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MORRIS 9 FAMOUS MEN AND GREAT

EVENTS OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

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THE MARVELOUS PROGRESS OF THE 19TH CENTURY

The above symbolic picture, after the master painting of Paul Sinibaldi, explains the secret of the wonderful progress of the past loo years. The genius of Industry stands in the centie. To her right sits Chemistry; tj the left the geniuses of Elec- tricity with the battery, the telephone, the electric light ; there also are the geniuses of Navigation with the propeller, and of Literature and Art, all bringing their products to Industry who passes them through the hands of Labor in the foreground to be fashioned for the use of mankind.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS 'i|.t)'*^.>

Famous MeriAnd Great events ' of the Nineteenth Century

Embracing Descriptions of the Decisive Battles of the Century and the Great Soldiers Who Fought Them ; the Rise and Pall of Nations ; the Changes in the Map of the World, and the Causes Which Contributed to Political and Social Revolutions ; Discoverers and Discoveries ; Explorers of the Tropics and Arctics ; Inventors and Their Inventions ; the Growth of Liter- ature, Science and Art ; the Progress of Religion, Morals and Benevolence in All Civilized Nations.

By CHARLES MORRIS, LL. D.

Author of "The Aryan Race." "Civilization, Its History, Etc.." "The Greater Republic," Etc.

EmbeUished With Nearly 100 Full-Fage Half-Tone Engravings, Illus- trating the Greatest Events of the Century, and 100 Portraits of the Most Famous Men in the World.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the year i8gg, by W. E. SCULJLi,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. ^

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LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

Introduction ^^^^

A. Bird's-eye View — Tyranny and Oppression in the Eighteenth Century — Government and the Rights of Man in 1900 — Prisons and Punishment in 1900 — The Factory System and Oppression of the Workingman — Suffrage and Human Freedom — Criminal Law and Prison DiscipUne in 1800 — The Era of Wonderful Inventions — The Fate of the Horse and the Sail — Education, Discovery and Commerce .... 23

CHAPTER I The Threshold of the Century

The Age We Live in and its Great Events — True History and the Things Which Make It — Two of the World's Greatest Events — The Feudal System and Its Abuses — The Climax of Feudalism in France — The States General is Convened — The Fall of the Bastille — King and Queen Under the Guillotine — The Reign of Terror — The Wars of the French Revolution — Napoleon in Italy and Egypt — England as a Centre of Industry and Commerce — The Condition of the German States — Dissension in Italy and Decay in Spain — The Partition of Poland by the Robber Nations — Russia and Turkey 33

CHAPTER II Napoleon Bonaparte j The Man of Destiny

h. Remarkable and Wonderful Career — The Enemies and Friends of France — Move- ments of the Armies in Germany and Italy — Napoleon Crosses the Alps at St. Bernard Pass— The Situation in Italy — The Famous Field of Marengo — A Great Battle Lost and Won — The Result of the Victory of Marengo — Napoleon Returns to France — Moreau and the Great Batde of HohenUnden — The Peace of Luneville — The Peace of Amiens — The Punishment of the Conspirators and the Assassination of the Duke d' Enghien— Napoleon Crowned Emperor of the French — The Great Works Devised By the New Emperor 4^

CHAPTER III

Europe in the Grasp of the Iron Hand

Gr*at Preparations for the Invasion of England — Rapid March on Austria — The Sur- render of General Mack— The Eve Before Austeriitz— The Dreadful Lake Horror- Treaty of Peace With Austria — Prussian Armies in the Field — Defeat of the Prussians at Jena and Auerstadt — Napoleon Divides the Spoils of Victory — The Frightful Struggle at Eylau— The Cost of Victory— The Total Defeat of the Russians— The Emperors at Tilsit and the Fate of Prussia— The Pp^^t^aptive at Fontainebleau— A2)dr<--as Hofer and the War in Jfi^f^I^^lfigliHl arches Upon Austria— The

6 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

PAGE

Battle of Eckmuhl and the Capture of Ratisbon — The Campaign in Italy — The Great Struggle of Essling and Aspern — Napoleon Forced to His First Retreat — The Second Crossing of the Danube — The Victory at Wagram — The Peace of Vienna — The Divorce of Josephine and Marriage of Maria Louisa 57

CHAPTER IV

The Decline and Fall of Napoleon's Empire

The Causes of the Rise and Decline of Napoleon's Power — Aims and Intrigues in Por- tugal and Spain — Spain's Brilliant Victory and King Joseph's Fhght — The Heroic Defence of Saragossa — Welhngton's Career in Portugal and Spain — The Invasion of Russia by the Grand Army— Smolensk Captured and in Flames — The Battle of Borodino — The Grand Army in the Old Russian Capital — The Burning of the Great City of Moscow — The Grand Army Begins its Retreat — The Dreadful Crossing of the Beresina — -Europe in Arms Against Napoleon — The Battle of Dresden, Napo- leon's Last Great Victory — The Fatal Meeting of the Armies at Leipzig — The Break- up of Napoleon's Empire — The War in France and the Abdication of the Emperor — Napoleon Returns From Elba — The Terrible Defeat at Waterloo — Napoleon Meets His Fate 83

CHAPTER V

England and France on Land and Sea — Nelson Discovers the French Fleet in Aboukir Bay — The Glorious Battle of the Nile — The Fleet Sails for Copenhagen- — The Danish Line of Defence — The Attack on the Danish Fleet — How Nelson Answered the Signal to Cease Action — Nelson in Chase of the French Fleet — The Allied Fleet Leaves Cadiz — Off Cape Trafalgar — The "Victory" and Her Brilliant Fight — The Great Battle and its Sad Disaster — Victory for England and Death for Her Famous Admiral — The British in Portugal — The Death of Sir John Moore — The Gallant Crossing of the Douro— The Victory at Talavera and the Victor's Reward — Welhng- ton's Impregnable Lines at Torres Vedras — The Siege and Capture of the Portuguese Fortresses — Wellington Wins at Salamanca and Enters Madrid — Vittoria and the Pyrenees — The Gathering of the Forces at Brussels — The Battlefield of Waterloo — The Desperate Charges of the French — Bliicher's Prussians and the Charge of Napoleoii's Old Guard . lol

CHAPTER VI

From

Quarter Century of Revolution — Europe After Napoleon's Fall — The Work of the Congress — Italy, France and Spain — The Rights of Man — The Holy AUiance— Revo- lution in Spain and Naples — Metternich and His Congresses — How Order Was Restored in Spain — The Revolution in Greece — The Powers Come to the Rescue of Greece — The Spirit of Revolution — Charles X. and His Attempt at Despotism — The Revolution in Paris — Louis PhiUippe Chosen as King — Effect in Europe of the Revo- lution— The Belgian Uprising and its Result — The Movements in Germany — The Condition of Poland — The Revolt of the Poles — A Fatal Lack of Unity — The Fate of Poland 116

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS 7

CHAPTER VII Bolivar, the Liberator of Spanish America pagh

How Spain Treated Her Colonies — The Oppression of the People — Bolivar the Revolu- tionary Leader — An Attempt at Assassination — Bolivar Returns to Venezuela — The Savage Cruelty of the Spaniards — The Methods of General Morillo — Paez the Guerilla and His Exploits — British Soldiers Join the Insurgents — Bolivar's Plan to Invade New Granada — The Crossing of the Andes — The Terror of the Mountains — • BoUvar's Methods of Fighting — The Victory at Boyaca — Bohvar and the Peruvians — The Freeing of the Other Colonies 128

CHAPTER VIII Great Britain as a World Empire

Na^. /iconic Wars' Influence — Great Awakening in Commerce — Developments of the Arts — Growth of the Sciences — A Nation Noted for Patriotism — National Pride — Con- scious Strength — Political Changes and Their Influence — Great Statesmen of Eng- land 141

CHAPTER IX The Great Reform Bill and the Corn Laws

Catises of Unrest — Demands of the People — The Struggle for Reform in 1830 — The Corn Laws — Free Trade in Great Britain — Cobden the Apostle of Free Trade — Other Promoters of Reform — England's Enlarged Commerce 147

CHAPTER X Turkey the '* Sick Man " of Europe

The Sultan's Empire in 1800 — Revolts in Her Dependencies — Greece Gains Her Free- dom— The Sympathy of the Christian World — Russian Threats — The Crimean War and its Heroes — The War of 1877 — The Armenian Massacres — The Nations Warn off Russia — War in Crete and Greece in 1897 — The Tottering Nation of to-day — The "Sick Man" 156

CHAPTER XI The European Revolution of 1848

Corrupt Courts and Rulers — The Spirit of Liberty Among the People — Bourbonism— - Revolutionary Outbreak in France — Spreads to Other Countries — The Struggle in Italy — In Germany — The Revolt in Hungary — The Career of Kossuth the Patriot, Statesman and Orator — His Visit to America — Defeat of the Patriots by Austria and Hungary — General Haynan the Cruel Tyrant — Later History of Hungary 167

CHAPTER XII Louis Napoleon and the Second French Empire

The Power of a Great Name — The French People Love the Name Napoleon — Louis Napoleon's Personality — Elected President — The Tricks of His Illustrious Ancestor

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8 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

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Imitated — Makes Himself Emperor — The War With Austria — Sends an Army to Mexico — Attempt to Establish an Empire in America — Maximilian Made Emperor in the New World — His Sad Fate — War With Germany — Louis Napoleon Dethroned . 178

CHAPTER XIII

Garibaldi and the Unification of Italy

The Many Little States of Italy — Secret Movements for Union — Mazzini the Revolu- tionist— Tyranny of Austria and Naples — War in Sardinia — Victor Emanuel and Count Cavour — Garibaldi in Arms — The French in Rome — Fall of the Papal City — Rise of the New Italy — Naval War With Austria 194

CHAPTER XIV Bismarck and the New Empire of Germany

The State of Prussia — Sudden Rise to Power — Bismarck Prime Minister — War With Den- mark— With Austria — With France — Metz and Sedan — Von Moltke — The Fall of Paris — William I. Crowned Emperor — United Germany — Bismarck and the Young Kaiser — Peculiarities of WilUam II. — Germany of To-Day 207

CHAPTER XV

Gladstone the Apostle of Liberalism in England

Sterling Character of the Man — His Steady Progress to Power^Becomes Prime Minister — Home and Foreign Affairs Under His Administration — His Long Contest With Disraeli — Early Conservatism Later Liberalism — Home Rule Champion — Result of Gladstone's Labors 243

CHAPTER XVI

Ireland the Downtrodden

Ancient Ireland — English Domination — Oppression— Patriotic Struggles Against English Rule — Robert Emmet and His Sad Fate — Daniel O'Connell — Grattan, Curran and Other Patriots — The Fenians — Gladstone's Work for Ireland — Parnell, the Irish Leader in Pariiament — Ireland of the Present 2

CHAPTER XVII

England and Her Indian Empire

Why England Went to India — Lord Clive and the East India Company — Sir Arthur We. lesley — Trouble With the Natives — Subjugation of Indian States — The Great Mutiny — Havelock — Relief of Lucknow — Repulse From Afghanistan — Conquest of Burmah — Queen Victoria Crowned Empress of India— What English Rule Has Done for the Orient — A Vast Country Teeming With Population ~ Tts Resources and Its Prospects 268

- LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS 9

CHAPTER XVIII

Thiers, Gambetta and the Rise of the New French Republic page

French Instability of Character — Modern Statesmen of France — Thiers — MacMahon — Gambetta — The New Repubhc — Leaders in Pohtics — Dangerous Powers of the Army — Moral and Religious Decline — Law and Justice — The Dreyfus Case as an Index to France's National Character and the Perils Which Beset the Republic . . 2J7

CHAPTER XIX

Paul Kruger and South Africa

Review of the Boers — Their EstabUshment in Cape Colony — The Rise and Progress of the Transvaal Republic — Diamond Mines and Gold Discoveries — England's Aggres- siveness— The Career of Cecil Rhodes — Attempt to Overthrow the Republic — The Zulus and Neighboring Peoples — The Uitlanders — Pohtical Struggle of England and Paul Kruger — Chamberlain's Demands — The Boers' Firm Stand — War of 1899 . . . 295

CHAPTER XX

The Rise of Japan and the Decline of China

Former Cloud of Mystery Surrounding These Two Nations — Ancient Civilizations — Closed Territory to the Outside World- — Their Ignorance of Other Nations — The Breaking Down of the Walls in the Nineteenth Century — Japan's Sudden Rise to Power — ' Aptness to Learn — The Yankees of the East — Conditions of Conservatism Holds on in China — Li Hung Chang Rises into Prominence — The Corean Trouble — War Be- tween China and Japan — The Battle of Yalu River — Admiral Ito's Victory — Japanese Army Invades the Celestial Empire — China Surrenders — European Nations Demand Open Comm.erce — Threatened Partition 309

CHAPTER XXI

The Era of Colonies

Commerce the Promoter of Colonization — England's Wise Policy — The Growth of Her Colonies Under Liberal Treatment — India — Australia — Africa — Colonies of France and Germany — Partition of Africa — Progress of Russia in Asia — Aggressiveness of the Czar's Government — The United States Becomes a Colonizing Power — The Colonial Powers and Their Colonies at the Close of the Century 323

CHAPTER XXII

How the United States Entered the Century

A Newly Formed Country — Washington, the National Capital — Peace With France — Nations of State Sovereignty — State Legislatures and the National Congress — The Influence of Washington — The Supreme Court and its Powers — Population of Less Than Four Millions — No City of 50,000 Inhabitants in America — Sparsely Settled Country — Savages — -Trouble With Alters — War Declared byTripoU — Thomas Jeffer- son Elected President 343

lo LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

CHAPTER XXIII Expansion of the United States From Dwarf to Giant

Ohio Admitted in 1802 — Louisiana Purchased From French 1803 — Admission of the

States — Florida Transferred to the United States 1819 — The First Railway in 1826

