The immense army of the conqueror of the world was totally annihilated. Of those who entered Moscow scarcely twenty thousand, of the half million of men who crossed the Russian frontier but eighty thousand, returned.
[Footnote 1: Vide Bignon.]
[Footnote 2: From a letter of Count Minister in Hormayr"s Sketches of Life, it appears that Russia still cherished the hope of great concessions being made by Napoleon in order to avoid war and was therefore still reserved in her relations with England and the Prussian patriots.]
[Footnote 3: French troops garrisoned German fortresses and perpetually pa.s.sed along the princ.i.p.al roads, which were for that purpose essentially improved by Napoleon. In 1810, a great part of the town of Eisenach was destroyed by the bursting of some French powder-carts that were carelessly brought through, and by which great numbers of people were killed.]
[Footnote 4: Who was far surpa.s.sed in splendor by her stepdaughter of France.]
[Footnote 5: Segur relates that he was received politely but with distant coolness by Napoleon. There is said to have been question between them concerning the marriage of the crown prince of Prussia with one of Napoleon"s nieces, and of an incorporation of the still unconquered Russian provinces on the Baltic, Livonia, Courland, and Esthonia, with Prussia. All was, however, empty show. Napoleon hoped by the rapidity of his successes to constrain the emperor of Russia to conclude not only peace, but a still closer alliance with France, in which case it was as far from his intention to concede the above-mentioned provinces to Prussia as to emanc.i.p.ate the Poles.]
[Footnote 6: Napoleon said at that time to a Russian, "Si vous perdez cinq Russes, ne perds qu un Francais et quatre cochons."]
[Footnote 7: This general, on the opening of the war, published a proclamation to the Germans, summoning them to throw off the yoke of Napoleon.--_Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 327_. Napoleon replied with, "Whom are you addressing? There are no Germans, there are only Austrians, Prussians, Bavarians, etc."--_All. Zeitung, No. 228._]
[Footnote 8: Vide Clausewitz"s Works.]
[Footnote 9: At each encampment the men were left in such numbers in hastily erected hospitals that, of thirty-eight thousand Bavarians, for instance, but ten thousand, of sixteen thousand Wurtembergers, but thirteen hundred, reached Smolensko.]
[Footnote 10: The Wurtembergers distinguished themselves here by storming the faubourgs and the bridges across the Dnieper.]
[Footnote 11: The Greek prince, Moruzi, who at that time conducted Turkish diplomacy, accepted a bribe, and concluded peace in the expectation of becoming Prince of Moldavia and Wallachia. Sultan Mahmud refusing to ratify this disgraceful treaty, gold was showered upon the Turkish army, which suddenly dispersed, and the deserted sultan was compelled to yield. Moruzi was deprived of his head, but the Russians had gained their object. It must, moreover, be considered that Napoleon was regarded with distrust by the Porte, against which he had fought in Egypt, which he had afterward enticed into a war with Russia, and had, by the alliance formed at Erfurt with that power, abandoned.]
[Footnote 12: Colonel Toll was insulted during the discussion by Prince Bragation for the firmness with which he upheld Scharnhorst"s plan, and avoided hazarding a useless engagement. Prince Bragation was killed in the battle.]
[Footnote 13: A Russian redoubt, the key of the field of battle, was taken and again lost. A Wurtemberg regiment instantly pushed through the fugitive French, retook the redoubt and retained possession of it.
It also, on this occasion, saved the life of the king of Naples and delivered him out of the hands of the Russians, who had already taken him prisoner.--_Ten Campaigns of the Wurtembergers._]
[Footnote 14: Everything was wanting, lint, linen, even necessary food. The wounded men lay for days and weeks under the open sky and fed upon the carca.s.ses of horses.]
[Footnote 15: This combustible matter had been prepared by Schmid, the Dutchman, under pretext of preparing an enormous balloon from which fire was to be scattered upon the French army.]
[Footnote 16: As early as the 2d of November the remainder of the Wurtembergers tore off their colors and concealed them in their knapsacks.--_Roos"s Memorabilia of 1812._]
[Footnote 17: On the 18th of October, the Bavarians, who were intermixed with Swiss, performed prodigies of valor, but were so reduced by sufferings of every description as to be unable to maintain Poloczk. Segur says in his History of the War that St. Cyr left Wrede"s gallant conduct unmentioned in the military despatches, and that when, on St. Cyr"s being disabled by his wounds, Wrede applied for the chief command, which naturally reverted to him, the army being almost entirely composed of Bavarians, Napoleon refused his request.
