51. The Emperor Napoleon
CHAPTER LI. The Emperor Napoleon (1804-1815)
Napoleon was crowned Emperor in December of the year 1804, and early in the year he left Paris to march against his enemies. He was obliged to give up his plan of sailing against England. In spite of all the pains he took to entice away the English fleet that was guarding the Channel, and to bring up his own ships there to watch over the passing of his soldiers, Lord Nelson was too quick for him, and followed the French about so closely that he could not be taken by surprise. At the same' time the Russians and Swedes joined with the English against Napoleon, and Austria was persuaded to do the same. Napoleon marched first against Austria, and fought another of his greatest battles, the battle of Austerlitz, which is as famous as the battle of Marengo. The Austrians and Russians had joined their armies, and the two emperors, Alexander of Russia and Francis of Austria, were both present at the battle. The Austrians and Russians were entirely beaten; the French took twenty thousand prisoners, and all the Russian standards or flags. The French soldiers called this the Battle of the Emperors, because the three emperors of Austria, Russia, and France, had all taken part in it. The battle had been fought on a very beautiful day, and the "sun of Austerlitz" became a common expression with the soldiers. The Austrians at once made a treaty with Napoleon, who, even before the battle of Austerlitz, had made himself master of Vienna, the capital of Austria, so that there was no hope of resisting him. The Emperor Francis had to give up a good deal of land, which Napoleon either kept or gave to his friends. The Emperor of Russia led his troops back to his own country, and still went on with the war.
At just the same time as the battle of Austerlitz another battle was fought, which had a very different result. Lord Nelson met the French fleet in Trafalgar Bay, and forced them to fight him. Every one knows the story of the battle of Trafalgar; how Lord Nelson gave the signal, "England expects every man to do his duty;" how he attacked the fleets of France and Spain together and destroyed them completely; how in the beginning of the battle a shot from the topmast of a French ship struck him in the breast, wounding him, so that he was carried to his cabin, and died a few hours afterwards, living just long enough to know that a complete victory was won. Napoleon heard of this just before the battle of Austerlitz, and was furious with the French admiral, who had been beaten at Trafalgar. He seemed to think that if he himself had been with the fleet he could have beaten Lord Nelson, However, he took his revenge, as we have seen, at the battle of Austerlitz.
The next year the King of Prussia declared war against France, and Napoleon fought another of his great battles at a place called Jena, where the Prussians were beaten as completely as the Austrians had been at Austerlitz. Napoleon marched to Berlin, and treated the Prussians not only with great harshness and cruelty, but with great meanness, in robbing them of pictures, statues, and works of art, which they had at Berlin, and all of which he sent to Paris. It was his habit to do this in all the countries he conquered, and he made himself many enemies by this ungenerous treatment. He took away the sword of Frederick the Great, the greatest King of Prussia, off his funeral monument, and to the end of his life he had Frederick's silver watch hanging in his room. After the battle of Jena Napoleon still had to conquer the Russians, and he found more difficulty with them than with the Austrians and Prussians. However, the next spring he fought the battle of Friedland, after which, though it seemed on the whole to be a drawn battle, the Russians were anxious to make peace, and a treaty was soon (made) between the Emperors of France and Russia, who met on a raft in the middle of a river near a town called Tilsit. By the treaty of Tilsit peace was made between France and Prussia as well as between France and Russia, so Napoleon had now no more to fear from the east of Europe, and could turn his attention to England.
The English, however, were at that time taken up with fighting the Dutch, and Napoleon had a short (time) of quiet, which he spent in arranging the Government of France in every particular. He had a great wish to see and understand everything for himself, and his ministers worked well and actively, never knowing when he might come to examine their work, and being sure that he would discover anything that was going wrong.
However, it seemed impossible for him to satisfy himself with governing the country to which he really had a right, though to do that well would have been work hard enough for any man, however wise and diligent. He soon began to mix himself up with the affairs of yet another country. This was Spain, where there were constant quarrels and disputes between several people, who all wished to govern for the king, a weak, foolish old man, who could keep no order. The king's son asked Napoleon for help. The story of all that happened is too long to tell here, but Napoleon managed so well for himself that at last the king, the queen, the heir-apparent, and the chief minister of Spain, were all prisoners in a French town, and Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte, was declared the new King of Spain. The Spaniards resisted Joseph, and the English came to help them. There were many battles all over Spain, and the war went on for a long time, while Napoleon was away in Germany attending to his other affairs. It was in this war in Spain, which is called the Peninsular War, that the English general. Sir Arthur Wellesley, began to make himself famous. He won several battles, and was made Lord Wellington, and afterwards became Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon's worst enemy. Napoleon had a short war with Austria, in which he won the battle of Wagram, and took Vienna a second time. He made a peace with Austria, at which some of his enemies were surprised, wondering how the Emperor of Austria had escaped with such easy conditions, but this was explained afterwards when it was announced that Napoleon was going to (send away) his first wife Josephine, who had never had any children since she married him, and who seemed as if she never would have any, and to marry instead a daughter of the Emperor Francis, a princess named Maria Louisa. This he did, poor Josephine, who could not help herself, agreeing to do as he wished, and the next year Maria Louisa had a little son, who was declared King of Rome as soon as he was born, and who was to be Emperor when his father died.