Indians Cede Their Illinois Lands in 1830 — Invention of Telegraph 1832 — Fremont's Expeditions to the Pacific Slope — Conquest of Mexico — Our Domain Estabhshed From Ocean to Ocean 1848 — The Purchase of Alaska From Russia 1867 — Rapid Internal Growth — Cities Spring up on the Plains — A Marvelous Era of Peace — Through the Spanish-American War Comes the Acquisition of First Tropical Territory — From East to West America's Domain Reaches Half-way Around the World — Three Cities Each With Over 1,000,000 Inhabitants 351

CHAPTER XXIV

The Development of Democratic Institutions In America

Colonization and its Results — Religious Influences — Popular Rights — Limitations— Colonial

Legislatures — The Money Question — Taxation — Confederation — The Franchise —

Property Qualifications — Growth of AVestern Ideas — Contrast Between Institutions at

the Beginning and Close of the Century , 361

CHAPTER XXV

America's Answer to British Doctrine of Right of Search Why the War of 18 12 Was Fought — The Principles Involved — Impressing American Sailors — Insults and Outrages Resented — The "Chesapeake" and "Leopard"' — Injury to Commerce — Blockades — Embargo as Retaliation — Naval Glory — Failure of Canadian Campaign — "Constitution" and the " Guerriere ' ' — The "Wasp" and the "Frolic" — Other Sea Duels — Privateers — Perry's Great Victory — Land Opera- tions— The "Shannon" and the "Chesapeake" — Lundy's Lane and Plattsburg — The Burning of Washington — Baltimore Saved — Jackson's Victory at New Orleans — Treaty of Peace ' . , . . 369

CHAPTER XXVI

The United States Sustains Its Dignity Abroad

First Foreign Difhculty — The Barbary States — Buying Peace — Uncle Sam Aroused — Thrashes the Algerian Pirates — A Splendid Victory — King Bomba Brought to Terms — Austria and the Koszta Case — Captain Ingraham — His Bravery — " Dehver or I'll Sink You ' ' — Austria Yields — The Paraguayan Trouble — Lopez Comes to Terms — The ChiUan Imbrogho — Balmaceda — The Insult to the United States — American Seamen Attacked — Matta's Impudent Letter — Backdown — Peace — Air's Well That Ends Well, Etc ,82

CHAPTER XXVII

Webster and Clay — The Preservation of the Union

The Great Questions in American Pohtics in the First Half of the Century — The Great Orators to Which They Gave Rise — Daniel Webster — Henry Clay — John C. Calhoun

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS ii

PAGH

— Clay's Compromise Measure on the Tariff Question — On Slavery Extension — Webster and Calhoun and the Tariff Question — Webster' s Reply to Hayne — The Union Must and Shall be Preserved ong

CHAPTER XXVIII The Annexation of Texas and the War With Mexico

Texas as a Province of Mexico — Rebellion and War — The Alamo Massacre — Rout of Mexicans at San Jacinto — Freedom of Mexico — Annexation to the United States — The War With Mexico — Taylor and Buena Vista — Scott and Vera Cruz — Advance on and Capture of Mexico — Results of the War 413

CHAPTER XXIX The Negro In America and the Slavery Conflict

The Negro in America — The First Cargo — Beginning of the Slave Traffic — As a Laborer — Increase in Numbers — Slavery ; its Different Character in Different States — Politi- cal Disturbances — Agitation and Agitators — John Brown — War and How it Emanci- pated the Slave — The Free Negro — His Rapid Progress 425

CHAPTER XXX Abraham Lincoln and the Work of Emancipation

Lincoln's Increasing Fame — Comparison With Washington — The Slave Auction at New Orleans— '' If I Ever Get a Chance to Hit Slavery, I Will Hit it Hard "—The Young Pohtician — Elected Representative to Congress — His Opposition to Slavery — His Famous Debates With Douglas — The Cooper Institute Speech — The Campaign of . i860 — The Surprise of Lincoln's Nomination — His Triumphant Election — Threats of Secession — Firing on Sumter — The Dark Days of the War — The Emancipation Question — The Great Proclartiation — End of the War— The Great Tragedy — The Beauty and Greatness of His Character , 43 6

CHAPTER XXXI Grant and Lee and The Civil War

Grant a Man for the Occasion— Lincoln's Opinion— ''Wherever Grant is Things Move " — " Unconditional Surrender " — ''Not a Retreating Man" — Lee a Man of Ac- knowledged Greatness — His Devotion to Virginia — Great Influence — Simphcity of Habits — Shares the Fare of His Soldiers — Lee's Superior Skill— Gratitude and Affec- tion of the South — Great Influence in Restoring Good FeeUng— The War — Secession Not Exclusively a Southern Idea — An Irrepressible Conflict — Coming Events — Lin- coln— A Nation in Arms — Sumter — Anderson — McClellan — Victory and Defeat — *' Monitor" and " Merrimac " — Antietam — Shiloh — Buell — Grant — George H. Thomas — Rosecrans — Porter — Sherman — Sheridan — Lee — Gettysburg — A Great Fight — Sherman's March — The Confederates Weakening — More Victories — Appo- mattox— Lee's Surrender — From War to Peace 449

12 LIST OP CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

CHAPTER XXXII The Indian in the Nineteenth Century p^c.

Our Relations and Obligations to the Indian — Conflict between Two Civilizations — Indian Bureau — Government Policy — Treaties — Reservation Plan — Removals Under It — - Indian Wars — Plan of Concentration — Disturbance and Fighting — Plan of Education and Absorption — Its Commencement — Present Condition of Indians — Nature of Education and Results — Land in Severalty Law — Missionary Effort — Necessity and Duty of Absorption 468

CHAPTER XXXIII The Development of the American Navy

The Origin of the American Navy — Sights on Guns and What They Did — Opening Japan — Port Royal — Passing the Forts — The "Monitor'.' and "Merrimac" — In Mobile Bay — The "Kearsarge" and the "Alabama" — Naval Architecture Revolutionized — The Samoan Hurricane — Building a New Navy — Great Ships of the Spanish Amer- ican War — The Modern Floating Iron Fortresses — New ' 'Alabama ' ' and ' ' Kearsarge "482

CHAPTER XXXIV America's Conflict With Spain

A War of Humanity — Bombardment of Matanzas — Dewey's Wonderful Victory at Manila , — Disaster to the ' ' Winslow ' ' at Cardenas Bay — The First American Loss of Life — Bombardment of San Juan, Porto Rico — The Elusive Spanish Fleet — Bottled-up in Santiago Harbor — Lieutenant Hobson's Daring Exploit — Second Bombardment of Santiago and Arrival of the Army — Gallant Work of the Rough Riders and the Regulars — Battles of San Juan and El Caney — Destruction of Cervera's Fleet — General Shafter Reinforced in Front of Santiago — Surrender of the City — General Miles in Porto Rico — An Easy Conquest — Conquest of the PhiHppines — Peace Nego- tiations and Signing of the Protocol — Its Terms — Members of the National Peace Commission— Return of the Troops from Cuba and Porto Rico — The Peace Com- mission in Paris — Conclusion of its Work — Terms of the Treaty — Ratified by the Senate 496

CHAPTER XXXV The Dominion of Canada

The Area and Population of Canada — Canada's Early History — Upper and Lower Canada — The War of 181 2 — John Strachan and the Family Compact — A Religious Quarrel — French Supremacy in Lower Canada — The Revolt of 1837 — Mackenzie's Rebellion — Growth of Population and Industry — Organization of the Dominion of Canada — The Riel Revolts — The Canadian Pacific Railway — The Fishery Difficulties — The Fur-Seal Question — The Gold of the Klondike — A Boundary Question — An International Commission — The Questions at Issue — The Failure of the Com- mission-Commerce of Canada with the United States — Railway Progress in Canada — Manufacturing Enterprise — Yield of Precious Metals — Extent and Resources of the Dominion — The Character of the Canadian Population 509

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS 13

CHAPTER XXXVI

Livingstone, Stanley, Peary, Nansen and other Great Discoverers and

Explorers page

Ignorance of the Earth's Surface at the Beginning of the Century — Notable Fields of Nineteenth Century Travel — Famous African Travelers — Dr. Livingstone's Mission- ary Labors — Discovery of Lake Ngami — Livingstone's Journey from the Zambesi to

' the West Coast — The Great Victoria Falls — First Crossing of the Continent — Living- stone discovers Lake Nyassa — Stanley in Search of Livingstone — Other African Travelers — Stanley's Journeys — Stanley Rescues Emin Pasha — The Exploration of the Arctic Zone — The Greely Party — The Fatal "Jeanette " Expedition — Expedi- tions of Professor Nordenskjold — Peary Crosses North Greenland — Nansen and his Enterprise — Andrees Fatal Balloon Venture 523

CHAPTER XXXVII Robert Fulton, George Stephenson, and the Triumphs of Invention

Anglo-Saxon Activity in Invention — James Watt and the Steam Engine — Labor-Saving Machinery of the Eighteenth Century — The Steamboat and the Locomotive — The First Steamboat Trip up the Hudson — Development of Ocean Steamers — George Stephen- son and the Locomotive — First American Railroads — Development of the Railroad — Great Railroad Bridges — The Electric Steel Railway — The Bicycle and the Auto- mobile^Marvels in Iron and Woodworking — Progress in Illumination and Heating — Howe and the Sewing Machine — Vulcanization of Rubber — Morse and the Tele- graph— The Inventions of Edison — Marconi and Wireless Telegraphy — -Increase of Working Power of the Farmer — The American Reapers and Mowers — Commerce of the United States 535

CHAPTER XXXVIII The Evolution in Industry and the Revolt Against Capital

Mediasval Industry — Cause of Revolution in the Labor System — Present Aspect of the Labor Question — The Trade Union — The International Workingmen's Association — The System of the Strike — Arbitration and Profit Sharing — Experiments and Theories in Economies — Co-operative Associations — The Theories of Socialism and Anarchism — Secular Communistic Experiments — Development of Socialism — Growth of the Socialist Party — The Development of the Trust — An Industrial Revolution .... 554

CHAPTER XXXIX Charles Darwin and the Development of Science

Scientific Activity of the Nineteenth Century — Wallace's "Wonderful Century" — Use- ful and Scientific Steps of Progress — Foster' s Views of Recent Progress — Discoveries in Astronomy — The Spectroscope — The Advance of Chemistry — Light and its Phe- nomena— Heat as a Mode of Motion — Applications of Electricity — The Principles of

14 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

PAGE

Magnetism — Progress in Geology — The Nebular and Meteoric Hypotheses — Biolog- ical Sciences — Discoveries in Physiology — Pasteur and His Discoveries — Koch and the Comma Bacillus — The Science of Hygiene — Darwin and Natural Selection ... 569

CHAPTER XL Literature and Art in the Nineteenth Century

Literary Giants of Former Times — The Standing of the Fine Arts in the Past and the Present — Early American Writers — The Poets of the United States — American Novel- ists— American Historians and Orators — The Poets of Great Britain — British Novelists and Historians — Other British Writers — French Novelists and Historians — German Poets and Novelists — The Literature of Russia — The Authors of Sweden, Norway and Denmark — Writers of Italy — Other Celebrated Authors — The Novel and its Development — The Text-Book and Progress of Education — Wide-spread use of Books and Newspapers 591

CHAPTER XLI The American Church and the Spirit of Human Brotherhood

Division of Labor — American Type of Christianity — Distinguishing Feature of American Life — The Sunday-school System — The Value of Religion in Politics — Missionary Activity — New Religious Movements — The Movement in Ethics — Child Labor in Factories — Prevention of Cruelty to Aminals — Prison Reform — Public Executions — The Spirit of Sympathy — The Growth of Charity — An Advanced Spirit of Benevolence 605

CHAPTER XLH The Dawn of the Twentieth Century

The Century's Wonderful Stages — Progress in Education — The Education of Women — Occupation and Suffrage for Women — Peace Proposition of the Emperor of Russia — The Peace Conference at The Hague — Progress in Science — Political Evolution — Territorial Progress of the Nations — Probable Future of Enghsh Speech — A Telephone Newspaper — Among the Dull-Minded Peoples — Limitations to Progress — Probable Lines of Future Activity — Industry in the Twentieth Century — The King, the Priest and the Cash Box — The New Psychology 617

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS . 13

CHAPTER XXXVI f

Livingstone, Stanley, Peary, Nansen and other Great Discoverers and

Explorers pagh

Ignorance of the Earth's Surface at the Beginning of the Century — Notable Fields of Nineteenth Century Travel — Famous African Travelers — Dr. Livingstone's Mission- ary Labors — Discovery of Lake Ngami — Livingstone's Journey from the Zambesi to the West Coast — The Great Victoria Falls — First Crossing of the Contin'^nt — Living- stone discovers Lake Nyassa — Stanley in Search of Livingstone — Other African Travelers — Stanley's Journeys — Stanley Rescues Emin Pasha — The Exploration of the Arctic Zone — The Greely Party — The Fatal "Jeanette" Expedition — Expedi- tions of Professor Nordenskjold — Peary Crosses North Greenland — Nansen and his Enterprise — Andrees Fatal Balloon Venture 523

CHAPTER XXXVn

Robert Fulton, George Stephenson, and the Triumphs of Invention

Anglo-Saxon Activity in Invention — James Watt and the Steam Engine — Labor-Saving Machinery of the Eighteenth Century — The Steamboat and the Locomotive — The First Steamboat Trip up the Hudson — Development of Ocean Steamers — George Stephen- son and the Locomotive — First American Railroads — Development of the Railroad — Great Railroad Bridges — The Electric Steel Railway — The Bicycle and the Auto- mobile— Marvels in Iron and Woodworking — Progress in Illumination and Heating — Howe and the Sewing Machine — Vulcanization of Rubber — Morse and the Tele- 'graph — The Inventions of Edison — Marconi and Wireless Telegraphy — Increase of Working Power of the Farmer — The American Reapers and Mowers — Commerce of the United States 535

