escaped into France, whither the victors were preparing to follow them as soon as they had reduced the fortresses, which it would be dangerous to leave in their rear. 8. On the recommencement of hostilities, the allies resolved to drive the French from their advanced positions on the right bank of the Elbe, as well as in Lusatia and Silesia. They succeeded in the attempt, and soon after occupied the heights above Dresden, in which city Napoleon had fixed his headquarters. On the 27th of August, the allies made a rash attempt on Dresden, in which they were defeated with considerable loss. On this occasion, general Moreau, who had come from America to assist his old companion, Bernadotte, was killed. 9. The allies retreated across the mountains that separate Saxony from Bohemia, vigorously pursued by marshal Vandamme, with a division of the French army; but Vandamme's rashness proved fatal, he was forced to surrender with 10,000 men, his artillery and baggage, to the armies of Russia and Prussia, by which he was surrounded. 10. The arrival of Bernadotte with the Swedish army restored the superiority of the allies, and at the same time they learned that the king of Bavaria had acceded to their coalition, and placed 65,000 men at the disposal of the Austrian government. After a series of complicated movements, the allies so far prevailed, that Napoleon, with his faithful friend, the king of Saxony, was forced to retire from Dresden to Leipsic. 11. The conduct of Napoleon in the last great struggle for the empire of Europe, was worthy his former fame. He drew up his forces in a circle round Leipsic, so as that each might mutually support the other, while the allies occupied a parallel, and, of course, a wider circle, which their successes enabled them daily to contract. On the 15th of October, the emperor delivered eagles to some new regiments which had just joined him; it was an imposing ceremony; "the soldiers knelt before the emperor, and in presence of all the line; military mass was performed, and the young warriors swore to die rather than witness the dishonour of France. Upon this scene the sun descended; and with it the star of Napoleon went down for ever." 12. On the 16th, 17th, and 18th, the position of the French was vigorously attacked, and as obstinately defended; but the numerical superiority of the allies was too great to be resisted, and Buonaparte found himself obliged to command a retreat. On the morning of the 19th, Napoleon took a sad farewell of his ally, the king of Saxony, and quitted the city round whose walls the battle was raging with fury. The Saxons now deserted the French and turned their cannon on the retreating army; marshal Macdonald and Poniatowski, however, still gallantly protected the rear; but a new calamity rendered all their efforts unavailing. Orders had been given to blow up the bridge over which the army retreated as soon as the passage was completed, but the officer to whom that business was entrusted, terrified at the approach of the allies, fired the mine long before it was needed, and 25,000 Frenchmen, thus left at the mercy of the enemy, surrendered themselves prisoners of war. 13. The retreating army were severely harassed by the irritated peasantry in their flight; but they cut their way through the Austro-Bavarian army, who attempted to intercept them. This was, however, only a temporary relief; the retreat became at last a rapid flight, and it was with difficulty that the shattered remains of the second grand army escaped across the Rhine. 14. The battle of Leipsic was followed by a crowd of important events in such rapid succession, that men had scarce time to express their astonishment at one, when they heard intelligence of another still more surprising. The confederation of the Rhine crumbled to pieces in a moment; Hanover, Brunswick, Hesse, returned under the sway of their hereditary rulers; and Holland in one simultaneous burst of popular loyalty threw off the yoke of France, and invited the stadtholder to return from his long exile in England. 15. Equally disheartening was the intelligence that Napoleon received from Italy and Spain. The Austrian general Hiller had defeated the viceroy of Italy, the English were masters of the Adriatic, and Murat was entering into negociations with the Austrians against his brother-in-law and benefactor. Even in France itself, parties hostile to the emperor began to be discovered. The royalists prepared for the restoration of the exiled Bourbons, and some of the old leaders of the revolution began to hope that the republic might yet be restored. 16. The calamities which France had inflicted on A. D. other nations, were now about to be severely retaliated 1814. on herself. Early in January, two armies under the command of Blucher and Schwartzenberg passed the Rhine, and masking the fortresses along the river, advanced boldly into the country. The superior skill of Napoleon enabled him to inflict several severe checks on the advancing forces, who did not advance in sufficient union. 17. But these successes were the ruin of the emperor, for they led him to break off abruptly the conferences for peace which had commenced at Chatillon, and the allies, justly indignant at his insincerity, sternly rejected all future attempts at negociation. 18. In the south of France, Wellington appeared with the soldiers that had delivered Spain; no popular resistance was made to his march, every effort of Soult's army to retard his progress was defeated. Bourdeaux had been taken, and the Bourbons were proclaimed by the people. 19. The French emperor still undauntedly maintained himself under all these evils; but in an ill-omened hour he placed his army in the rear of the allies, and thus left the road to Paris open. On the 30th of March, the division of the French army assigned for the defence of Paris were drawn up in line on the heights that covered the city, defended by one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon. The allies attacked them with great vigour, and Marmont and Mortier resisted the assault with equal spirit, but the force of numbers prevailed, and long ere night the heights were in possession of the allied forces. Joseph Buonaparte, to whom the defence of the capital had been entrusted, fled, and Marmont, seeing all further resistance useless, signed a capitulation. 20. On the 31st of March, the allied army entered Paris in triumph, and were received with the loudest acclamations. They acted not as conquerors but as friends, and declared themselves hostile not to the French nation, but to Napoleon. By their invitation the senate was assembled and a provisional government established, at the head of which Talleyrand was placed. Soon after the senate decreed the deposition of the emperor, and proclamations in the name of the old royal family were everywhere distributed. In the meantime, Buonaparte having discovered the designs of the allies, resolved to make a vigorous effort to save his capital; he hasted back with his army. but on the road he learned that he was too late; he retired to Fontainbleau, receiving at every step news of the defection and treachery of his ministers and generals. After a vain attempt to have the crown transferred to his son, on the 11th of April, Napoleon signed a formal instrument, "renouncing for himself and heirs the thrones of France and Italy." On the very same day, a glorious but useless victory was obtained by the English, under lord Wellington, at Thoulouse; it is not certain how the news of the capture of Paris was delayed, or whether marshal Soult deserves to be blamed for this useless effusion of blood; on the 14th, however, the tidings of peace reached both camps, and hostilities were immediately suspended. 21. The sovereignty of the island of Elba, with a considerable pension, was settled on Napoleon; the duchies of Parma and Placentia were settled on Maria Louisa and her heirs; and pensions were granted by the French government to Josephine, and other members of the Buonaparte family. This faithful though deserted woman did not long survive the fall of her beloved lord; she died of a broken heart before the allies had left France. 22. On the 3d of May, Louis XVIII. entered Paris, where he was received with every demonstration of joy, and France soon after received a constitution, founded on the principles of rational and moderate liberty. On the 30th of the same month the articles of a general peace between France and the allies were signed at Paris, and thus at length the tranquillity of Europe seemed finally secured. And Harold stands upon this place of skulls, He wears the shatter'd links of the world's broken chain. BYRON. 1. THE sudden change from a fierce war to a proA. D. found peace produced so great a revolution in the 1815. different European states, that their attention was engrossed with their domestic affairs, and France, with the illustrious exile in Elba, seemed for a time to be forgotten. There were, however, causes in operation which threatened to make this tranquillity of but brief duration. The prisoners of war who returned from the different countries of Europe, |