH that relates to the occurrences in the Russian empire during this year has been necessarily anticipated in the last chapter, on account of its intimate connection with the affairs of France; but various circumstances remain to be considered, in which Russia either stood apart from that power, or acted upon her own plans, without the immediate compulsion of events.

The close of the last year left the Russians in a course of success against the Turks, who, under the grand vizier, had crossed the Danube with their best troops. The Petersburgh gazette contains a report from General Kutusoff of the surrender of the vizier's army las prisoners of war, with all their artillery, on November 26th (December 8th)after having lost 10,000 men in different attacks.

This

event, it was generally thought, would be so decisive of the Russian superiority, as to lay the Turks at their feet, and oblige them to consent to such conditions of peace as might be imposed by the conquerors; but the Ottoman Porte continued firm in the resolution of making no sacrifice of territory, and appearances were made of vigorous preparation for another cam

paign. Doubtless, the prospect of an approaching necessity to the Russians of employing their principal force in the defence of their own country, which the French emissaries would not fail of making known in its full extent at Constantinople, greatly encouraged that court in its determination. An armistice, however, for an indefinite period, was in the meantime concluded between the Russian and Turkish commanders, and a congress for negociations of peace was sitting at Bucharest.

Notice having been given of the cessation of the armistice, arms were resumed on the 10th of February, and the Russian troops were put in motion towards different points of the Danube to prevent the crossing of that river by the Turks. The Russian advanced guard passed to the right bank of the Danube on the 13th with little opposition, and the Turkish posts fell back upon Rudschuck, where the grand vizier lay with 20 or 25,000 men, waiting to be joined by the reinforcements which were on their march from all parts of the Ottoman empire. General Langeron was at this time commander-in-chief of the Russians, and his head-quarters

were

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