Volderndorf says in his Bavarian Campaigns that St. Cyr faithlessly abandoned the Bavarians in their utmost extremity, and when all peril was over returned to Poland in order to retake the command. During the retreat from Poloczk he had ordered the bridges to be pulled down, leaving on the other side a Bavarian park of artillery with the army chest and two-and-twenty ensigns, which for better security had been packed upon a carriage. The whole of these trophies fell, owing to St.
Cyr"s negligence or ill-will, into the hands of the Russians. "The Bavarians with difficulty concealed their antipathy toward the French." On St. Cyr"s flight, Wrede kept the remainder of the Bavarians together, covered Napoleon"s retreat, and, in conjunction with the Westphalians and Hessians, stood another encounter with the Russians at Wilna. Misery and want at length scattered his forces; he, nevertheless, rea.s.sembled them in Poland and was able to place four thousand men, on St. Cyr"s return, under his command. He returned home to Bavaria sick. Of these four thousand Bavarians but one thousand and fifty were led by Count Rechberg back to their native soil. A great number of Bavarians, however, remained under General Zoller to garrison Thorn, and about fifteen hundred of them returned home.--At the pa.s.sage of the Beresina, the Wurtembergers had still about eighty men under arms, and in Poland about three hundred a.s.sembled, the only ones who returned free. Some were afterward liberated from imprisonment in Russia.]
[Footnote 18: This was Austria"s natural policy. In the French despatches, Schwarzenberg was charged with having allowed Tschitschakow to escape in order to pursue the inconsiderable force under Sacken.]
[Footnote 19: The following anecdote is related of the Hessians commanded by Prince Emilius of Darmstadt. The prince had fallen asleep in the snow, and four Hessian dragoons, in order to screen him from the north wind, held their cloaks as a wall around him and were found next morning in the same position--frozen to death. Dead bodies were seen frozen into the most extraordinary positions, gnawing their own hands, gnawing the torn corpses of their comrades. The dead were often covered with snow, and the number of little heaps lying around alone told that of the victims of a single night.]
[Footnote 20: Napoleon said, "There are two hundred millions lying in the cellars of the Tuileries; how willingly would I give them to save Ney!"]
[Footnote 21: He pa.s.sed with extreme rapidity, incognito, through Germany. In Dresden he had a short interview with the king of Saxony, who, had he shut him up in Konigstein, would have saved Europe a good deal of trouble.--Napoleon no sooner reached Paris in safety than, in his twenty-ninth bulletin, he, for the first time, acquainted the astonished world, hitherto deceived by his false accounts of victory, with the disastrous termination of the campaign. This bulletin was also replete with falsehood and insolence. In his contempt of humanity he even said, "Merely the cowards in the army were depressed in spirit and dreamed of misfortune, the brave were ever cheerful." Thus wrote the man who had both seen and caused all this immeasurable misery! The bulletin concluded with, "His Imperial Majesty never enjoyed better health."]
[Footnote 22: In the French despatches, General Hunerbein was accused of not having pursued the Russians under General Lewis.]
[Footnote 23: The secret history of those days is still not sufficiently brought to light. Bagnon speaks of fresh treaties between Hardenberg and Napoleon, in which he is corroborated by Fain. These two Frenchmen, the former of whom was a diplomatist, the other one of Napoleon"s private secretaries, admit that Prussia"s object at that time was to take advantage of Napoleon"s embarra.s.sment and to offer him aid on certain important considerations. Prussian historians are silent in this matter. In Von Rauschnik"s biographical account of Blucher, the great internal schism at that time caused in Prussia by the Hardenberg party and that of the _Tugendbund_ is merely slightly hinted at; the former still managed diplomatic affairs, while York, a member of the latter, had already acted on his own responsibility.
Shortly afterward affairs took a different aspect, as if Hardenberg"s diplomacy had merely been a mask, and he placed himself at the head of the movement against France. In a memorial of 1811, given by Hormayr in the Sketches from the War of Liberation, Hardenberg declared decisively in favor of the alliance with Russia against France.]
