Those in Prussia and Poland (with the exception of Dantzic) had long before capitulated.

In Dresden alone, the garrison amounted to 27,000 men besides immense magazines.

The French army, shorn alike of its reputation, numbers, and materiel, was not destined to reach the banks of the Rhine without another struggle; it was briskly pursued by Blucher and Czernicheff, and overtaken at Hanau by the Bavarians under that General Wrede who had so long fought in its ranks and by its side. In this battle the French claim a decided victory; a claim disputed with them by the Bavarians. But supposing the victory to have been really gained by the former, it could have had no other effect than to enable them to accomplish their retreat; and as that retreat, though with prodigious loss, including almost the whole of their artillery, was finally effected, the Bavarians certainly missed their aim. It is impossible adequately to praise the military skill which distinguished every part of this memorable campaign on the side of the allies; it rivetted the attention, and excited the admiration of all Europe. While the laurels of Napoleon were withering on his brow, it must be allowed that the difficulties of his situation were great; that he was encountered by more numerous forces, and those of a better quality than his own; and that the circumstances of his opponents gave them the inestimable advantagé of selecting their own periods for, and points of, attack; and that the preliminary arrangements of the campaign were sketched by one of the greatest warriors whom France ever produced, Moreau.

The reception of Napoleon on his return to Paris was extremely cold: the enthusiasm of his subjects was no more. The Russian campaign had destroyed three-fourths of his veteran soldiers. The German campaign had cropped the fairest blossoms of the youth of France. Disgrace and accumulated disaster had terminated each campaign; and the universal voice of the people was unequivocally pronounced for peace. But Napoleon was no longer master of his own passions; spoiled

by former prosperity and the pernicious adulation of his flatterers, he disregarded the fervent prayers of the French; and, in return, in the hour of his greatest distress, a large proportion of them refused to follow his standard. A strong impression was also made in France by the moderate tone of the manifesto of the Allied Powers when on the point of crossing the frontiers.

A new spirit arose in the Legislative Body. The extremity of the danger, and the impending invasion of France, restored to that assembly an expression of real patriotism and independence of which there are no traces in the prosperous period of the government of the Emperor. Napoleon, instead of conforming to this change, and availing himself of it to obtain favourable terms for France from the allies; or, if disappointed in that aim, identifying his own personal cause with that of the country, was so imprudent as to quarrel with the popular representatives. A rupture of this kind, in circumstances so awfully critical, could not fail to have a most prejudicial influence upon his affairs, the position of which, at that juncture, menaced him with destruction.

The British army in the Peninsula having gained the glorious battles of Salamanca and Vittoria, and liberated Spain and Portugal from the French yoke, were about to cross the Pyrenees, and for the first time for nearly 500 years, to raise the British standard in the smiling plains of Gascony.

The French troops in Italy were outnumbered by the Austrians, and to them it was not in his power to send any reinforcements. Holland had cast off his yoke, and the government of the House of Orange was restored in that country. At the beginning of the year 1814, the wrecks of the force that Napoleon had brought from Hanau had been gradually withdrawn from the Rhine to positions within the frontiers, in proportion as the allied troops advanced. Aware of the imminent dangers which threatened him, the Emperor taxed his faculties to the utmost. Every expedient which human ingenuity could devise, excepting that which could alone now satisfy the French nation, namely, the establishment of a free

and liberal government, was tried to excite the popular feeling against the invaders. Free corps, as they were termed; that is, bodies of men who subsisted themselves, and were to carry on a desultory warfare against the allies, nearly in the same manner as the Guerilla parties had been accustomed to act in Spain, were organized in those departments which had become the theatre of the war. The best troops he could collect from different quarters were assembled under his own immediate command; and at the head of about 70,000 men, he fought at St. Dizien, on the 27th of January, 1814, the first battle of this campaign. In that action he was defeated with the loss. of 176 pieces of cannon; but he retreated slowly and in good order towards Paris. So desperately was this battle contested, that Napoleon had two horses shot under him.