CHAPTER XXXVIII

The Evolution in Industry and the Revolt Against Capital

Media2val Industry — Cause of Revolution in the Labor System — Present Aspect of the Labor Question — The Trade Union — The International Workingmen's Association — The System of the Strike — Arbitration and Profit Sharing — Experiments and Theories in Economies — Co-operative Associations — The Theories of Sociahsm and Anarchism — Secular Communistic Experiments — Development of Socialism — Growth of the SociaUst Party — The Development of the Trust — An Industrial Revolution .... 554

CHAPTER XXXIX Charles Darwin and the Development of Science

Scientific Activity of the Nineteenth Century — Wallace's "Wonderful Century" — Use-,, ful and Scientific Steps of Progress — Foster' s Views of Recent Progress — Discoveries in Astronomy — The Spectroscope — The Advance of Chemistry — Light and its Phe- nomena— Heat as a Mode of Motion— Applications of Electricity — The Principles of

14 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS

PAGI

Magnetism — Progress in Geology — The Nebular and Meteoric Hypotheses — Biolog- ical Sciences — Discoveries in Physiology — Pasteur and His Discoveries — Koch and the Comma Bacillus — The Science of Hygiene — Darwin and Natural Selection ... 569

CHAPTER XL Literature and Art in the Nineteenth Century- Literary Giants oi Formei Times — The Standing of the Fine Arts in the Past and the Present- Ear; , American Writers — The Poets of the United States — American Novel- ists— ^American Historians and Orators — The Poets of Great Britain — British Novelists and Historians — Other British Writers — French Novelists and Historians — German Poets and Novelists — ^The Literature of Russia — The Authors of Sweden, Norway and Denmark — Writers of Italy — Other Celebrated Authors — The Novel and its Development — The Text-Book and Progress of Education — Wide-spread use of Books and Newspapers 591

CHAPTER XLI The American Church and the Spirit of Human B^'otherhood

Division of Labor — American Type of Christianity — Distinguishing Feature of American Life — The Sunday-school System — The Value of Religion in Politics — Missionary Activity — New Rehgious Movements — The Movement in Ethics — Child Labor in Factories — Prevention of Cruelty to Aminals — Prison Reform — Public Executions — The Spirit of Sympathy — The Growth of Charity — An Advanced Spirit of Benevolence 605

CHAPTER XLII

o

The Dawn of the Twentieth Century

The Century's Wonderful Stages — Progress in Education — The Education of Women — Occupation and Suffrage for Women — Peace Proposition of the Emperor of Russia — The Peace Conference at The Hague — Progress in Science — Political Evolution — Territorial Progress of the Nations — Probable Future of English Speech — -A Telephone Newspaper — Among the Dull-Minded Peoples — Limitations to Progress — Probable Lines of Future Activity — Industry in the Twentieth Century — The King, the Priest and the Cash Box — The New Psychology , . 6i|

LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Progress of the Nineteenth Century Frontispiece

Duke of Chartres at the Battle of Jemappes 21

Battle of Chateau-Gontier 22

Death of Marat 31

Last Victims of the Reign of Terror 32

Marie Antoinette Led to Execution 37

The Battle of RivoU 38

Napoleon Crossing the Alps 47

Napoleon and the Mummy of Pharaoh 48

Napoleon Bonaparte 53

The Meeting of Two Sovereigns 54

The Death of Admiral Nelson 59

Murat at the Battle of Jena 60

The Battle of Eylau 69

The Battle of Friedland 70

The Order to Charge at Friedland 79

Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia at Tilsit 80

Marshal Ney Retreating from Russia . 89

General Bliicher's Fall at Ligny ....,' 90

The Battle of Dresden, August 26 and 27, 1813 94

Famous English Novelists 95

The Eve of Waterloo 99

Wellington at Waterloo Giving the Word to Advance 100

Retreat of Napoleon from Waterloo -, 109

The Remnant of an Army no

Illustrious Leaders of England's Navy and Army 119

James Watt, the Father of the Steam Engine 120

Great Enghsh Historians and Prose Writers 129

Famous Popes of the Century 130

Great Enghsh Statesmen (Plate I) 139

Britain's Sovereign and Heir Apparent to the Throne 140

Popular Writers of Fiction In England 149

1 6 LIST OF FULL- PA GE ILL USTRA TIONS

PAGE

Great English Statesmen (Plate II) 150

Potentates of the East 159

Landing in the Crimea and the Battle of Alma . 160

The Congress at Berlin, June 13, 1878 169

The Wounding of General Bosquet : 170

The Battle of Champigny 179

Noble Sons of Poland and Hungary 180

Noted French Authors 189

Napoleon III. at the Battle of Solferino 190

Great Italian Patriots 199

The Zouaves Charging the Barricades at Mentana 200

Noted German Emperors 209

Renowned Sons of Germany 210

The Storming of Garsbergschlosschen . 219

Crown Prince Frederick at the Battle of Froschwiller 220

Present Kings of Four Countries 229

Great Men of Modern France 230

Russia's Royal Family and Her Literary Leader ... 257

Four Champions of Ireland's Cause 258

Dreyfus, His Accusers and Defenders 281

The Dreyfus Trial 282

The Bombardment of Alexandria 291

Battle Between England and the Zulus, South Africa 292

The Battle of Majuba Hill, South Africa 301

Two Opponents in the Transvaal War . 302

Typical American Novelists 307

Two Powerful Men of the Orient 308

Four American Presidents 409

Great American Orators and Statesmen , 410

The Battle of Resaca de la Palma 419

Great American Historians and Biographers 420

Great Men of the Civil War in America 445

The Attack on Fort Donelson 446

General Lee's Invasion of the North 455

The Sinking of the Alabama, etc 456

The Surrender of General Lee 465

The Electoral Commission Which Decided Upon Election of President Hayes 466

Prominent American Political Leaders 475

Noted American Journalists and Magazine Contributors 476

The U. S. Battleship "Oregon" 483

LIST OF FULL- PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 17

PAGE

In the AVar-Room at Washington 484

Leading Commanders of the American Navy, Spanish- American War 487

Leading Commanders of the American Army 488

Prominent Spaniards in 1898 497

Popular Heroes of the Spanish-American War 498

The Surrender of Santiago 501

United States Peace Commissioners of the Spanish- American War 502

Illustrious Sons of Canada 521

Great Explorers in the Tropics and Arctics 522

Inventors of the Locomotive and the Electric Telegraph 539

Edison Perfecting the First Phonograph 540

The Hero of the Strike, Coal Creek, Tenn 557

Arbitration 558

Illustrious Men of Science in the Nineteenth Century 575

Pasteur in His Laboratory 576

Great Poets of England • 589

Great American Poets , 590

Count Tolstoi at Literary Work 603

New Congressional Library at Washington, D. C 604

Famous Cardinals of the Century , 615

Noted Preachers and Writers of Religious Classics 616

Greater New York 629

Delegates to the Universal Peace Coniv^rence at The Hague, 1899 630

Key to above , 631

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PORTRAITS

PAGE

Abbott, Lyman 476

Adams, John Quincy 409

Agassiz, Louis 575

Aguinaldo, Emilio 308

Albert Edward, (Prince of Wales) ... 140

Austin, Alfred •. 589

Balfour, A. J 150

Bancroft, George 420

Barrie, James M 149

Beecher, Henry Ward „ 410

Besant, Walter 149

Bismarck, Karl Otto Von 210

Black, William 149

Blaine, James G 475

Blanco, Ramon 497

Bright, John 139

Browning, Robert 589

Bryan, WiUiam Jennings , 475

Bryant, William CuUen 590

Bryce, James 150

Caine, T. Hall . 149

Carlyle, Thomas 129

Cervera, (Admiral) 497

Chamberlain, Joseph 302

Christian IX., (King of Denmark) . . 229

Clay, Henry 410

Cleveland, Grover 475

Cooper, Janies Fenimore 307

Dana, Charles A 476

Darwin, Charles 575

Davis, Cushman K 502

Davis, Richard Harding 476

Davitt, Michael 258

Day, William R 502

DeLesseps, Ferdinand 230

Depew, Chauncey M ,. ... 410

Dewey, George 487

Dickens, Charles 95

DisraeH, Benjamin 139

Dreyfus, (Captain), Alfred 281

Doyle, A. Conan 149

Drummond, Henry 616

PAGE

Dumas, Alexander 189

DuMaurier, George 149

Eggleston, Edward 307

Emerson, Ralph Waldo ....... 590

Esterhazy, Count Ferdinand W. ... 281

Everett, Edward 410

Farrar, Frederick W., (Canon) .... 616

Francis Joseph, (Emperor of Austria) . 229

Froude, Richard H 129

Frye, William P 502

Gambetta, Leon . 230,

Garibaldi, Guiseppe 199

Gibbon, Edward 129

Gladstone, William Ewart 139

Gough, John B 410

Grady, Henry W. 410

Grant, Ulysses S 445

Gray, George . . . . ■ 502

Greeley, Horace 476

Hale, Edward Everett 307

Halstead, Murat 476

Hawthorne, Nathaniel 307

Hawthorne, Julian 476

Healy, T. M 258

Henry, Patrick 410

Henry, Lieutenant-Colonel 281

Hobson, Richmond Pearson 498

Holmes, Oliver Wendell 590

Howells, William Dean 307

Hugo, Victor 189

Humbert, (King of Italy) 229

Humboldt, F. H. Alexander von . . . 575

Huxley, Thomas H 575

Jackson, Andrew 409

Jefferson, Thomas 409

Kipling, Rudyard 149

Kosciusko, Thaddeus 180

Kossuth, Louis -180

Kruger, Paul 302

(19)

20

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PORTRAITS

PAGE

Labori, Maitre .281

Laurier, Sir Wilfrid 521

Lee, Robert E 445

Lee, Fitzhugh 488

Leo XIIL, (Pope) 130

Li Hung Chang 308

Lincoln, Abraham 445

Livingstone, David 522

Longfellow, Henry W. . 590

Loubet (President of France) .... 230

Lowell, James Russell '590

Lytton, (Lord) Bulwer 95

McCarthy, Justin 150

Macaulay, Thomas B 129

MacDonald, Sir John A. ■ 521

MacDonald, George 149

McKinley, Wilham 475

McMaster, John B 420

Manning, Henry Edward (Cardinal) . . 615

Mercier, (General of French Army) . . 281

Merritt, Wesley 488

Miles, Nelson A 488

Moltke, H. Karl B. von 210

Morley, John 150

Morse, Samuel F. B 539

Motley, John L 420

Nansen, (Dr.) Frithiof 522

Napoleon Bonaparte 53

Nelson, (Lord) Horatio 119

Newman, John Henry (Cardinal) . . . 615 Nicholas H. and Family, (Czar of Russia) 257

O'Brien, William 258

Oscar H., (King of Sweden and Norway) 229

Otis, Elwell S. . . . . 498

Parnell, Charles Stewart 258

Parton, James 420

Pasteur, Louis, in his Laboratory . . . 576

Peary, Lieutenant R. E 522

Phillips, Wendell 410

Pitt, William, (Earl of Chatham) ... 139

Pius IX., (Pope) 130

Prescott, William H 420

PAGE

Reid, Whitelaw 476

Rios, Montero 497

Roosevelt, Theodore 498

Ruskin, John 129

Sagasta, Praxedes Mateo 497

Sampson, William T 487

Schley, Winfield Scott 487

Scott, Sir Walter 95

Shafter, William R 488

Shah of Persia 150

Shaw, Albert W 476

Shelley, Percy B 589

Sherman, WiUiam T. ........ 445

Spurgeon, Charles H 616

Stanley, Henry M 522

Stephenson, George 539

Stevenson, Robert Louis 149

Sultan of Turkey 159

Taylor, Zachary 409

Tennyson, Alfred 589

Thackeray, William Makepeace .... 95

Thiers, Louis Adolphe 230

Thompson, Hon. J. S. D 521

Tolstoi, Count Lyof Nikolaievitch . . . 603

Trollope, Anthony , 95

Tupper, Sir Charles . ' . 521

Victor Emmanuel (King of Italy) ... 199

Victoria (Queen of England) 140

Wallace, General Lew 307

Watson, John (Ian Maclaren) . . . . 616

Watson, John Crittenden 487

Watt, James " . . . 120

Watterson, Henry W 476

Webster, Daniel 410

WeUington, Arthur Wellesley, (Duke) . 119

Wheeler, Joseph 498

Whittier, John G 590

WiUiam L, Emperor of Germany . . . 209

Wilham II. , Emperor of Germany . . . 209

Wordsworth, William 589

BATTLE OF CH ATEAU-GONTI ER (Reign of Terror, 1792)

INTRODUCTION.

IT is the story of a hundred years that we propose to give ; the record of the noblest and most marvelous century in the annals of mankind.

Standing here, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, as at the summit of a lofty peak of time, we may gaze far backward over the road we have traversed, losing sight of its minor incidents, but seeing its great events loom up in startling prominence before our eyes ; heedless of its thronging mil- lions, but proud of those mighty men who have made the history of the age and rise like giants above the corAmon throng. History is made up of the deeds of grreat men and the movements of erand events, and there is no better or clearer way to tell the marvelous story of the Nineteenth Cen- tury than to put upon record the deeds of its heroes and to describe the events and achievements in which reside the true history of the age.

First of all, in this review, it is important to show in what the great- ness of the century consists, to contrast its beginning and its ending, and point out the stages of the magnificent progress it has made. It is one thing to declare that the Nineteenth has been the greatest and most glorious of the centuries ; it is another and more arduous task to trace the develop- ment of this greatness and the culmination of this career of glory. This it is that we shall endeavor to do in the pages of this work. All of us have lived in the century here described, many of us through a great part of it, some of us, possibly, through the whole of it. It is in the fullest sense our own century, one of which we have a just right to feel proud, and in whose career all of us must take a deep and vital interest.

Before entering upon the history of the age it is well to take a bird's-eye view of it, and briefly present its claims to g yj^^ greatness. They are many and mighty, and can only be glanced at in these introductory pages ; it would need volumes to show them in full. They cover every field of human effort. They have to do with political development, the relations of capital and labor, invention, science, literature, production, commerce, and a dozen other life interests, all of which will be considered in this work. The greatness of the world's progress can be most clearly shown by pointing out the state of affairs in the several

23

24 INTRODUCTION

branches of human effort at the opening and closing of the century and placing them in sharp contrast. This it is proposed to do in this introduc- tory sketch.

