ATTACK ON QUEUES.

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neither tresses, nor queues, nor powder, nor pomatum.” Saying this, he bowed and passed out.

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The same day Murat, who had assisted at the review of the morning, coming to receive the orders of the Emperor, asked if he had been pleased with the review. "Yes," said Napoleon; but (fixing his eyes on the long hair of his beautiful brother-in-law) added, "I should have been better pleased if you had cut off all the tresses and queues of your cavaliers." Murat said nothing, but bowed and disappeared among the crowd of officers that were assembling. He saw at once that the reign of queues was over. At the extremity of the gallery he met Bessieres, one of the four commanders of the Guard, whose immense queue was a subject of remark-throughout the whole army. Eh bien, my dear fellow," said he in a tone half sorrowful and half joking, "thou hast heard the words of the Emperor-no more queues! Accept in advance my condolence on the approaching fall of yours." "My dear sir," replied the young marshal, "the roots of a queue like mine reach near to the heart, and the Emperor, with all his power, cannot make me cut it off. I hope our old comrades of Italy and Egypt will prove refractory as myself in this matter."

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The next day Napoleon spoke again to Murat, who, although he sympathized with Bessieres, did not dare to express his sentiments. At length, turning towards him, the Emperor said laconically, "My Guard alone shall wear the queue, and it shall not be more than two inches long, such shall be the ordinance."

The reign of queues was over; the young officers adopted the change cheerfully, and on the day of the publication of the ordinance, the barbers' shops near the quarters of the troops were filled from morning till night, and more than two thousand queues were sacrificed. But in the same evening there were more than twenty duels. A quarrel commenced by one calling another just sheared a spaniel. Friends on either side took part in it, till the whole corps was involved, and, for awhile, serious diffi culty was threatened. It required great tact to settle

quietly the rage caused by this onslaught against tresses and queues.

An appropriate uniform for every portion of the Guard was adopted, and it soon reached that eminence and deserved the character given of it in the preceding chapter.

Each of the corps of foot and mounted grenadiers and chasseurs of the Guard furnished a battalion and squadron to attend the Emperor in his imperial residence. They were relieved every three months. Each of the corps of infantry was on service alternate weeks.

Soon after Bonaparte's elevation to supreme power, he made a grand display in the distribution of the cross of the Legion of Honour to those of his Guard who were selected as members. Surrounded by his magnificent staff, escorted by his troops, met with salvos of cannon, he proceeded to the spot where the distribution was to take place. The decorations were taken from a basin of gold, and affixed to each one pronounced worthy of the honour. No one at this day can conceive the excitement and enthusiasm caused by the distribution of this simple decoration. At Boulogne, shortly after, the same distribution was made to the army, and, if possible, in a more imposing manner and causing greater enthusiasm. As Napoleon, in the presence of the assembled thousands, called the scarred veterans of Italy and Egypt to him, and spoke of Montenotte, of Lodi, Arcola, Marengo, of the Pyramids, and of Egypt, tears rolled down their cheeks; and when the ceremony was finished, the very heavens rocked to the shouts of " Vive l'Empereur !"

In addition to the more regular corps of the Imperial Guard, there was a squadron of Mamelukes-a memento, as it were, of the Pyramids and the battles of the Nile.

It was formed from the corps of " "Guides" which Bonaparte had in Egypt, and had nothing of the Mameluke about them but the Oriental costume. This squadron, with its horse-tail standard, its white heron plumes rising over the Asiatic turban, its timbrels, and trumpets, and all the trappings of the horses à la Turk-its elegant dresses covered with gold-lace and silk-its bright Damas

RECOMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR.

cus blades-presented a most singular yet picturesque appearance, amid the bear-skin caps and heavy armour of the cuirassiers. There was also a small corps of marines, with a blue uniform. It had also two squadrons of gens-d'armes d'élite, who performed the police duty at head quarters, and a fine Italian battalion. Its artillery arm was at this time strengthened, numbering in all twenty-four pieces of cannon. At the close of the year 1804, the Guard numbered 9,798 men, though nominally composed of but 7,000.

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CHAPTER III.

Recommencement of the War-The Camp at Boulogne-The Old Guard at Austerlitz-Meeting of the Imperial Guards of the Czar and Napoleon-The Guard at Jena-The Velites-Young Desherbiers-Habits of Napoleon in Campaign-His Body Guard-Presentation of the Eagle to a New Regiment.