At this point Napoleon's good fortune ended. He had not used it in a way which would be likely to make it last long, and now his misfortunes began. The year after his son was born, he again went to war with Russia. He hoped to be able to march to the capital, St. Petersburg, as he had before marched to Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid, and not to have to fight more than perhaps one great battle, but he was disappointed. The Russians had a new plan of resisting him, and as soon as he came into their country with his huge army they began to retreat before him. But as they went they destroyed all the trees, corn, and whatever could be used for food that they passed. Napoleon found only a desert, and had nothing to give his soldiers. He called this a barbarous way of making war, and (settled) to change his plan, and march not to St. Petersburg but to Moscow, the old capital of Russia.
As he went along he every now and then saw the Russian troops, but they never stopped to fight him or resist him in any way till they came almost within sight of Moscow, and then the Russian soldiers refused to retreat any more, and their Emperor was obliged to let them wait and give battle to the French at a place called Borodino. The battle was a very fierce one. It began at four o'clock in the morning and lasted the whole day. Great numbers were killed on both sides, but after all, neither side could be said to be the conqueror. The next morning the Russians retreated again, going on with the plan they had already begun, and the French followed them till at last Napoleon was within sight of Moscow.
It was a beautiful city, full of steeples and domes, with The towers of the Kremlin, or palace of the Emperor of Russia, rising over all the rest. When Napoleon saw it from the top of a hill overlooking it, he stopped his horse and said: "Behold at last that celebrated city." Then he added to himself "It was time." The army waited for a time to see if any one would come to them out of the city, but when no one did they went in, and to their surprise found it quite empty. The Russians had left it and were gone away.
The French established themselves in the houses, and the Emperor lodged in the Kremlin, but at night a fire broke out The wind happened to change, and at once another fire broke out in the quarter from which the wind then blew, and afterwards others, showing that the fires were not the work of chance. They were put out with some difficulty, but next night the same was done again, and this went on till four-fifths of the city were destroyed, and at last the Kremlin itself was partly burned. The Russians had left a few citizens hidden in the cellars of Moscow to light the fires, and in this way had given up their capital sooner than allow the French to become masters of it.
Napoleon was at last obliged to retreat, and led his army back through Russia. But it was the middle of winter; the supplies that were to have Come from Paris had not been able to pass along the road, the Russians had made the whole way a desert, and the French soldiers were without food. They died by thousands, of cold, hunger, and misery. Sometimes the Cossacks, or Russian soldiers, attacked them, and killed any one who stayed behind or strayed from the ranks. At night they were often so benumbed by the cold that they sat almost in the fires that were lighted in the camp, till their clothes were burnt without their knowing it, and when the fire went out, they died of cold. There was one terrible battle when the French were attacked as they were crossing the river Beresina, which was only partly frozen, and in which many thousand men were drowned.
At last, Napoleon determined to leave the army to its fate, and to go back himself to Paris. He knew that he was wanted there, and he does not seem to have felt it his duty to stay with his soldiers. He disguised himself and set off in a sledge with only three attendants. He arrived safely in Poland, in Saxony, and at last at Paris. The army followed as best it could, but only about a twentieth part of the men who had left France at the beginning of the war came back there afterwards. Besides the men who had been killed, nearly a thousand pieces of cannon were lost, and a number of standards and eagles taken by the Russians. The eagle, which had been the sign of the old Roman Emperors, was used in the same way by the French Republic, and was on all Napoleon's flags. Napoleon began at once to do what he could to repair his misfortune. He called out all the young men in France to come and serve as soldiers. These young soldiers were called conscripts. With them Napoleon was able to fill up his army again, though of course they were untrained and were not of so much use in fighting as his old soldiers who had died in Russia.
Prussia now joined Russia; and an army from Sweden marched against France; the Duke of Wellington, also, who had been fighting successfully in Spain, brought an army up from the south against the Emperor; but Napoleon would not give in or try to make peace with his enemies, which he easily might have done. A great battle was fought in Germany, at a place named Bautzen, which lasted for two days. The Allies then retired, with Napoleon following them; but this could hardly be called a victory for the French, as nothing was gained by it.
Soon afterwards Austria joined the Allies, and Napoleon now had almost all the countries of Europe (joined together) against him. He might still have made peace with them all if he would have given up forcing a king upon the Spaniards, and could have been satisfied to stay quietly in France; but he could not make up his mind to this.
The great battle of the war was fought in Germany, at Leipzig; it lasted for four days, and was one of the sternest and fiercest battles ever fought. The people of the town of Leipzig were able to watch it from their steeples. At last Napoleon retreated. His troops marched through Leipzig, where was the King of Saxony, his friend. They retreated with great difficulty, as they had only one bridge on which to cross a river outside the town. Great numbers of them were unable to cross, and gave themselves up to the Allies. Napoleon led back the rest of his army into France.