A hundred years ago the political aspect of the world was remarkably different from what it is now. Kings, many of them, were tyrants ; peoples, as a rule, were slaves — in fact, if not in name. The absolute government of the Middle Ages had been in a measure set aside, but the throne had _ , still immense power, and between the king's and the nobles

Tyranny and . .

Oppression in the people were crushed like grain between the upper and the Eighteenth nether millstones. Tyranny spread widely ; oppression was

Century ^ :} r ^ ^ i^f

rampant ; poverty was the common lot ; comfort was connned to the rich ; law was merciless ; punishment for trifling offences was swift and cruel ; the broad sentiment of human fellowship had just begun to develop ; the sun of civilization shone only on a narrow region of the earth, beyond which barbarism and savagery prevailed.

In 1800, the government of the people had just fairly begun. Europe had two small republics, Switzerland and the United Netherlands, and in the West the republic of the United States was still in its feeble youth. The so-called republic of France was virtually the kingdom of Napoleon, the autocratic First Consul, and those which he had founded elsewhere were the slaves of his imperious will.. Government almost everywhere was autocratic and arbitrary. In Great Britain, the freest of the monarchies, the king's will could still set aside law and justice in many instances and parliament represented only a tithe of the people. Not only was universal suffrage unknown, but some of the greatest cities of the kingdom had no voice in making the laws.

Governnientand ^^ 1900, a century later, vast changes had taken place

the Rights of in the political world. The republic of the United States an in 1900 j^^^j grown from a feeble infant into a powerful giant, and its free system of government had spread over the whole great continent of, America. Every independent nation of the West had become a republic and Canada still a British colony, was a republic in almost everything but the name. In Europe, France was added to the list of firmly-founded republics, and throughout that continent, except in Russia and Turkey, the power of the monarchs had declined, that of the people had advanced. In 1800, the kings almost everywhere seemed firmly seated on their thrones. In 1900, the thrones everywhere were shaking, and the whole moss-grown institution of kingship was trembling over the rising earthquake of the popular will.

The influence of the people in the government had made a marvelous

INTRODUCTION

35

advance. The right of suffrage, greatly restricted in 1800, had become universal in most of the civilized lands at the century's end. Throughout the American continent every male citizen had the right of voting. The same was the case in most of western Europe, and even in far-off Japan, which a century before had been held under a seemingly help- suffrage and less tyranny. Human slavery, which held captive millions Human upon millions of men and women in 1800, had vanished from *"^® ***" the realms of civilization in 1900, and a vigorous effort was being made to banish it from every region of the earth. As will be seen from this hasty retrospect, the rights of man had made a wonderful advance during the century, far greater than in any other century of human history.

In the feeling of human fellowship, the sentiment of sympathy and benevolence, the growth of altruism, or love for mankind, there had been an equal progress. At the beginning of the century law was stern, justice severe, punishment frightfully cruel. Small offences met with severe retri- bution. Men were hung for a dozen crimes which now call for only a light punishment. Thefts which are now thoug-ht severely punished „. . ,,

^ _ _ ^ J r Criminal Law

by a year or two in prison then often led to the scaffold. and Prison

Men are hune now\ in the most enlightened nations, only for Discipline in

1800 murder. Then they were hung for fifty crimes, some so slight

as to seem petty. A father could not steal a loaf of bread for his starving

children except at peril of a long term of imprisonment, or, possibly, of

death on the scaffold.

And imprisonment then was a different affair from what It is now. The prisons of that day were often horrible dens, noisome, filthy, swarming with vermin, thefr best rooms unfit for human residence, their worst dungeons a hell upon earth. This not only in the less advanced nations, but even in enlightened England. Newgate Prison, in London, for instance, was a sink of iniquity, its inmates given over to the cruel hands of ruthless gaolers, forced to pay a high price for the least privilege, and treated worse than brute cattle if destitute of money and friends. And these were not alone felons who had broken some of the many criminal laws, but men whose guilt was not yet proved, and poor debtors whose only crime was their mis- fortune. And all this in England, with its boast of high civilization. The people were not ignorant of the condition of the prisons ; Parliament was appealed to a dozen times to remedy the horrors of the jails ; yet many years passed before it could be induced to act.

Compare this state of criminal law and prison discipline with that of the present day. Then cruel punishments were inflicted for small offences ; now the lightest punishments compatible with the well-being of the com-

26 INTRODUCTION

muhity are the rule. The sentiment of human compassion has become strong and compelling ; it is felt In the courts as well as among the people ; public opinion has grown powerful, and a punishment to-day too severe for the Prisons and crime would be visited with universal condemnation. The Punishment treatment of felons has been remarkably ameliorated. The in 1900 modern prison is a palace as compared' with that of a century

ago. The terrible jail fever which swept through the old-time prisons like a pestilence, and was more fatal to their inmates than the gallows, has been stamped out. The idea of sanitation has made its way into the cell and the dungeon, cleanliness is enforced, the frightful crowding of the past is not permitted, prisoners are given employment, they are not permitted to infect one another with vice or disease, kindness instead of cruelty is the rule, and in no direction has the world made a greater and more radical advance.

A century ago labor was sadly oppressed. The factory system had recently begun. The independent hand and home work of the earlier cen- turies was being replaced by power and machine work. The System and the ^^^^"^■^'^^^'^^ "^^^ ^^^ labor-saving machine, while bringing Oppression of blessings to mankind, had brought curses also. Workmen

the Working= ^gj-^ crowded into factories and mines, and were poorly man , i- 1 m

paid, ill-treated, ill-housed, over-worked. Innocent little chil- dren were forced to perform hard labor when they should have been at play or at school. The whole system was one of white slavery of the most oppressive kind.

To-day this state of affairs no longer exists. Wages have risen, the hours of labor have decreased, the comfort of the artisan has grown, what were once luxuries beyond his reach have now become necessaries of life- Young children are not permitted to work, and older ones not beyond their strength. With the Influences which have brought this about we are not here concerned. Their consideration must be left to a later chapter. It is enough here to state the important development that has taken place.

Perhaps the greatest triumph of the nineteenth century has been In the domain of invention. For ages past men have been aiding the work of their hands with the work of their brains. But the progress of invention continued slow and halting, and many tools centuries old were in common use until the nineteenth century dawned. The steam-engine came earlier, and It is this which has stimulated all the rest, A power was given to man enormously greater than that of his hands, and he at once began to devise means of applying it. Several of the important machines used In manufac- ture were Invented before 1800, but It was after that year that the great era

INTRODUCTION

V

of invention began, and words are hardly strong enough to express the marvelous progress which has since taken place.

To attempt to name all the inventions of the nineteenth xhe Era of century would be like writing a dictionary. Those of great Wonderful importance might be named by the hundreds ; those which '"ventions have proved epoch-making by the dozens. To manufacture, to agriculture, to commerce, to all fields of human labor, they extend, and their name is legion. Standing on the summit of this century and looking backward, its beginning appears pitifully poor and meager. Around us to-day are hun- dreds of busy workshops, filled with machinery, pouring out finished prod- ucts with extraordinary speed, men no longer makers of goods, but waiters upon machines. In the fields the grain is planted and harvested, the grass cut and gathered, the ground ploughed and cultivated, everything done by machines. Looking back for a century, what do we see ? Men in the fields with the scythe and the sickle, in the barn with the flail, working the ground with rude old ploughs and harrows, doing a hundred things painfully by hand which now they do easily and rapidly by machines. Verily the rate of progress on the farm has been marvelous.

The above are only a few of the directions of the century's progress. In some we may name, the development has been more extraordinary still. Let us consider the remarkable advance in methods of travel. In the year 1800, as for hundreds and even thousands of years before, the horse was the fastest means known of traveling by land, the sail of traveling by sea. A hundred years more have passed over our heads, and what do The Fate of the we behold? On all sides the powerful, and swift locomotive, Horse and the well named the iron-horse, rushes onward, bound for the ends of ^^* the earth, hauling men and goods to right and left with a speed and strength that would have seemed magical to our forefathers. On the ocean the steam engine performs the same service, carrying great ships across the Atlantic in less than a week, and laughing at the puny efforts of the sail. The horse, for ages indespensible to man, is threatened with banishment. Electric power has been added to that of steam. The automobile carriage is coming to take the place of the horse carriage. The steam plough is replacing the horse plough. The time seems approaching when the horse will cease to be seen in our streets, and may be relegated to the zoological garden.

In the conveyance of news the development is more like magic than fact. A century ago news could not be transported faster than the horse could run or the ship could sail. Now the words of men can be carried through space faster than one can breathe. By the aid of the telephone a man can speak to his friend a thousand miles away. And with the phono-

28 INTRODUCTION

graph we can, as it were, bottle up speech, to be spoken, If desired, a thous- and years in the future. Had we whispered those things to our forefathers of a century past we should have been set down as wild romancers or insane fools, but now they seem like every-day news.

These are by no means all the marvels of the century. At its begin- ning the constitution of the atmosphere had been recently discovered. In the preceding period it was merely known as a mysterious gas called air. To-day we can carry this air about in buckets like so much water, or freeze it into a solid like ice. In its gaseous state it has long been used as the power to move ships and windmills. In its liquid state it may also soon become a leading source of power, and in a measure replace steam, the great power of the century before.

In what else does the beginning of the twentieth stand far in advance of that of the nineteenth century ? We may contrast the tallow candle with the electric light, the science of to-day with that of a century Education, Dis= ^g^' ^^ methods and the extension of education and the covery and dissemination of books with those of the year 1800. Discovery ommerce ^^^ colonization of the once unknown regions of the world have gone on with marvelous speed. The progress in mining has been enormous, and the production of gold in the nineteenth century perhaps surpasses that of all previous time. Production of all kinds has enormously increased, and commerce now extends to the utmost regions of the earth, bearing the productions of all climes to the central seats of civilization, and supplying distant and savage tribes with the products of the looip and the mine.

Such is a hasty review of the condition of affairs at the end of the nineteenth century as compared with that existing at its beginning. No effort has been made here to cover the entire field, but enough has been said to show the greatness of the world's progress, and we may fairly speak of this century as the Glorious Nineteenth.

■«3 O T o -n

2

>

53 5)

a ^

CHAPTER I. The Threshold of the Century.

AFTER its long career of triumph and disaster, glory and shame, the world stands to-day at the end of an old and the beginning of a new century, looking forward with hope and backward with pride, for it has just completed the most wonderful hundred years it has ever known, and has laid a noble foundation for the twentieth century, now at its dawn. There can be no more fitting time than this to review the marvelous progress of the closing century, through a portion of which ^^5^^ ^g^ ^^ Lj^^ all of us have lived, many of us through a great portion of in and its it. Som.e of the greatest of its events have taken place before ^^ '^®" * our own eyes ; in some of them many now living have borne a part ; to picture them again to our mental vision cannot fail to be of interest and profit to us all.

When, after a weary climb, we find ourselves on the summit of a lofty mountain, and look back from that commanding altitude over the ground we have traversed, what is it that we behold ? The minor details of the scenery, many of which seemed large and important to us as we passed, are now lost to view, and we see only the great and imposing features of the landscape, the high elevations, the town-studded valleys, the deep and winding streams, the broad forests. It is the same when, from the summit of an age, we gaze backward over the plain of time. The myriad of petty happenings are lost to sight, and we see only the striking events, the critical epochs, the mighty crises through which the world has passed, qp^ue History These are the things that make true history, not the daily and the Things doings in the king's palace or the peasant's hut. What we ^ "^ should seek to observe and store up in our memories are the turning points in human events, the great thoughts which have ripened into noble deeds, the hands of might which have pushed the world forward in its career ; not the trifling occurrences which signify nothing, the passing actions which have borne no fruit in human affairs. It is with such turning points, such critical periods in the history of the nineteenth century, that this work pro- poses to deal ; not to picture the passing bubbles on the stream of time, but to point out the great ships which have sailed up that stream laden deep 3 (33)

34 THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY

with a noble freight. This is history in its deepest and best aspect, and we have set our camera to photograph only the men who have made and the events which constitute this true history of the nineteenth century.

On the threshold of the century with which we have to deal two grand events stand forth ; two of those masterpieces of political evolution which mold the world and fashion the destiny of mankind. These are, in the Eastern hemisphere, the French Revolution ; in the Western hemisphere, the American Revolution and the founding of the republic of the United Two of the States. In the whole history of the world there are no events

World's Qreat= that surpass these in importance, and they may fitly be dwelt est Events upon as main foundation stones in the structure we are seek- ing to build. The French Revolution shaped the history of Europe for nearly a quarter century after 1800. The American Revolution shaped the history of America for a still longer period, and is now beginning to shape the history of the world. It is important therefore that we dwell on those two events sufficiently to show the part they have played in the history of the age. Here, however, we shall confine our attention to the Revolution in France. That in America must be left to the American section of our work. The Mediaeval Ag6 was the age of Feudalism, that remarkable system of government based on military organization which held western Europe The Feudal Sys= captive for centuries. The State was an army, the nobility tern and Its its captains and generals, the king its commander-in-chief, the Abuses people its rank and file. As for the horde of laborers, they

were hardly considered at all. They were the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the armed and fighting class, a base, down-trodden, enslaved multitude, destitute of rights and privileges, their only mission in the world to provide food for and pay taxes to their masters, and often doomed to starve in the midst of the food which their labor produced.

France, the country in which the Feudal system had its birth, was the Country in which it had the longest lease of life. It came down to the verge of the nineteenth century with little relief from its terrible exactions. We see before us in that country the spectacle of a people steeped in misery, crushed by tyranny, robbed of all political rights, and without a voice to make their sufferings known ; and of an aristocracy lapped in luxury, proud, vain, insolent, lavish with the people's money, ruthless with the people's blood, and blind to the spectre of retribution which rose higher year by year before their eyes.