AFTER a few years of peace, England, by her perfidious violation of the treaty of Amiens, brought on a war between herself and France. Napoleon, no longer shackled by divided power, was now free as Cæsar. His vast and restless mind could sweep the horizon of his dominions, and find nothing to interfere with his great plans. Laying his hand on the mighty empire, just passed into his keeping, he wielded it with the ease he managed a single

army.

With one of the best armies that ever stood on the soil of France, possessing, at the same time, all the advantage of a long rest and thorough discipline, and the experience of veterans, he resolved to punish England for her perfidy, and teach her that while she stirred up Europe to strife and bloodshed, she too might reap the curse of war, carried to her own soil.

But while collecting his vast Flotillas and training his soldiers at Boulogne, preparatory to the invasion of her

territory, he was informed that a powerful coalition was forming against him on the Continent. Sweden, Russia, Austria, and England had entered into an alliance, and even Prussia was vacillating between making common cause with the allies and remaining neutral. Called at once from his designs of invading England, the Emperor turned his eye northward, and eastward, and southward, and lo, armies in each direction were marching against him. Four hundred thousand soldiers were making ready to strike France and her territories from four different points. He at once penetrated the designs of the allied sovereigns, and with that marvellous power of combination, no other chieftain has ever possessed, he marked out the plan of the entire campaign at Boulogne, predicted the movements of the allied armies, the blunders they would commit, chose his own routes, and accomplished what he proposed. Never had captain, either in ancient or modern times, conceived and executed plans on such a scale. Never, indeed, had a more mighty mind, possessing greater freedom of will, commanded means more prodigous to operate on such an extent of country.' From Calabria to the Gulf of Finland, he had the whole Continent to look after, for he was menaced on every side.

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The allies prosecuted their plans leisurely, having little fear of an army encamped on the shores of the ocean. But there was a stir in that camp which portended evil somewhere.

No one knew Napoleon's plans. France even remained in ignorance of them. The army itself was ignorant of its destination; but in twenty days, to the astonishment and consternation of Europe, its terrible standards shook along the Mayn, the Neckar, and the Rhine, and the shout of "Vive l'Empereur" rolled over the plains of Germany. This army Napoleon called the "Grand Army," a name it ever after bore; and those who saw it sweeping on, column after column of infantry, miles of artillery, long files of cavalry, and last of all the Old Guard, with the Emperor in its midst, in all 186,000 men, re-echoed the appellation-"The Grand Army."

AUSTERLITZ.

The Old Guard left Boulogne by post. Twenty thousand carriages, loaded down with the troops, were whirled away towards Germany, whither the army marched with unparalleled speed.

On the 27th of August, most of this immense force lay at Boulogne; on the 25th and 26th of September it crossed the Rhine. On the 13th of October, amid a storm of snow, Napoleon harangued the weary troops of Marmont, that had just arrived, and explained to them his plans, and told them he had surrounded the enemy. On the 18th, Mack agreed to surrender Ulm with an army of 80,000 men to him as prisoners of war. By the 20th he could look back on his operations and behold an army of 80,000 men destroyed, 60,000 of whom had been taken prisoners with 200 pieces of cannon, and 80 stands of colours. All this had been done in twenty days, with the loss of less than 2,000 men.

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On the 13th of November his banners waved over the walls of Vienna. Twelve days after he reconnoitred the field of Austerlitz, and selected it at once as the battlefield where he would overthrow the combined forces of Russia and Austria, led on by their respective sovereigns. With 70,000 men he had resolved not to drive back the approaching army of 90,000, but to annihilate it. He refused to take position where he could most effectually check its advance-determined to win all or lose all. Matching his single intellect in the pride of true genius against the two emperors with their superior army, he cajoled them into a battle when they should have declined it; in order to finish the war with a clap of thunder."

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In the midst of that terrible battle, while Soult was ascending the heights of Pratzen, pressing full on the enemy's centre, Lannes thundering on the left with artillery and cavalry, Oudinot on the right re-earning his marshal's staff, Suchet forcing the reluctant enemy before him, a conflict took place in the presence of Napoleon and the allied sovereigns, which gave a finishing blow to the battle. The Grand Duke Constantine, seeing that it was going against him, took the whole Russian Imperial Guard,