A few weeks after this the Allies also were in France, and near Paris. Napoleon fought them again and again. His sudden marches, his attacks when he was least expected, were as wonderful as any he had ever made before: and he still refused the offers of peace which the Allies made him. He said good-bye to his wife and child before he left Paris, and gave them into the charge of the National Guard, or soldiers of Paris, who were all devoted to him. He never saw them again.
At last, after much marching backwards and forwards, the Allies found themselves between Napoleon's army and Paris. They at once marched towards Paris, leaving the Emperor behind them, and began an attack by throwing shells against some of the houses. The people were soon frightened; the few soldiers in the town found that it was of no use to resist. Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, who was commanding, left the city. Maria Louisa and her son were also taken away. Then Paris gave itself up to the allied armies. Napoleon hardly heard that it was in danger before it had surrendered, and the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia had gone into the (town) together, and been welcomed with loud cheers by the people.
Napoleon came back as soon as possible, but found it impossible to get into Paris. He was obliged to stop at Fontainebleau, about forty miles away, and there, after a few days, finding everything against him, and even his friends deserting him, he resolved to resign the crown. He consulted with his marshals, or chief officers, and then wrote a declaration, saying that he would descend from the throne and leave it to his son, with his wife for Regent; but his enemies took no notice of this, and declared the brother of Louis XVI. king, under the name of Louis XVIII.
A few days after this Napoleon had his old soldiers of the Guard drawn up in the court of the castle of Fontainebleau, and came out to say a last good-bye to them. He made them a speech, telling them how all Europe had joined against him, how France had deserted him, and how he was about to leave the French to the king they had chosen. He then said, "Be faithful to the new sovereign whom your country has chosen. Do not lament my fate; I shall be happy while I know that you are so." He called for the flag with the eagle on it, kissed it, and said his last farewells. Then, while many of the soldiers burst into tears, he got into his carriage, and drove away from Fontainebleau.
It had been (settled) that he should go to live at Elba, an island in the Mediterranean Sea, and that he should stay there as a sort of prisoner, doing whatever he liked in the island, but never able to leave it. Meanwhile, Louis XVIII. began to reign as King of France. But after a few months Napoleon grew tired of Elba; he was so near to France that he could hear about everything that went on there, and he was told that the French did not like Louis XVIII., and that many of them would be glad to have him back to rule over them again. The next spring he left Elba secretly, and sailed to France.
He at once marched towards Paris. The people welcomed him back as he passed; the soldiers that were sent against him put on the tricolor ribbon, and marched with his army as soon as they saw him. His own old officers, who had been put at the head of the armies by King Louis, could not bring themselves to fight against him, and many of them who had deserted Napoleon for Louis before, now deserted Louis for Napoleon. At last Louis fled from Paris, and Napoleon arrived there, went to the Tuileries, set up his court again, and found most of the people in the town delighted to welcome him back.
But this did not last long; the Allies soon joined together again to help Louis. The Austrians, the Prussians, the Russians, the English, joined their armies, and Napoleon was obliged to march against them at once. His soldiers were proud to be under him once more, and went to battle feeling as sure of victory as ever. They met the English and German armies in Belgium. The English were commanded by the Duke of Wellington, the Prussians by Marshal Blucher. The battle of Waterloo was fought on the 18th of June 1815, and there the French army, after fighting bravely for a whole day, was entirely beaten, and even Napoleon's Old Guard, who had never been resisted before, were beaten back and almost destroyed by the English. In the evening, seeing that everything was lost. Napoleon left the army, rode to Paris, and finding every one there turning against him, he resigned his crown for the second time a few days afterwards.
He then left France, went on board an English ship, and asked to be taken to England. This was done, and after some discussion as to what should be done with him, he was sent to St. Helena, an island in the Atlantic off the coast of Africa, which is about as large as the (town) of Paris.
He was to live here as a prisoner, closely watched by an English governor and a body of soldiers, with four of his own friends, whom he was allowed to choose for himself, to keep him company; and here Napoleon passed the rest of his life.
He made many complaints of the way in which he had been treated by the English, but he was far too dangerous a man ever to have been allowed to come back to Europe again, and after his having escaped from Elba, they were obliged to keep a strict watch over what he did. It was a sad ending to the life of such a man. Five years after he reached St. Helena, he died. He was buried under a willow-tree in the island, and some years afterwards his body was taken to France, and buried at Paris with great pomp.
This is the history of Napoleon Bonaparte. Few men have had so remarkable a life. He was not a good man, but it is impossible to say that he was not a great one. He was one of the best soldiers that have ever been known, and had so good an understanding, that he seemed able to do everything well. But he was selfish, cruel, and ambitious, and carried away by the idea of his own greatness, and these faults led him to throw away the great opportunity he had of being of use to his country, and leaving a glorious name behind him.