The plan of the allies in this campaign, was nearly similar to that which had proved so eminently successful in Germany, namely, first to harass and distract the enemy, and then to surround and crush his army. In furtherance of this scheme, the allied troops, whose collective force was probably not much. inferior to 200,000 men, advanced towards Paris in two lines. That proceeding through the northern part of Champagne was composed of Prussians and Russians, commanded by Blucher, Kleist, Langeron, &c.; the other, an Austrian army, took the lower or southern road. The army under Napoleon acted between these great bodies, and his policy was to take advantage of any error they might commit. Such an opportunity was soon presented. The Prussian army had incautiously extended its front, and thereby weakened the centre. The military eye of Napoleon immediately discovered this fault, of which he hastened to take advantage.

At Montmirail, Champaubert, and La Ferte, villages in Champagne, he attacked the Prussians with the greatest vigour, having first defeated their centre with great loss. He followed up the blow, and compelled Blucher to retire with

his army, considerably diminished, to Chalons. But his attention was now recalled to the defence of Paris, by the advance of the Austrian army, which had reached the forest of Fon

tainbleau, and approached within thirty-five miles of the capital city. He traversed with amazing rapidity Champagne, and uniting the imperial guards, and some small divisions he had brought with him, to the force which had been left to hold in check the Austrian army, he attacked the advanced guard of that army, commanded by the Prince Royal of Wirtemburg, at Nangis, in the neighbourhood of Melun, and defeated them with great loss.

Disconcerted by this movement, Prince Schwartzenburg retired, and retraced his steps as far as the ancient town of Troyes, still vigorously pressed by Napoleon. It was abandoned without much resistance; and into this town Napoleon entered as a conquerer.

The situation of the allies now became critical. The season of the year, the rapidity of their march, and the untaken and well garrisoned fortresses in their rear, had prevented the formation of magazines. Napoleon's scheme for establishing free companies, had, to a certain degree succeeded, since their convoys were subject to interception. The flank and rear of the Austrian army were moreover menaced by Augerau's corps, originally destined to defend Lyons, but which might now be brought to act in such a manner as to render the Austrian position no longer tenable.

Influenced by these weighty considerations, and also by the negotiation for a general peace between Napoleon and the whole of the allied powers, which was actively carried on at Chatillon, propositions were made for an armistice, and nearly agreed upon.

This was the time for Napoleon to have withdrawn with greater advantage from the contest, than at the beginning of the campaign.

The skill, activity, and fortitude he had shewn in contending so successfully against such powerful odds, had exalted his military character, which was now restored to a considerable portion of its former brightness. Indeed, the actions we have enumerated, are perhaps the most splendid of his whole career; but the blood of innumerable victims, sacrificed to

his dark suspicions and arrogant ambition, called aloud for vengeance. It seemed consistent with the economy of the divine administration, so far as the discovery of its general principles has been permitted to men, that the author of such extensive and complicated misery abroad should be exemplarily punished at home. Negotiations for an armistice, and for a general peace (the latter of which was so far advanced, that Napoleon was actually on the point of signing it) ceased; and hostilities, which had never been suspended, were carried on with greater vigour and animosity. From that moment the fortune of Napoleon declined. The indefatigable Blucher having reassembled and reinforced the different divisions of his army, renewed his hostile movement in the north. Napoleon left as strong a force at Bar-sur-Aube as he could spare, followed Blucher, and fought, at the village of Craon, about fifty miles N.N.E. of Paris, a sanguinary battle which lasted two days. On the first day the advantage seemed to incline to the French, but on the second Napoleon was repulsed, and withdrew. The loss of men on each side was nearly equal; but the French abandoned upwards of 50 pieces of cannon.

Profiting by the absence of the Emperor, Prince Schwartzenburg attacked, and completely defeated the corps left at Bar-sur-Aube, after which his movements once more threatened Paris. Napoleon, followed to a certain point by the Prussians, proceeded to interpose his whole force between that city and the Austrians. He now formed one of the boldest designs which military history records. Having appointed his brother Joseph his lieutenant in Paris, thrown up intrenchments, increased the number of troops in the capital, and prepared it, as he conceived, to withstand an assault for some days, he determined, with the remainder of his army, to pass between the Austrian and Russian forces, and by that means get into their rear, communicate with his fortresses, seize upon the military stores of the allies, and either compel them to capitulate from the total want of provisions, or to retire towards the Rhine.

It belongs to military men to discuss the practicability of