[Footnote 24: Hans Louis David von York, a native of Pomerania, having ventured, when a lieutenant in the Prussian service, indignantly to blame the base conduct of one of his superiors in command, became implicated in a duel, was confined in a fortress, abandoned his country, entered the Dutch service, visited the Cape and Ceylon, fought against the Mahrattas, was wounded, returned home and re-entered the Prussian service in 1794.]
CCLX. The Spring of 1813
The king of Prussia had suddenly abandoned Berlin, which was still in the hands of the French, for Breslau, whence he declared war against France. A conference also took place between him and the emperor Alexander at Calisch, and, on the 28th of February, 1813, an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between them. The hour for vengeance had at length arrived. The whole Prussian nation, eager to throw off the hated yoke of the foreigner, to obliterate their disgrace in 1806, to regain their ancient name, cheerfully hastened to place their lives and property at the service of the impoverished government. The whole of the able-bodied population was put under arms. The standing army was increased: to each regiment were appended troops of volunteers, _Joegers_, composed of young men belonging to the higher cla.s.ses, who furnished their own equipments: a numerous _Landwehr_, a sort of militia, was, as in Austria, raised besides the standing army, and measures were even taken to call out, in case of necessity, the heads of families and elderly men remaining at home, under the name of the _Landsturm_.[1] The enthusiastic people, besides furnishing the customary supplies and paying the taxes, contributed to the full extent of their means toward defraying the immense expense of this general arming. Every heart throbbed high with pride and hope.
Who would not wish to have lived at such a period, when man"s n.o.blest and highest energies were thus called forth! More loudly than even in 1809 in Austria was the German cause now discussed, the great name of the German empire now invoked in Prussia, for in that name alone could all the races of Germany be united against their hereditary foe. The following celebrated proclamation, promising external and internal liberty to Germany, was, with this view, published at Calisch, by Prussia and Russia, on the 25th of March, 1813. It was signed by Prince Kutusow and drawn up by Baron Rehdiger of Silesia.
"The victorious troops of Russia, together with those of his Majesty the king of Prussia, having set foot on German soil, the emperor of Russia and his Majesty the king of Prussia announce simultaneously the return of liberty and independence to the princes and nations of Germany. They come with the sole and sacred purpose of aiding them to regain the hereditary and inalienable national rights of which they have been deprived, to afford potent protection and to secure durability to a newly-restored empire. This great object, free from every interested motive and therefore alone worthy of their Majesties, has solely induced the advance and solely guides the movements of their armies.--These armies, led by generals under the eyes of both monarchs, trust in an omnipotent, just G.o.d, and hope to free the whole world and Germany irrevocably from the disgraceful yoke they have so gloriously thrown off. They press forward animated by enthusiasm.
Their watchword is "Honor and Liberty." May every German, desirous of proving himself worthy of the name, speedily and spiritedly join their ranks. May every individual, whether prince, n.o.ble, or citizen, aid the plans of liberation, formed by Russia and Prussia, with heart and soul, with person and property, to the last drop of his blood!--The expectation cherished by their Majesties of meeting with these sentiments, this zeal, in every German heart, they deem warranted by the spirit so clearly betokened by the victories gained by Russia over the enslaver of the world.--They therefore demand faithful cooperation, more especially from every German prince, and willingly presuppose that none among them will be found, who, by being and remaining apostate to the German cause, will prove himself deserving of annihilation by the power of public opinion and of just arms. The Rhenish alliance, that deceitful chain lately cast by the breeder of universal discord around ruined Germany to the destruction of her ancient name, can, as the effect of foreign tyranny and the tool of foreign influence, be no longer tolerated. Their Majesties believe that the declaration of the dissolution of this alliance being their fixed intention will meet the long-harbored and universal desire with difficulty retained within the sorrowing hearts of the people.--The relation in which it is the intention of his Majesty, the emperor of all the Russias, to stand toward Germany and toward her const.i.tution is, at the same time, here declared. From his desire to see the influence of the foreigner destroyed, it can be no other than that of placing a protecting hand on a work whose form is committed to the free, unbiased will of the princes and people of Germany. The more closely this work, in principle, features and outline, coincides with the once distinct character of the German nation, the more surely will united Germany retake her place with renovated and redoubled vigor among the empires of Europe.--His Majesty and his ally, between whom there reigns a perfect accordance in the sentiments and views hereby explained, are at all times ready to exert their utmost power in pursuance of their sacred aim, the liberation of Germany from a foreign yoke.--May France, strong and beauteous in herself, henceforward seek to consolidate her internal prosperity! No external power will disturb her internal peace, no enemy will encroach upon her rightful frontiers.--But may France also learn that the other powers of Europe aspire to the attainment of durable repose for their subjects, and will not lay down their arms until the independence of every state in Europe shall have been firmly secured."