One or two statements must suffice to show the frightful injustice that prevailed. The nobility and the Church, those who held the bulk of the wealth of the community, were relieved of all taxation, the whole burden of

THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY 35

which fell upon the mercantile and laboring classes — an unfair exaction that threatened to crush industry out of existence. And to picture the condition of the peasantry, the tyranny of the feudal customs, it will serve to repeat the oft-told, tale of the peasants who, after their day's hard labor in the fields, were forced to beat the ponds all night long in order to silence the croaking of the frogs that disturbed some noble lady's slumbers. Nothing need be added to these two instances to show the • oppression under which the people of France lay during the long era of Feudalism.

This era of injustice and oppression reached its climax in 'pj^g climax of the closing years of the eighteenth century, and went down at Feudalism in lenofth in that hideous nightmare of blood and terror known as the French Revolution. Frightful as this was, it was unavoidable. The pride and privilege of the aristocracy had the people by the throat, and only the sword or the euillotine could loosen their hold. In this terrible instance the guillotine did the work.

It was the need of money for the spendthrift throne that precipitated the Revolution. For years the indignation of the people had been growing and spreading ; for years the authors of the nation had been adding fuel to the flame. The voices of Voltaire, Rousseau and a dozen others had been heard in advocacy of the rights of man, and the people were growing daily more restive under their load. But still the lavish waste of money wrung from the hunger and sweat of the people went on, until the king and his advisers found their coffers empty and were without hope of filling them without a direct appeal to the nation at large.

It was in 1788 that the fatal step was taken. Louis XVI, King of France, called a session of the States General, the Parliament jj,g states of the kingdom, which had not met for more than a hundred General is years. This body was composed of three classes, the repre- sentatives of the nobility, of the church, and of the people. In all earlier instances they had been docile to the mandate of the throne, and the mon- arch, blind to the signs of the times, had no thought but that this assembly would vote him the money he asked for, fix by law a system of taxation for his future supply, and dissolve at his command.

He was ignorant of the temper of the people. They had been given a voice at last, and were sure to take the opportunity to speak their mind. Their representatives, known as the Third Estate, were made up of bold, earnest, indignant men, who asked for bread and were not to be put off with a crust. They were twice as numerous as the representatives of the nobles and the clergy, and thus held control of the situation. They were ready to support the throne, but refused to vote a penny until the crying

36 THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY

evils of the State were reformed. They broke loose from the other two Estates, established a separate parliament under the name of the National Assembly, and begun that career of revolution which did not cease until it had brought monarchy to an end in France and set all Europe aflame.

The court sought to temporize with the engine of destruction which it had called into existence, prevaricated, played fast and loose, and with every false move riveted the fetters of revolution more tightly round its neck. In July, 1789, the people of Paris took a hand in the game. They rose and destroyed the Bastille, that grim and terrible State The Fall of prison into which so many of the best and noblest of France

the Bastille f , , ,1 . , , , , . .

had been cast at the pleasure 01 the monarch and his mm- isters, and which the people looked upon as the central fortress of their oppression and woe.

With the fall of the Bastille discord everywhere broke loose, the spirit of the Revolution spread from Paris through all France, and the popular Assembly, now the sole law-making body of the State, repealed the oppres- sive laws of which the people complained, and with a word overturned abuses many of which were a thousand years old. It took from the nobles their titles and privileges, and reduced them to the rank of simple citizens. It confiscated the vast landed estates of the church, which embraced nearly one-third of France. It abolished the tithes and the unequal taxes, which had made the clergy and nobles rich and the people poor. At a later date, in the madness of reaction, it enthroned the Goddess of Reason and sought to abolish religion and all the time-honored institutions of the past.

The Revolution grew, month by month and day by day. New and more radical laws were passed ; moss-grown abuses were swept away in an hour's sitting ; the king, who sought to escape, was seized and held as a hostage ; and war was boldly declared against Austria and Prussia, which showed a disposition to interfere. In November, 1792, the French army gained a brilliant victory at Jemmapes, in Belgium, which eventually led to the conquest of that kingdom by France. It was the first important event in the career of victory which in the coming years was to make France glorious in the annals of war.

King and Queen T\\^ hostility of the surrounding nations added to the

Under the revolutionary fury in France. Armies were marching to the Guillotine rescue of the king, and the unfortunate monarch was seized, reviled and insulted by the mob, and incarcerated in the prison called the Temple. The queen, Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Emperor of Austria, was likewise haled from the palace to the prison. In the following year, 1793, king and queen alike were taken to the guillotine and their

THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY 39

royal heads fell into the fatal basket. The Revolution was consummated, the monarchy was at an end, France had fallen into the hands of the people, and from them it descended into the hands of a ruthless and blood- thirsty mob.

At the head of this mob of revolutionists stood three men, Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, the triumvirate of the Reign of Terror, under

which all safety ceased in France, and all those against

1 1 1 1 1 r • • 11' The Reign of

whom the least breath 01 suspicion arose were crowdea into Terror

prison, from which hosts of them made their way to the

dreadful knife of the guillotine. Multitudes of the rich and noble had fled

from France, among them Lafayette, the friend and aid of Washington in

the American Revolution, and Talleyrand, the acute statesman who was to

play a prominent part in later French history.

Marat, the most savage of the triumvirate, was slain in July, 1793, by the knife of Charlotte Corday, a young woman of pious training, who offered herself as the instrument of God for the removal of this infamous monster. His death rather added to than stayed the tide of blood, and in April, 1794, Danton, who sought to check its flow, fell a victim to his ferocious associate. But the Reign of Terror was nearing its end. In July the Assembly awoke from, its stupor of fear, Robespierre was denounced, seized, and executed, and the frightful carnival of bloodshed came to an end. The work of the National Assembly had been fully consummated, Feudalism was at an end, monarchy in France had ceased, and a republic had taken its place, and a new era for Europe had dawned.

Meanwhile a foreign war was being waged. England had '^y^^ Wars of formed a coalition with most of the nations of Europe, and the French France was threatened by land with the troops of Holland, Revolution Prussia, Austria, Spain and Portugal, and by sea with the fleet of Great Britain. The incompetency of her assailants saved her from destruction. Her generals who lost battles were. sent to prison or to the guillotine, the whole country rose as one man in defence, and a number of brilliant victor- ies drove her enemies from her borders and gave the armies of France a position beyond the Rhine.

These wars soon brought a great man to the front. Napoleon Bona- parte, a son of Corsica, with whose nineteenth century career we shall deal at length in the following chapters, but of whose earlier exploits some- thing must be said here. His career fairly began in 1794, when, under the orders of the National Convention — the successor of the National Assembly -he quelled the mob in the streets of Paris with loaded cannon and put a final end to the Terror which had so long prevailed. ^

40 THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY

Placed at the head of the French army in Italy, he quickly astonished the world by a series of the most brilliant victories, defeating the Austrians and the Sardinians wherever he met them, seizing Venice, the city of the lagoon, and forcing almost all Italy to submit to his arms. A republic was established here and a new one in Switzerland, while Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine were held by France. Napoleon in -^^^ wars here at an end, Napoleon's ambition led him to

Italy and Egypt, inspired by great designs which he failed to realize.

Egypt. jj^ j^jg absence anarchy arose in France. The five Directors,

then at the head of the Government, had lost all authority, and Napoleon, who had unexpectedly returned, did not hesitate to overthrow them and the Assembly which supported them. A new government, with three Consuls at its head, was formed, Napoleon as First Consul holding almost royal power. Thus France stood in 1800, at the end of the Eighteenth Century.

In the remainder of Europe there was nothing to compare with the momentous convulsion which had taken place in France. England had gone through its two revolutions more than a century before, and its people were the freest of any in Europe. Recently it had lost its colonies in America, but it still held in that continent the broad domain of Canada, and was building for itself a new empire in India, while founding colonies in twenty other lands. In commerce and manufactures it entered the nine- ^ , J teenth century as the greatest nation on the earth. The

England as a -' ^

Centre of hammer and the loom resounded from end to end of the

Industry and islan4, mighty centres of industry arose where cattle had

Commerce. , , > 1 1 • 1 •

grazed a century beiore, coal and iron were bemg torn m

great quantities from the depths of the earth, and there seemed everywhere an endless bustle and whirr. The ships of England haunted all seas and visited the most remote ports, laden with the products of her workshops and bringing back raw material for her factories and looms. Wealth accumu- lated, London became the money market of the world, the riches and pros- perity of the island kingdom were growing to be a parable among the nations of the earth.

On the continent of Europe, Prussia, which has now grown so great, had recently emerged from its mediaeval feebleness, mainly under the powerful hand of Frederick the Great, whose reign extended until 1786, and whose ambition, daring, and military genius made him a fitting predecessor of Napoleon the Great, who so soon succeeded him in the annals of war. Unscrupulous in his aims, this warrior king had torn Silesia from Austria, added to his kingdom a portion of unfortunate Poland, annexed the princi-

THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY 41

pallty of East Friesland, and lifted Prussia into a leading position among the European states.

Germany, now — with the exception of Austria — a compact -j^g condition

empire, was then a series of disconnected states, variously of the German

• • 1 • • 1 states

known as kingdoms, prmcipalities, margravates, electorates,

and by other titles, the whole forming the so-called Holy Empire, though it was " neither holy nor an empire." It had drifted down in this fashion from the Middle Ages, and the work of consolidation had but just begun, in the conquests of Frederick the Great. A host of petty potentates ruled the land, whose states, aside from Prussia and Austria, were too weak to have a voice in the councils of Europe. Joseph II., the titular emperor of Germany, made an earnest and vigorous effort to combine its elements into a powerful unit; but he signally failed, and died in 1790, a disappointed and embittered man.

Austria, then far the most powerful of the German states, was from 1740 to 1780 under the reign of a woman, Maria Theresa, who struggled in vain against her ambitious neighbor, Frederick the Great, his kingdom being extended ruthlessly at the expense of her imperial dominions. Austria remained a great country, however, including Bohemia and Hun- gary among its domains. It was lord of Lombardy and Venice in Italy, and was destined to play an important but unfortunate part in the coming Napoleonic wars.

The peninsula of Italy, the central seat of the great Roman Empire, was, at the opening of the nineteenth century, as sadly broken up as Germany, a dozen weak states taking the place of the one strong one that the good of the people demanded. The independent cities of the mediaeval period no longer held sway, and we hear no more of wars between Florence, Genoa, Milan, Pisa and Rome ; but the country was still made up of minor states — Lombardy, Venice and Sardinia in the north, Naples dissension in in the south, Rome in the centre, and various smaller king- Italy and doms and dukedoms between. The peninsula was a prey to Decay in turmoil and dissension. Germany and France had made it their fighting ground for centuries, Spain had filled the south with her armies, and the country had been miserably torn and rent by these frequent wars and those between state and state, and was in a condition to welcome the coming of Napoleon, whose strong hand for the time promised the blessing of peace and union.

Spain, not many centuries before the greatest nation in Europe, and, as such, the greatest nation on the globe, had miserably declined in power and place at the opening of the nineteenth century. Under the emperor Charles I.

42 THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY

it had been united with Germany, while its colonies embraced two-thirds of the great continent of America. Under Philip II. it continued power- ful in Europe, but with his death its decay set in. Intolerance checked its growth in civilization, the gold brought from America was swept away by more enterprising states, its strength was sapped by a succession of fee- ble monarchs, and from first place it fell into a low rank among the nations of Europe. It still held its vast colonial area, but this proved a source of weakness rather than of strength, and the people of the colonies, exasper- ated by injustice and oppression, were ready for the general revolt which was soon to take place. Spain presented the aspect of a great nation ruined by its innate vices, impoverished by official venality and the decline of industry, and fallen into the dry rot of advancing decay.

Of the nations of Europe which had once played a prominent part, one Th p rt' f ^^^ ^"^ ^^ point of being swept from the map. The name of Poland by the Poland, which formerly stood for a great power, now stands Robber Na= only for a great crime. The misrule of the kings, the turbu- lence of the nobility, and the enslavement of the people had brought that state into such a condition of decay that it lay like a rotten log amid the powers of Europe.

The ambitious nations surrounding — Russia, Austria, and Prussia — took advantage of its weakness, and in 1772 each of them seized the portion of Poland that bordered on its own territories. In the remainder of the king- dom the influence of Russia grew so great that the Russian ambassador at Warsaw became the real ruler in Poland. A struggle against Russia began in 1792, Kosciusko, a brave soldier who had fought under Washington in America, being at the head of the patriots. But the weakness of the king tied the hands of the soldiers, the Polish patriots left their native land in despair, and in the following year Prussia and Russia made a further division of the state, Russia seizing a broad territory with more than 3,000,- 000 inhabitants.

In 1794 a new outbreak began. The patriots returned and a desperate struggle took place. But Poland was doomed. Suvoroff, the greatest of the Russian generals, swept the land with fire and sword. Kosciusko fell wounded, crying, " Poland's end has come," and Warsaw was taken and desolated by its assailants. The patriot was right ; the end had come. What remained of Poland was divided up between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and only a name remained.

There are two others of the powers of Europe of which we must speak, Russia and Turkey. Until th i seventeenth century Russia had been a do- main of barbarians, weak and disunited, and for a long period the vassal of

THE THRESHOLD OF THE CENTURY 43

the savage Mongol conquerors of Asia. Under Peter the Great (1689- 1725) it rose into power and prominence, took its place among civilized states, and began that career of conquest and expan- Russmand sion which is still going on. At the end of the eighteenth century it was under the rule of Catharine II., often miscalled Catharine the Great, who died in 1796, just as Napoleon was beginning his career. Her greatness lay in the ability of her generals, who defeated Turkey and con- quered the Crimea, and who added the greater part of Poland to her empire. Her strength of mind and decision of character were not shared by her successor, Paul I., and Russia entered the nineteenth century under the weakest sovereign of the Romanoff line.

Turkey, once the terror of Europe, and sending its armies into the heart of Austria, was now confined within the boundaries it had long before won, and had begun its long struggle for existence with its powerful neighbor, Russia. At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was still a powerful state, with a wide domain in Europe, and continued to defy the Christians who coveted its territory and sought its overthrow. But the canker-worm of a weak and barbarous government was at its heart, while its cruel treatment of its Christian subjects exasperated the strong powers of Europe and invited their armed interference.