Nor was the appeal vain. It found an echo in every German heart, and such plain demonstrations of the state of the popular feeling on this side the Rhine were made that Davoust sent serious warning to Napoleon, who contemptuously replied, "Pah! Germans never can become Spaniards!" With his customary rapidity, he levied in France a fresh army three hundred thousand strong, with which he so completely awed the Rhenish confederation as to compel it once more to take the field with thousands of Germans against their brother Germans. The troops, however, reluctantly obeyed, and even the traitors were but lukewarm, for they doubted of success. Mecklenburg alone sided with Prussia.
Austria remained neutral.
A Russian corps under General Tettenborn had preceded the rest of the troops and reached the coasts of the Baltic. As early as the 24th of March, 1813, it appeared in Hamburg and expelled the French authorities from the city. The heavily oppressed people of Hamburg,[2]
whose commerce had been totally annihilated by the continental system, gave way to the utmost demonstrations of delight, received their deliverers with open arms, revived their ancient rights, and immediately raised a Hanseatic corps, destined to take the field against Napoleon. Dornberg, the ancient foe to France, with another flying squadron took the French division under Morand prisoner, and the Prussian, Major h.e.l.lwig (the same who, in 1806, liberated the garrison of Erfurt), dispersed, with merely one hundred and twenty hussars, a Bavarian regiment one thousand three hundred strong and captured five pieces of artillery. In January, the peasantry of the upper country had already revolted against the conscription,[3] and, in February, patriotic proclamations had been disseminated throughout Westphalia under the signature of the Baron von Stein. In this month, also, Captain Maas and two other patriots, who had attempted to raise a rebellion, were executed. As the army advanced, Stein was nominated chief of the provisional government of the still unconquered provinces of Western Germany.
The first Russian army, seventeen thousand strong, under Wittgenstein, pushed forward to Magdeburg, and, at Mokern, repulsed forty thousand French, who were advancing upon Berlin. The Prussians, under their veteran general, Blucher, entered Saxony and garrisoned Dresden, on the 27th of March, 1813; an arch of the fine bridge across the Elbe having been uselessly blown up by the French. Blucher, whose gallantry in the former wars had gained for him the general esteem, and whose kind and generous disposition had won the affection of the soldiery, was nominated generalissimo of the Prussian forces, but subordinate in command to Wittgenstein, who replaced Kutusow[4] as generalissimo of the united forces of Russia and Prussia. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia accompanied the army and were received with loud acclamations by the people of Dresden and Leipzig. The allied army was merely seventy thousand strong, and Blucher had not formed a junction with Wittgenstein when Napoleon invaded the country by Erfurt and Merseburg at the head of one hundred and sixty thousand men. Ney attacked, with forty thousand men, the Russian vanguard under Winzingerode, which, after gallantly defending a defile near Weissenfels, made an orderly retreat before forces far their superior in number. The French, on this occasion, lost Marshal Bessieres.
Napoleon, incredulous of attack, marched in long columns upon Leipzig, and Wittgenstein, falling upon his right flank, committed great havoc among the forty thousand men under Ney, which he had first of all encountered, at Gross-Gorschen. This place was alternately lost and regained owing to his ill-judged plan of attack by single brigades, instead of breaking Napoleon"s lines by charging them at once with the whole of his forces. The young Prussian volunteers here measured their strength in a murderous conflict, hand to hand, with the young French conscripts, and excited by their martial spirit the astonishment of the veterans. Wittgenstein"s delay and Blucher"s too late arrival on the field[5] gave Napoleon time to wheel his long lines round and to encircle the allied forces, which immediately retired. On the eve of the b.l.o.o.d.y engagement of the 2d of May, the allied cavalry attempted a general attack in the dark, which was also unsuccessful on account of the superiority of the enemy"s forces. The allies had, nevertheless, captured some cannons, the French, none. The most painful loss was that of the n.o.ble Scharnhorst, who was mortally wounded. Bulow had, on the same day, stormed Halle with a Prussian corps, but was now compelled to resolve upon a retreat, which was conducted in the most orderly manner by the allies. At Koldiz, the Prussian rearguard repulsed the French van in a b.l.o.o.d.y engagement on the 5th of May. The allies marched through Dresden[6] and took up a firm position in and about Bautzen, after being joined by a reinforcement of eighty thousand Bavarians. Napoleon was also reinforced by a number of French, Bavarian, Wurtemberg, and Saxon troops,[7] and despatched Lauriston and Ney toward Berlin; but the former encountering the Russians under Barclay de Tolly at Konigswartha, and the latter the Prussians under York at Weissig, both were constrained to retreat.
Napoleon attacked the position at Bautzen from the 19th to the 21st of May, but was gloriously repulsed by the Prussians under Kleist, while Blucher, who was in danger of being completely surrounded, undauntedly defended himself on three sides. The allies lost not a cannon, not a single prisoner, although again compelled to retire before the superior forces of the enemy. The French had suffered an immense loss; eighteen thousand of their wounded were sent to Dresden. Napoleon"s favorite, Marshal Duroc, and General Kirchner, a native of Alsace, were killed, close to his side, by a cannon ball. The allied troops, forced to retire after an obstinate encounter, neither fled nor dispersed, but withdrew in close column and repelling each successive attack.[8] The French avant-garde under Maison was, when in close pursuit of the allied force, almost entirely cut to pieces by the Prussian cavalry, which unexpectedly fell upon it at Heinau. The main body of the Russo-Prussian army, on entering Silesia, took a slanting direction toward the Riesengebirge and retired behind the fortress of Schweidnitz. In this strong position they were at once partially secure from attack, and, by their vicinity to the Bohemian frontier, enabled to keep up a communication, and, if necessary, to form a junction with the Austrian forces. The whole of the lowlands of Silesia lay open to the French, who entered Breslau on the 1st of June.[9] Berlin was also merely covered by a comparatively weak army under General Bulow,[10] who, notwithstanding the check given by him to Marshal Oudinot in the battles of Hoyerswerda and Luckau, was not in sufficient force to offer a.s.sistance to the main body of the French in case Napoleon chose to pa.s.s through Berlin on his way to Poland.
Napoleon, however, did not as yet venture to make use of his advantage. By the seizure of Prussia and Poland, both of which lay open to him, the main body of the allied army and the Austrians, who had not yet declared themselves, would have been left to the rear of his right flank and could easily have cut off his retreat. His troops, princ.i.p.ally young conscripts, were moreover worn out with fatigue, nor had the whole of his reinforcements arrived. To his rear was a mult.i.tude of bold partisans, Tettenborn, the Hanseatic legion, Czernitscheff, who, at Halberstadt, captured General Ochs together with the whole of the Westphalian corps and fourteen pieces of artillery, Colomb, the Herculean captain of horse, who took a convoy and twenty-four guns at Zwickau, and the Black Prussian squadron under Lutzow. Napoleon consequently remained stationary, and, with a view of completing his preparations and of awaiting the decision of Austria, demanded an armistice, to which the allies, whose force was still incomplete and to whom the decision of Austria was of equal importance, gladly a.s.sented.
On this celebrated armistice, concluded on the 4th of June, 1813, at the village of Pleisswitz, the fate of Europe was to depend. To the side that could raise the most powerful force, that on which Austria ranged herself, numerical superiority insured success. Napoleon"s power was still terrible; fresh victory had obliterated the disgrace of his flight from Russia; he stood once more an invincible leader on German soil. The French were animated by success and blindly devoted to their emperor. Italy and Denmark were prostrate at his feet. The Rhenish confederation was also faithful to his standard. Councillor Crome published at Giessen, in obedience to Napoleon"s mandate and with the knowledge of the government at Darmstadt, a pamphlet ent.i.tled "Germany"s Crisis and Salvation," in which he declared that Germany was saved by the fresh victories of Napoleon, and promised mountains of gold to the Germans if they remained true to him.[11] Crome was at that time graciously thanked in autograph letters by the sovereigns of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Lutzow"s volunteer corps was, during the armistice, surprised at Kitzen by a superior corps of Wurtembergers under Normann and cut to pieces. Germans at that period opposed Germans without any feeling for their common fatherland.[12] The king of Saxony, who had already repaired to Prague under the protection of Austria, also returned thence, was received at Dresden with extreme magnificence by Napoleon, and, in fresh token of amity, ceded the fortress of Torgau to the French.[13] These occurrences caused the Saxon minister, Senfft von Pilsach, and the Saxon general, Thielmann, who had already devoted themselves to the German cause, to resign office. The Polish army under Prince Poniatowsky (va.s.sal to the king of Saxony, who was also grandduke of Warsaw) received permission (it had at an earlier period fallen back upon Schwarzenberg) to march, unarmed, through the Austrian territory to Dresden, in order to join the main body of the French under Napoleon. The declaration of the emperor of Austria in favor of his son-in-law, who, moreover, was lavish of his promises, and, among other things, offered to restore Silesia, was, consequently, at the opening of the armistice, deemed certain.