As regards the world outside of Europe and America, no part of it had yet entered the circle of modern civilization. Africa was an almost unknown continent; Asia was little better known ; and the islands of the Eastern seas were still in process of discovery. Japan, which was approaching its period of manumission from barbarism, was still closed to the world, and China lay like a huge and helpless bulk, fast in the fetters of conserva>/^ri and blind self-sufficiency.

CHAPTER II.

Napoleon Bonaparte; The Man of Destiny.

THE first fifteen years of the nineteenth century in Europe yield us the history of a man, rather than of a continent. France was the centre of Europe; Napoleon, the Corsican, was the centre of France. All the affairs of all the nations seemed to gather around this genius of war. He was respected, feared, hated ; he had risen with the suddenness of a thunder- cloud on a clear horizon, and flashed the lightnings of victory in the dazzled eyes of the nations. All the events of the period were concentrated into one great event, and the name of that event was Napoleon. He seemed incarnate war, organized destruction ; sword in hand he dominated the nations, and victory sat on his banners with folded wings. He was, in a full sense, the man of destiny, and Europe was his prey.

Never has there been a more wonderful career. The earlier great

conquerors began life at the top ; Napoleon began his at the

Man and a bottom. Alexander was a king ; Csesar was an aristocrat of

Wonderful iY^q Roman republic ; Napoleon rose from the people, and

was not even a native of the land which became the scene of

his exploits. Pure force of military genius lifted him from the lowest to

the highest place among mankind, and for long and terrible years Europe

shuddered at his name and trembled beneath the tread of his marching

legions. As for France, he brought it glory, and left it ruin and dismay.

We have briefly epitomized Napoleon's early career, his doings in the Revolution, in Italy, and in Egypt, unto the time that France's worship of his military genius raised him to the rank of First Consul, and gave him in effect the power of a king. No one dared question his word, the army was at his beck and call, the nation lay prostrate at his feet — not in fear but in admiration. Such was the state of affairs in France in the closing year of the eighteenth century. The Revolution was at an end ; the Republic existed only as a name ; Napoleon was the autocrat of France and the terror of Europe. From this point we resume the story of his career.

The First Consul began his reign with two enemies in the field,

The Enemies England and Austria. Prussia was neutral, and he had won

and Friends of the friendship of Paul, the emperor of Russia, by a shrewd

ranee. move. While the other nations refused to exchange the

Russian prisoners they held, Napoleon sent home 6,000 of these captives,

(44)

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY 45

newly clad and armed, under their own leaders, and without demanding ransom. This was enough to win to his side the weak-minded Paul, whose delight in soldiers he well knew.

Napoleon now had but two enemies in arms to deal with. He wrote letters to the king of England and the emperor of Austria, offering peace. The answers were cold and insulting, asking France to take back her Bour- bon kings and return to her old boundaries. Nothing remained but war. Napoleon prepared for it with his usual rapidity, secrecy, and keenness of judgment.

There were two French armies in the field in the spring of 1800, Moreau commanding in Germany, Massena in Italy. Switzerland, which was occupied by the French, divided the armies of the enemy, and Napo- leon determined to take advantage of the separation of their forces, and strike an overwhelming blow. He sent word to Moreau and Massena to keep the enemy in check at any cost, and secretly gathered a third army, whose corps were dispersed here and there, while the powers of Europe were aware only of the army of reserve at Dijon, made up of conscripts and invalids.

Meanwhile the armies in Italy and Germany were doing their best to obey orders. Massena was attacked by the Austrians before „ . ^

■' ■' , Movements of

he could concentrate his troops, his army was cut in two, and the Armies in he was forced to fall back upon Genoa, in which city he was Germany and closely besieged, with a fair prospect of being conquered by starvation if not soon relieved. Moreau was more fortunate. He defeated the Austrians in a series of battles and drove them back on Ulm, where he blockaded them in their camp. All was ready for the great movement which Napoleon had in view.

Twenty centuries before Hannibal had led his army across the great mountain barrier of the Alps, and poured down like an avalanche upon the fertile plains of Italy. The Corsican determined to repeat this brilliant achievement and emulate Hannibal's career. Several passes across the mountains seemed favorable to his purpose, especially those of the St. Bernard, the Simplon and Mont Cenis. Of these the first was the most difficult ; but it was much the shorter, and Napoleon determined to lead the main body of his army over this ice-covered mountain pass, despite its dangers and dif^culties. The enterprise was one to deter any man less bold than Hannibal or Napoleon, but it was welcome to the hardihood and daring of these men, who rejoiced in the seemingly impossible and spurned at hardships and perils.

The task of the Corsican was greater than that of the Carthaginiaini.

46 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY

He had cannon to transport, while Hannibal's men carried only swords and

spears. But the genius of Napoleon was equal to the task.

Crosses the '^^^ cannon were taken from their carriages and placed in the

Alps at St. hollowed-out trunks of trees, which could be dragged with

Bernard Pass j-Qp^g over the ice and snow. Mules were used to draw the

gun-carriages and the wagon-loads of food and munitions of war. Stores

of provisions had been placed at suitable points along the road.

Thus prepared, Napoleon, on the i6th of May, 1800, began his remark- able march, while smaller divisions of the army were sent over the Simplon, the St. Gothard and Mont Cenis passes. It was an arduous enterprise. The mules proved unequal to the task given to them ; the peasants refused to aid in this severe work ; the soldiers were obliged to harness themselves to the cannon, and drag them by main strength over the rocky and ice- covered mountain path. The First Consul rode on a mule at the head of the rear-guard, serene and cheerful, chatting with his guide as with a friend, and keeping up the courage of the soldiers by his own indomitable spirit.

A few hours' rest at the hospice of St. Bernard, and the descent was begun, an enterprise even more difficult than the ascent. For five days the dread journey continued, division following division, corps succeeding corps. The point of greatest peril was reached at Aosta, where, on a precipitous rock, stood the little Austrian fort of Bard, its artillery commanding the narrow defile.

It was night when the vanguard reached this threatening spot. It was passed in dead silence, tow being wrapped round the wheels of the carriages and a layer of straw and refuse spread on the frozen ground, while the troops followed a narrow path over the neighboring mountains. By day- break the passage was made and the danger at an end.

The sudden appearance of the French in Italy was an utter surprise to

the Austrians. They descended like a torrent Into the valley, seized Ivry,

and five days after reaching Italy met and repulsed an Austrian force. The

divisions which had crossed by other passes one by one joined

e 1 ua ion Napoleon. Melas, the Austrian commander, was warned of

in Italy ^ ' \

the danger that impended, but refused to credit the seemingly preposterous story. His men were scattered, some besieging Massena, in Genoa, some attacking Suchet on the Var. His danger was imminent, for Napoleon, leaving Massena to starve in Genoa, had formed the design of annihilating the Austrian army at one tremendous blow.

The people of Lombardy, weary of the Austrian yoke, and hoping for liberty under the rule of France, received the new-comers with transport, gnd lent them what aid they could. On June 9th, Marshall Cannes met

NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS

Austnans in Jtaly, and defeated them in the great battle of Marengo-

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY 49

and defeated the Austrians at Montebello, after a hot engagement. " I heard the bones crackle hke a hailstorm on the roofs/' he said. On the 14th, the two armies met on the plain of Marengo, and one of the most famous of Napoleon's battles began.

Napoleon was not ready for the coming battle, and was taken by sur- prise. He had been obliged to break up his army in order to guard all the passages open to the enemy. When he entered, on the 13th, the plain be- tween the Scrivia and the Bormida, near the little village of -^^^ Famous Marengo, he was ignorant of the movements of the Austri- Field of ans, and was not expecting the onset of Melas, who, on the arengo following morning, crossed the Bormida by three bridges, and made a fierce assault upon the divisions of generals Victor and Lannes. Victor was vigor- ously attacked and driven back, and Marengo was destroyed by the Aus- trian cannon. Lannes was surrounded by overwhelming numbers, and, fight- ing furiously, was forced to retreat. In the heat of the battle Bonaparte reached the field with his guard and his staff, and found himself in the thick of the terrific affray and his army virtually beaten.

The retreat continued. It was impossible to check it. The enemy pressed enthusiastically forward. The army was in imminent danger of being cut in two. But Napoleon, with obstinate persistance, kept up the fight, hoping for some change in the perilous situation. Melas, on the con- trary,— an old man, weary of his labors, and confident in the seeming vic- tory,— withdrew to his headquarters at Alessandria, whence he sent off despatches to the effect that the terrible Corsican had at length met defeat.

He did not know his man. Napoleon sent an aide-de-camp in all haste after Desaix, one of his most trusted generals, who had just returned from Egypt, and whose corps he had detached towards Novi. All depended upon his rapid return. Without Desaix the battle was lost. Fortunately the alert general did not wait for the messenger. His ears caught the sound of distant cannon and, scenting danger, he marched back with the utmost speed.

Napoleon met his welcome officer with eyes of joy and hope. " You see the situation," he said, rapidly explaining the state of affairs. " What is to be done ? "

" It is a lost battle," Desaix replied. " But there are some ^ Qreat Battle hours of daylight yet. We have time to win another." Lost and

While he talked with the commander, his regiments had *^°

hastily formed, and now presented a threatening front to the Austrians. Their presence gave new spirit to the retreating troops.

" Soldiers and friends," cried Napoleon to them, " remember that it is my custom to sleep upon the field of battle."

50 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY

Back upon their foes turned the retreating troops, with new animation, and checked the victorious Austrians. Desaix hurried to his men and placed himself at their head.

" Go and tell the First Consul that I am about to charge," he said to an aide. " I need to be supported by cavalry."

A few minutes afterwards, as he was leading his troops irresistibly for- ward, a ball struck him in the breast, inflicting a mortal wound. " I have been too long making war in Africa ; the bullets of Europe know me no more," he sadly said. "Conceal my death from the men ; it might rob them of spirit."

The soldiers had seen him fall, but, instead of being dispirited, they were filled with fury, and rushed forward furiously to avenge their beloved leader. At the same time Kellermann arrived with his dragoons, impetuously hurled them upon the Austrian cavalry, broke through their columns, and fell upon the grenadiers who were wavering before the troops of Desaix. It was a death-stroke. The cavalry and infantry together swept them back in a disorderly retreat. One whole corps, hopeless of escape, threw down its arms and surrendered. The late victorious army was everywhere in retreat. The Austrians were crowded back upon the Bormida, here block- ing the bridges, there flinging themselves into the stream, on all sides flying from the victorious French. The cannon stuck in the muddy stream and were left to the victors. When Melas, apprised of the sudden change in the aspect of affairs, hurried back in dismay to the field, the battle was irretriev- ably lost, and General Zach, his representative in command, was a prisoner in the hands of the French. The field was strewn with thousands of the dead. The slain Desaix and the living- Kellermann had turned the Austrian victory into defeat and saved Napoleon.

The Result of ^ ^^^ days afterwards, on the 19th, Moreau in Germany

the Victory won a brilliant victory at Hochstadt, near Blenheim, took 5,000 o arengo prisoners and twenty pieces of cannon, and forced from the Austrians an armed truce which left him master of South Germany. A still more momentous armistice was signed by Melas in Italy, by which the Aus- trians surrendered Piedmont, Lombardy, and all their territory as far as the Mincio, leaving France master of Italy. Melas protested against these severe terms, but Napoleon was immovable.

" I did not begin to make war yesterday," he said. *T know your situa- tion. You are out of provisions, encumbered with the dead, wounded, and sick, and surrounded on all sides. I could exact everything. I ask only what the situation of affairs demands. I have no other terms to offer."

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY 51

During the night of the 2d and 3d of July, Napoleon re-entered Paris, which he had left less than two months before. Brilliant ova- Napoleon tions met him on his route, and all France would have pros- Returns to trated itself at his feet had he permitted. He came crowned ^'ance with the kind of glory which is especially dear to the French, that gained on field of battle.

Five months afterwards, Austria having refused to make peace without

the concurrence of England, and the truce being at an end, another famous

victory was added to the list of those which were being inscribed upon the

annals of France. On the 3d of December the veterans under Moreau met

an Austrian army under the Archduke John, on the plain of Hohenlinden,

across which ran the small river I sen

The Austrians marched througfh the forest of Hohen- ,, ^^,

^ ^ Moreau and the

linden, looking for no resistance, and unaware that Moreau's Great Battle army awaited their exit. As they left the shelter of the trees ®/ Hohen= and debouched upon the plain, they were attacked by the French in force. Two divisions had been despatched to take them in the rear, and Moreau held back his men to give them the necessary time. The snow was falling in great flakes, yet through it his keen eyes saw some signs of confusion in the hostile ranks.

" Richepanse has struck them in the rear," he said. ** the time has come to charge."

Ney rushed forward at the head of his troops, driving the enemy in confusion before him. The centre of the Austrian army was hemmed in between the two forces, Decaen had struck their left wingr in the rear and forced it back upon the Inn. Their right was driven into the valley. The day was lost to the Austrians, whose killed and wounded numbered 8,000, while the French had taken 12,000 prisoners and eighty-seven pieces of cannon.

The victorious French advanced, sweeping back all opposition, until Vienna, the Austrian capital, lay before them, only a few leagues away. His staff officers urged Moreau to take possession of the city.

** That would be a fine thing to do, no doubt," he said ; " but to my fancy to dictate terms of peace will be a finer thing still."

The Austrians were ready for peace at any price. On Christmas day, 1800, an armistice was sip'ned which delivered to the French

The Peace of

the valley of the Danube, the country of the Tyrol, a number Luneville of fortresses, and immense magazines of war materials. The war continued in Italy till the end of December, when a truce was signed there and the conflict was at an end.