The armistice was, meanwhile, still more beneficial to the allies. The Russians had time to concentrate their scattered troops, the Prussians completed the equipment of their numerous _Landwehren_, and the Swedes also took the field. Bernadotte landed on the 18th of May in Pomerania, and advanced with his troops into Brandenburg for the purpose, in conjunction with Bulow, of covering Berlin. A German auxiliary corps, in the pay of England, was also formed, under Wallmoden, on the Baltic. The defence of Hamburg was extremely easy; but the base intrigues of foreigners, who, as during the time of the thirty years" war, paid themselves for their aid by the seizure of German provinces and towns, delivered that splendid city into the hands of the French. Bernadotte had sold himself to Russia for the price of Norway, which Denmark refused to cede unless Hamburg and Lubeck were given in exchange. This agreement had already been made by Prince Dolgorucki in the name of the emperor Alexander, and Tettenborn yielded Hamburg to the Danes, who marched in under pretext of protecting the city and were received with delight by the unsuspecting citizens. The non-advance of the Swedes proceeded from the same cause.
The increase of the Danish marine by means of the Hanse towns, however, proved displeasing to England; the whole of the commerce was broken up, and the Danes, hastily resolving to maintain faith with Napoleon, delivered luckless Hamburg to the French, who instantly took a most terrible revenge. Davoust, as he himself boasted, merely sent twelve German patriots to execution,[14] but expelled twenty-five thousand of the inhabitants from the city, while he pulled down their houses and converted them into fortifications, at which the princ.i.p.al citizens were compelled to work in person. Dissatisfied, moreover, with a contribution of eighteen millions, he robbed the great Hamburg bank, treading underfoot every private and national right, all, as he, miserable slave as he was,[15] declared, in obedience to the mandate of his lord.
Austria, at first, instead of aiding the allies, allowed the Poles[16]
to range themselves beneath the standard of Napoleon, whom she overwhelmed with protestations of friendship, which served to mask her real intentions, and meanwhile gave her time to arm herself to the teeth and to make the allies sensible of the fact of their utter impotency against Napoleon unless aided by her. The interests of Austria favored her alliance with France, but Napoleon, instead of confidence, inspired mistrust. Austria, notwithstanding the marriage between him and Maria Louisa, was, as had been shown at the congress of Dresden, merely treated as a tributary to France, and Napoleon"s ambition offered no guarantee to the ancient imperial dynasty. There was no security that the provinces bestowed in momentary reward for her alliance must not, on the first occasion, be restored. Nor was public opinion entirely without weight.[17] Napoleon"s star was on the wane, whole nations stood like to a dark and ominous cloud threatening on the horizon, and Count Metternich prudently chose rather to attempt to guide the storm ere it burst than trust to a falling star. Austria had, as early as the 27th of June, 1813, signed a treaty, at Reichenbach in Silesia, with Russia and Prussia, by which she bound herself to declare war against France, in case Napoleon had not, before the 20th of July, accepted the terms of peace about to be proposed to him. Already had the sovereigns and generals of Russia and Prussia sketched, during a conference held with the crown prince of Sweden, the 11th July, at Trachenberg, the plan for the approaching campaign, and, with the permission of Austria, a.s.signed to her the part she was to take as one of the allies against Napoleon, when Metternich again visited Dresden in person for the purpose of repeating his a.s.surances of amity, for the armistice had but just commenced, to Napoleon. The French emperor had an indistinct idea of the transactions then pa.s.sing, and bluntly said to the Count, "As you wish to mediate, you are no longer on my side." He hoped partly to win Austria over by redoubling his promises, partly to terrify her by the dread of the future ascendency of Russia, but, perceiving how Metternich evaded him by his artful diplomacy, he suddenly asked him, "Well, Metternich, how much has England given you in order to engage you to play this part toward me?" This trait of insolence toward an antagonist of whose superiority he felt conscious, and of the most deadly hatred masked by contempt, was peculiarly characteristic of the Corsican, who, besides the qualities of the lion, fully possessed those of the cat. Napoleon let his hat drop in order to see whether Metternich would raise it. He did not, and war was resolved upon. A pretended congress for the conclusion of peace was again arranged by both sides; by Napoleon, in order to elude the reproach cast upon him of an insurmountable and eternal desire for war, and by the allies, in order to prove to the whole world their desire for peace. Each side was, however, fully aware that the palm of peace was alone to be found on the other side of the battle-field. Napoleon was generous in his concessions, but delayed granting full powers to his envoy, an opportune circ.u.mstance for the allies, who were by this means able to charge him with the whole blame of procrastination. Napoleon, in all his concessions, merely included Russia and Austria to the exclusion of Prussia.[18] But neither Russia nor Austria trusted to his promises, and the negotiations were broken off on the termination of the armistice, when Napoleon sent full powers to his plenipotentiary.