52 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY

Thus the nineteenth century dawned with France at truce with all her foes except Great Britain. In February, 1801, a treaty of peace between Austria and France was signed at Luneville, in which the valley of the Etsch and the Rhine was acknowledged as the boundary of France. Austria was forced to relinquish all her possessions in Italy, except the city of Venice and a portion of Venetia ; all the remainder of North Italy falling into the hands of France. Europe was at peace with the exception of the hostile relations still existing between England and France.

The war between these two countries was mainly confined to Egypt,

where remained the army which Napoleon had left in his hasty return to

France. As it became evident in time that neither the British land forces

nor the Turkish troops could overcome the French veterans in the valley

of the Nile, a treaty was arrang-ed which stipulated that the The Peace of . . .

Amiens French soldiers, 24,000 in all, should be taken home in English

ships, with their arms and ammunition, Egypt being given

back to the rule of the Sultan. This was followed by the peace of Amiens

(March 27, 1802), between England and France, and the long war was, for

the time, at an end. Napoleon had conquered peace.

During the period of peaceful relations that followed Napoleon was by no means at rest. His mind was too active to yield him long intervals of leisure. There was much to be done in France in sweeping away the traces of the revolutionary insanity. One of the first cares of the Consul was to restore the Christian worship in the French churches and to abolish the Rtj^jublican festivals. But he had no intention of giving the church back its old power and placing another kingship beside his own. He insisted that the French church should lose its former supremacy and sink to the position of a servant of the Pope and of the temporal sovereign of France.

Establishing his court as First Consul in the Tuileries, Napoleon began to bring back the old court fashions and etiquette, and attempted to restore the monarchical customs and usages. The elegance of royalty reappeared, and it seemed almost as if monarchy had been restored. ,

A further step towards the restoration of the kingship was soon taken. Napoleon, as yet Consul only for ten years, had himself appointed Consul for life, with the power of naming his successor. He was king now in everything but the name. But he was not suffered to wear his new honor in safety. His ambition had aroused the anger of the republicans, conspi- racies rose around him, and more than once his life was in danger. On his way to the opera house an infernal machine was exploded, killing several persons but leaving him unhurt.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY 55

Other plots were organized, and Fouche, the police-agent of the time, was kept busy in seeking the plotters, for whom there y^^ Punish- was brief mercy when found. Even Moreau, the victor at mentof the Hohenlinden, accused of negotiating with the conspirators, *^d^th'"^A''^ was disgraced, and exiled himself from France. Napoleon dealt sassinatton with his secret enemies with the same ruthless energy as he ®* ^^^ Duke did with his foes in the field of battle.

His rage at the attempts upon his life, indeed, took a form that has been universally condemned. The Duke d'Enghlen, a royalist French nobleman, grandson of the Prince of Conde, who was believed by Napoleon to be the soul of the royalist conspiracies, ventured too near the borders of France, and was seized in foreign territory, taken in haste to Paris, and shot without form of law or a moment's opportunity for defence. The outrage excited the deepest indignation throughout Europe. No name was given it but murder, and the historians of to-day speak of the act by no other title.

The opinion of the world had little effect upon Napoleon. He was a law unto himself. The death of one man or of a thousand m.en weighed nothing to him where his safety or his ambition was concerned. Men were the pawns he used In the great game of empire, and he heeded not how many of them were sacrificed so that he won the game.

The culmination of his ambition came in 1804, when the hope he had long secretly cherished, that of gaining the imperial dignity was realized. He imitated the example of Caesar, the Roman conqueror, in seeking the crown as a reward for his victories, and was elected Crowned emperor of the French by an almost unanimous vote. That Emperor of the sanction of the church might be obtained for the new dignity, the Pope was constrained to come to Paris, and there anointed him emperor on December 2, 1804.

The new emperor hastened to restore the old insignia of royalty. He surrounded nimself with a brilliant court, broug-ht back the discarded titles of nobility, named the members of his family princes and princesses, and sought to banish every vestige of republican simplicity. Ten years before he had begun his career in the streets of Paris by sweeping away with can- non-shot the mob that rose in support of the Reign of Terror. Now he had swept away the Republic of France and founded a French empire, with himself at its head as Napoleon I.

But though royalty was restored, it was not a royalty of the old type. Feudalism was at an end. The revolution had destroyed the last relics of that effete and abominable system, and it was an empire on new and

56 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE— THE MAN OF DESTINY

modern lines which Napoleon had founded, a royalty voted into existence

by a free people, not resting upon a nation of slaves.

The new emperor did not seek to enjoy in leisure his new dignity. His

restless mind impelled him to broad schemes of public improvement. He

The Great sought glory in peace as actively as in war. Important

Works Divised changes were made in the management of the finances in order

By the New ^.o provide the sjreat sums needed for the eovernment, the

Emperor ^ , . ^ ^^ ^, . ' ,

army, and the state. Vast contracts were made tor road and

canal building, and ambitious architectural labors were set in train. Churches

were erected, the Pantheon was completed, triumphal arches were built,

two new bridges were thrown over the Seine, the Louvre was ordered to be

finished, the Bourse to be constructed, and a temple consecrated to the exploits

of the army (now the church of the Madeleine) to be built. Thousands of

workmen were kept busy in erecting these monuments to his glory, and

all France resounded with his fame.

Among the most important of ttese evidences of his activity of intellect

was the formation of the Code Napoleon, the first organized code of French

law, and still the basis of jurisprudence in France. First promulgated in

1801, as the Civil Code of France, its title was changed to the Code Napoleon

in 1804, and as such it stands as one of the greatest monuments raised by

Napoleon to his glory. Thus the Consul, and subsequently the Emperor,

usefully occupied himself in the brief intervals between his almost incessant

wars.

CHAPTER III.

Europe in the Grasp of the Iron Hand.

THE peace of Amiens, which for an interval left France without an open enemy in Europe, did not long continue. England failed to carry out one of the main provisions of this treaty, holding on to the island of Malta in despite of the French protests. The feeling between the two nations soon grew bitter, and in 1803 England again declared war against France. William Pitt, the unyielding foe of Napoleon, came again to the head of the ministry in 1804, ^.nd displayed all his old activity in org'anizinp' coalitions ao^ainst the hated Corsican. "f , „,

■' » » ^ Declares War

The war thus declared was to last, so far as England was con- cerned, until Napoleon was driven from his throne. It was conducted by the English mainly through the aid of money paid to their European allies, and the activity of their fleet. The British Channel remained an insuper- able obstacle to Napoleon in his conflict with his island foe, and the utmost he could do in the way of revenge was to launch his armies against the allies of Great Britain, and to occupy Hanover, the domain of the English king on the continent. This he hastened to do.

The immunity of his persistant enemy was more than the proud con- queror felt disposed to endure. Hitherto he had triumphed over all his foes in the field. Should these haughty islanders contemn his power and defy his armies? He determined to play the role of William of Normandy, centuries before, and attack them on their own shores. This design he had long entertained, and began actively to prepare for as soon as war was declared.- An army was encamped at Boulogne, and a great flotilla prepared to convey it across the narrow sea. The war tionsforthe

material o-athered was enormous in quantity; the army num- invasion of

-1 1 o ^^ r England

bered 120,000 men, with 10,000 horses; 1,800 gunboats 01

various kinds were ready ; only the support of the fleet was awaited to enable the crossing to be achieved in safety.

We need not dwell further upon this great enterprise, since it failed to yield any result. The French admiral whose concurrence was depended upon took sick and died, and the great expedition was necessarily postponed. Before new plans could be laid the indefatigable Pitt had succeeded in organizing a fresh coalition in Europe, and Napoleon found full employ- ment for his army on the continent.

(57}

58 EUROPE IN THE GRASPE OF THE IRON HAND

In April, 1805, a treaty of alliance was made between England and Russia. On the 9th of August, Austria joined this alliance. Sweden sub- sequently gave in her adhesion, and Prussia alone remained neutral among the great powers. But the allies were mistaken if they expected to take the astute Napoleon unawares. He had foreseen this combination, and, while keeping the eyes of all Europe fixed upon his great preparations at Boulogne, he was quietly but effectively laying his plans for the expected campaign.

The Austrians had hastened to take the field, marching an army into

Bavaria and forcing the Elector, the ally of Napoleon, to fly from his capital.

The French emperor was seemingly taken by surprise, and apparently was in

no haste, the Austrians having made much progress before he left his palace

at Saint Cloud. But meanwhile his troops were quietly but Rapid March • 1 1 • • • r 1 1 • 11

on Austria rapidly m motion, converging irom all points towards the

Rhine, and by the end of September seven divisions of the

army, commanded by Napoleon's ablest Generals, — Ney, Murat, Lannes,

Soult and others, — were across that stream and marching rapidly upon the

enemy. Bernadotte led his troops across Prussian territory in disdain of the

neutrality of that power, and thereby gave such offence to King Frederick

William as to turn his mind decidedly in favor of joining the coalition.

Early in October the French held both banks of the Danube, and before the month's end they had gained a notable triumph. Mack, one of the Austrian commanders, with remarkable lack of judgment, held his army in the fortress of Ulm while the swiftly advancing French were cutting off every avenue of retreat, and surrounding his troops. An extraordinary result followed. Ney, on the 14th, defeated the Austrians at Elchingen, cutting off Mack from the main army and shutting him up hopelessly in The Surrender Ulm. Five days afterwards the desparing and incapable of General general surrendered his army as prisoners of war. Twenty- ^^ three thousand soldiers laid their weapons and banners at

Napoleon's feet and eighteen generals remained as prisoners in his hands. It was a triumph which in its way atoned for a great naval disaster which took place on the succeeding day, when Nelson, the English admiral, attacked and destroyed the whole French fleet at Trafalgar.

The succeeding events, to the great battle that closed the campaign, may be epitomized. An Austrian army had been dispatched to Italy under the brave and able Archduke Charles. Here Marshal Massena commanded the French and a battle took place near Caldiero on October 30th. The Austrians fought stubbornly, but could not withstand the impetuosity of the French, and were forced to retreat and abandon northern Italy to Massena and his men.

c o ur _^

iskli/ji i^M, Timn rnnmiii!

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 6i

In the north the king of Prussia, furious at the violation of his neutral territory by the French under Bernadotte, gave free passage to the Russian and Swedish troops, and formed a league of friendship with the Czar Alexander. He then dispatched his minister Haugwitz to Napoleon, with a demand that concealed a threat, requiring him, as a basis of peace, to restore the former treaties in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Holland.

With utter disregard of this demand Napoleon advanced along the Danube towards the Austrian states, meeting and defeating the Austrians and Russians in a series of sanguinary conflicts. The Russian army was the most ably commanded, and its leader Kutusoff led it backward in slow but resolute retreat, fighting only when attacked. The French under Mortier were caught isolated on the left bank of the Danube, and fiercely assailed by the Russians, losing heavily before they could be reinforced.

Despite all resistance, the French continued to advance, Murat soon reaching and occupying Vienna, the Austrian ^^ Vienna capital, from which the emperor had hastily withdrawn. Still the retreat and pursuit continued, the allies retiring to Moravia, whither the French, laden with an immense booty from their victories, rapidly followed. Futile negotiations for peace succeeded, and on the ist of December, the two armies, both concentrated in their fullest strength (92,000 of the allies to 70,000 French) came face to face on the field of Austerlitz, where on the following day was to be fought one of the memor- able battles in the history of the world.

The Emperor Alexander had joined Francis of Austria, and the two monarchs, with their staff officers, occupied the castle and village of Auster- litz. Their troops hastened to occupy the plateau of Pratzen, which Napoleon had designedly left free. His plans of battle ^^l^^^^^^^^ was already fully made. He had, with the intuition of genius, foreseen the probable manceuvers of the enemy, and had left open for them the position which he wished them to occupy. He even announced their movement in a proclamation to his troops.

" The positions that we occupy are formidable," he said, ** and while the enemy march to turn my right they will present to me their flank."

This movement to the right was indeed the one that had been decided upon by the allies, with the purpose of cutting ofT the road to Vienna by isolating numerous corps dispersed in Austria and Styria. It had been shrewdly divined by Napoleon in choosing his ground.

The fact that the 2d of December was the anniversary of the corona- tion of their emperor filled the French troops with ardor. They celebrated it by making great torches of the straw which formed their beds and illumi-

62 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

nating their camp. Early the next morning the allies began their projected movement. To the joy of Napoleon his prediction was fulfilled, they were advancing towards his right. He felt sure that the victory was in his hands. He held his own men in readiness while the line of the enemy deployed. The sun was rising, its rays gleaming through a mist, which dispersed as it The Greatest of ""^^^ higher. It now poured its brilliant beams across the

Napoleon's field, the afterward famous "sun of Austerlitz." The move- ictories ment of the allies had the effect of partly withdrawing their

troops from the plateau of Pratzen. At a signal from the emperor the strongly concentrated centre of the French army moved forward in a dense mass, directing their march towards the plateau, which they made all haste to occupy. They had reached the foot of the hill before the rising mist revealed them to the enemy.

The two emperors watched the movement without divining its intent. " See how the French climb the height without staying to reply to our fire," said Prince Czartoryski, who stood near them.

The emperors were soon to learn why their fire was disdained. Theif marching columns, thrown out one after another on the slope, found them- selves suddenly checked in their movement, and cut off from the two wings of the army. The allied force had been pierced in its centre, which was fiung back in disorder^ in spite of the efforts of Kutusoff to' send it aid. At the same time Davout faced the Russians on the right, and Murat and Lannes attacked the Russian and Austrian squadrons on the left, while Kel- lermann's light cavalry dispersed the squadrons of the Uhlans.

The Russian guard, checked in its movement, turned towards Pratzen, in a desperate effort to retrieve the fortune of the day. It was incautiously pursued by a French battalion, which soon found itself isolated and in danger. Napoleon perceived its peril and hastily sent Rapp to its sup- port, with the Mamelukes and the chasseurs of the guard. They rushed forward with energy and quickly drove back the enemy, Prince Repnin remaining a prisoner in their hands.

The day was lost to the allies. Everywhere disorder prevailed and their troops were in retreat. An isolated Russian division threw down its arms and surrendered. Two columns were forced back beyond the marshes. The soldiers rushed in their flight upon the ice of the lake, which the intense cold had made thick enough to bear their weight.