Now, was it said, it is too late. The art with which Metternich pa.s.sed from the alliance with Napoleon to neutrality, to mediation, and finally to the coalition against him, will, in every age, be acknowledged a master-piece of diplomacy. Austria, while coalescing with Russia and Prussia, in a certain degree a.s.sumed a rank conventionally superior to both. The whole of the allied armies was placed under the command of an Austrian general, Prince von Schwarzenberg, and if the proclamation published at Calisch had merely summoned the people of Germany to a.s.sert their independence, the manifesto of Count Metternich spoke already in the tone of the future regulator of the affairs of Europe.[19] Austria declared herself on the 12th of August, 1813, two days after the termination of the armistice.
[Footnote 1: Literally, the general levy of the people.--_Trans._]
[Footnote 2: The exasperation of the people had risen to the utmost pitch. The French rascals in office, especially the custom-house officers, set no bounds to their tyranny and license. No woman of whatever rank was allowed to pa.s.s the gates without being subjected to the most indecent inquisition. Goods that had long been redeemed were continually taken from the tradesmen"s shops and confiscated. The arbitrary enrolment of a number of young men as conscripts at length produced an insurrection, in which the guard-houses, etc., were destroyed. It was, however, quelled by General St. Cyr, and six of the citizens were executed. On the approach of the Russians, St. Cyr fled with the whole of his troops. The bookseller Perthes, Prell, and von Hess, formed a civic guard.--_Von Hess"s Agonies_.]
[Footnote 3: The people rose _en ma.s.se_ at Ronsdorf, Solingen, and Barmen, and marched tumultuously to Elberfeld, the great manufacturing town, but were dispersed by the French troops. The French authorities afterward declared that the sole object of the revolt was to smuggle in English goods, and, under this pretext, seized all the foreign goods in Elberfeld.]
[Footnote 4: Kutusow had, just at that conjuncture, expired at Bautzen.]
[Footnote 5: The nature of the ground rendered a night march impossible. The Russian, Michaelofski Danilefski, however, throws the blame upon an officer in Blucher"s headquarters, who laid the important orders committed to his charge under his pillow and overslept himself.]
[Footnote 6: It may here be mentioned as a remarkable characteristic of those times that Goethe, Ernest Maurice Arndt, and Theodore Korner at that period met at Dresden. The youthful Korner, a volunteer Jaeger, was the Tyrtaeus of those days: his military songs were universally sung: his father also expressed great enthusiasm. Goethe said almost angrily, "Well, well, shake your chains, the man (Napoleon) is too strong for you, you will not break them!"--_E. M. Arndt"s Reminiscences._]
[Footnote 7: "Unfortunately there were German princes who, even this time, again sent their troops to swell the ranks of the oppressor; Austria had, unfortunately, not yet concluded her preparations; consequently, it was only possible to clog the advance of the conqueror by a gallant resistance."--_Clausewitz_. The Bavarians stood under Raglowich, the Wurtembergers under Franquemont, the Saxons under Reynier. There was also a contingent of Westphalians and Badeners.]