And now a terrible scene was witnessed. War is merci*

Lk''^r" less; death is its aim; the slaughter of an enemy by any

means is looked upon as admissible. By Napoleon's order the

French cannon were turned upon the lake. Their plunging balls rent and

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 63

splintered the ice under the feet of the crowd of fugitives. Soon it broke with a crash, and the unhappy soldiers, with shrill cries of despair, sunk to death in the chilling waters beneath, thousands of them perishing. It was a frightful expedient — one that would be deemed a crime in any other code than the merciless one of war.

A portion of the allied army made a perilous retreat along a narrow embankment which separated the two lakes of Melnitz and Falnitz, their exposed causeway swept by the fire of the French batteries. Of the whole army, the corps of Prince Bagration alone withdrew in order of battle.

All that dreadful day the roar of battle had resounded. At its close the victorious French occupied the field ; the allied army was pouring back in disordered flight, the dismayed emperors in its midst ; thousands of dead covered the fatal field, the groans of thousands of wounded men filled the air. More than 30,000 prisoners, including twenty generals, remained in Napoleon's hands, and with them a hundred and twenty pieces of cannon and forty flags, including the standards of the Imperial Guard of Russia.

The defeat was a crushing one. Napoleon had won the most famous of his battles. The Emperor Francis, in deep depression, Treaty of asked for an interview and an armistice. Two days afterward Peace with the emperors, — the conqueror and the conquered, — met and "^ "^ an armistice was granted. While the negotiations for peace continued Napoleon shrewdly disposed of the hostility of Prussia by offering the state of Hanover to that power and signing a treaty with the king. On Decem- ber 26th a treaty of peace between France and Austria was signed at Presburg. The Emperor Francis yielded all his remaining possessions in Italy, and also the Tyrol, the Black Forest, and other districts in Germany, which Napoleon presented to his allies, Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden ; whose monarchs were still more closely united to Napoleon by marriages between their children and relatives of himself and his wife Josephine. Bavaria and Wurtemberg were made kingdoms, and Baden was raised in rank to a grand-duchy; The three months' war was at an end. Austria had paid dearly for her subserviency to England. Of the several late enemies of France, only two remained in arms, Russia and England. And in the latter Pitt, Napoleon's greatest enemy, died during the next month, leaving the power in the hands of Fox, an admirer of the Corsican. Napoleon was at the summit of his glory and success.

Napoleon's political changes did not end with the partial dismember- ment of Austria. His ambition to become supreme in Europe and to rule everywhere lord paramount, inspired him to exalt his family, raising his rela-

6a EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

tlves to the rank of kings, but keeping them the servants of his imperious will. Holland lost its independence, Louis Bonaparte being named its king. Joachim Murat, brother-in-law of the emperor, was given a Awards King= kingdom, on the lower Rhine, with Diisseldorf as its capital. doms to His A Stroke of Napoleon's pen ended the Bourbon monarchy in Adh ^""^x^" Naples, and Joseph Bonaparte was sent thither as king, with a French army to support him. Italy was divided into duke- doms, ruled over by the marshals and adherents of the emperor, whose hand began to move the powers of Europe as a chess-player moves the pieces upon his board.

The story of his political transformations extends farther still. By rais- ing the electors of Bavaria and Wurtemberg to the rank of kings, he had practically brought to an end the antique German Empire — which indeed had long been little more than a name. In July, 1806, he completed this work. The states of South and West Germany were organized into a league named the Confederation of the Rhine, under the protection of Napoleon. Many small principalities were suppressed and their territories added to the larger ones, increasing the power of the latter, and winning the gratitude of their rulers for their benefactor. The empire of France was in this manner practically extended over Italy, the Netherlands, and the west and south of Germany. Francis II., lord of the " Holy Roman Empire," now renounced the title which these radical changes had made a mockery, withdrew his states from the imperial confederation of Germany, and assumed the title of Francis I. of Austria. The Empire of Germany, once powerful, but long since reduced to a shadowy pretence, finally ceased to exist.

These autocratic changes could not fail to arouse the indignation of the monarchs of Europe and imperil the prevailing peace. Austria was in no The Hostile condition to resume hostilities, but Prussia, which had main- irritation of tained a doubtful neutrality during- the recent wars g-rew more and more exasperated as these high-handed proceedings went on. A league which the king of Prussia sought to form with Saxony and Hesse-Cassel was thwarted by Napoleon ; who also, in negotiating for peace with England, offered to return Hanover to that country, without consulting the Prussian King, to whom this electorate had been ceded. Other causes of resentment existed, and finally Frederick William of Prussia, irritated beyond control, sent a so-called " ultimatum " to Napoleon, demanding the evacuation of South Germany by the French. As might have been expected, this proposal was rejected with scorn, whereupon Prussia broke off all communication with France and began preparations for war.

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 65

The Prussians did not know the man with whom they had to deal. It was an idle hope that this state could cope alone with the power of Napo- leon and his allies, and while Frederick William was slowly ^^^ Prussian preparing for the war which he had long sought to avoid, the Armies in French troops were on the march and rapidly approaching the borders of his kingdom. Saxony had allied itself with Prussia under com- pulsion, and had added 20,000 men to its armies. The elector of Hesse- Cassel had also joined the Prussians, and furnished them a contingent of troops. But this hastily levied army, composed of men few of whom had ever seen a battle, seemed hopeless as matched with the great army of war- worn veterans which Napoleon was marching with his accustomed rapidity against them. Austria, whom the Prussian King had failed to aid, now looked no passively at his peril. The Russians, who still maintained hostile relations with France, held their troops immovable upon the Vistula. Frederick William was left to face the power of Napoleon alone.

The fate of the campaign was quickly decided. Through ^arch of the the mountain passes of Franconia Napoleon led his forces French upon against the Prussian army, which was divided into two corps, russia under the command of the Duke of Brunswick and the Prince of Hohen- lohe. The troops of the latter occupied the r«)ad from Weimar to Jena, The heights which commanded the latter town were _ seized by Marshal Lannes on his arrival. A second French corps, under Marshals Davout and Bernadotte, marched against the Duke of Brunswick and established themselves upon the left bank of the Saale.

On the morning of the 4th of October, 1806, the conflict at Jena, upon which hung the destiny of the Prussian kingdom, began. The troops under the Prince of Hohenlohe surpassed in number those of Napoleon, but were unfitted to sustain the impetuosity of the French assault. Soult and Augereau, in command of the wings of the French army, advanced rapidly, enveloping the Prussian forces and driving them back by the vigor of their attack. Then on the Prussian center the guard and the reserves fell in a compact mass whose tremendous impact the enemy found it impossible to endure. The retreat became a rout. The Prussian army broke into a mob of fugitives, flying in terror before Napoleon's irresistible veterans.

They were met by Marshal Biechel with an army of 20,000 men, advanc- ing: in all haste to the aid of the Prince of Hohenlohe. _ , ^ ,^.

=» ^ ^ . . . . Defeat of the

Throwing his men across the line of flight, he did his utmost Prussians at to rally the fugitives. His effort was a vain one. His men Jena and

Auerstadt

were swept away by the panic-stricken mass and pushed back

by the triumphant pursuers. Weimar was reached by the French and the

66 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

Germans simultaneosly, the former seizing prisoners in such numbers as seriously to hinder their pursuit.

While this battle was going on, another was in progress near Auer- stadt, where Marshal Davout had encountered the forces of the Duke of Brunswick, with whom was Frederick William, the king. Bernadotte, ordered by the emperor to occupy Hamburg, had withdrawn his troops, leaving Davout much outnumbered by the foe. But heedless of this, he threw himself across their road in the defile of Koesen, and sustained alone the furious attack made upon him by the duke. Throwing his regiments into squares, he poured a murderous fire on the charging troops, hurling them back from his immovable lines. The old duke fell with a mortal wound. The king and his son led their troops to a second, but equally fruitless, attack. Davout, taking advantage of their repulse, advanced and seized the heights of Eckartsberga, where he defended himself with his artillery. Frederick William, discouraged by this vigorous, resistance, retired towards Weimar with the purpose of joining his forces with those of the Prince of Hohenlohe and renewing the attack.

Davout's men were too exhausted to pursue, but Bernadotte was encountered and barred the way, and the disaster at Jena was soon made evident by the panic-stricken mass of fugitives, whose flying multitude, hotly pursued by the French, sought safety in the ranks of the king's corps, which they threw into confusion by their impact It was apparent that the battle was irretrievably lost. Night was approaching. The king marched hastily away, the disorder in his ranks increasing as the darkness fell. In that one fatal day he had lost his army and placed his kingdom itself in jeopardy. "They can do nothing but gather up the debris" said Napoleon.

The French lost no time in following up the defeated army, which had

»,, „ -I- broken into several divisions in its retreat. On the 17th, The Demoriliza- ' ^ '

tionofthe Duke Eugene of Wurtemberg and the reserves under his Prussian command were scattered in defeat. On the 28th, the Prince

of Hohenlohe, with the 12,000 men whom he still held to- gether, was forced to surrender. Blucher, who had seized the free city of Llibeck, was obliged to follow his example. On all sides the scattered debris of the army was destroyed, and on October 27th Napoleon entered in triumph the city of Berlin, his first entry into an enemy's capital. j^^ ^j ^^ The battle ended, the country occupied, the work of

Divides the revenge of the victor began. The Elector of Hesse was driven

spoils of from his throne and his country stricken from the list of the

Victory - 1 1 t t

powers 01 JtLurope. Hanover and the Hanseatic towns were occupied by the French. The English merchandise found in ports and

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 67

warehouses was seized and confiscated. A heavy war contribution was laid upon the defeated state. Severe taxes were laid upon Hamburg, Bremen and Leipzig, and from all the leading cities the treasures of art and science were carried away to enrich the museums and galleries of France.

Saxony, whose alliance with Prussia had been a forced one, was alone spared. The Saxon prisoners were sent back free to their sovereign, and the elector was granted a favorable peace and honored with the title of king. In return for these favors he joined the Confederation of the Rhine, and such was his gratitude to Napoleon that he remained his friend and ally in the trying days when he had no other friend among the powers of Europe.

The harsh measures of which we have spoken were not the only ones taken by Napoleon against his enemies. England, the most implacable of his foes, remained beyond his reach, mistress of the seas as he was lord of the land. He could only meet the islanders upon their favorite element, and in November 21, 1806, he sent from Berlin to Talleyrand, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, a decree establishing a continental embargo against Great Britain.

"The British Islanders," said this famous edict of reprisal, "are declared in a state of blockade. All commerce and all correspondence with them are forbidden." All letters or packets addressed to an Englishman or written in English were to be seized ; every English subject found in -^^^ Embargo any country controlled by France was to be made a prisoner on British of war ; all commerce in English merchandise was forbidden, Commerce and all ships coming from England or her colonies were to be refused admittance to any port.

It is hardly necessary to speak here of the distress caused, alike in Europe and elsewhere, by this war upon commerce, in which England did not fail to meet the harsh decrees of her opponent by others equally severe. The effect of these edicts upon American commerce is well known. The commerce of neutral nations was almost swept from the seas. One result was the American war of 18 12, which for a time seemed as likely to be directed against France as Great Britain.

Meanwhile Frederick William of Prussia was a fugitive king. He refused to accept the harsh terms of the armistice william a offered by Napoleon, and in despair resolved to seek, with the Fugitive in remnant of his army, some 25,000 in number, the Russian the Russian camp, and join his forces with those of Alexander of Russia, still in arms against France.

Napoleon, not content while an enemy remained in arms, with inflex- ible resolution resolved to make an end of all his adversaries, and meet In

68 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

battle the great empire of the north. The Russian armies then occupied Poland, whose people, burning under the oppression and injustice to which they had been subjected, gladly welcomed Napoleon's specious offers to bring them back their lost liberties, and rose in his aid when he marched his armies into their country.

Here the French found themselves exposed to unlooked-for privations. They had dreamed of abundant stores of food, but discovered that the country they had invaded was, in this wintry season, a desert ; a series of frozen solitudes incapable of feeding an army, and holding no reward for them other than that of battle with and victory over the hardy Russians.

Napoleon advanced to Warsaw, the Polish capital. The Russians were entrenched behind the Narew and the Ukra. The French continued to advance. The Russians were beaten and forced back in every battle, several furious encounters took place, and Alexander's army fell back upon the Pregel, intact and powerful still, despite the French successes. The wintry chill and the character of the country seriously interfered with Napoleon's plans, the troops being forced to make their way through thick and rain- soaked forests, and march over desolate and marshy plains. The winter of ^. the north fought against them like a strong army and many

the Dreary of them fell dead without a battle. Warlike movements Plains of became almost impossible to the troops of the south, though

the hardy northeners, accustomed to the climate, continued their military operations.

By the end of January the Russian army was evidently approaching in force, and immediate action became necessary. The cold increased. The mud was converted into ice. On January 30, 1807, Napoleon left Warsaw and marched in search of the enemy. General Benningsen retreated, avoiding battle, and on the 7th of February entered the small town of Eylau, from which his troops were pushed by the approaching French. He encamped outside the town, the French in and about it ; it was evident that a great battle was at hand.

The weather was cold. Snow lay thick upon the ground and still fell in great flakes. A sheet of ice covering some small lakes formed part of the country upon which the armies were encamped, but was thick enough to bear their weight. It was a chill, inhospitable country to which the demon of war had come.

Before daybreak on the 8th Napoleon was in the streets of Eylau, forming his line of battle for the coming engagement. Soon the artillery of both armies opened, and a rain of cannon balls began to decimate the opposing ranks. The Russian fire was concentrated on the town, which

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND ^i

was soon in flames. That of the French was directed agfainst a hill which the emperor deemed it important to occupy. The two armies, ^j^^ Frightful nearly equal in numbers,— the French having 75,000 to the Struggle at Russian 70,000, — were but a short distance apart, and the Eylau slausfhter from the fierce cannonade was terrible.

A series of movements on both sides began, Davout marching upon the Russian flank and Augereau upon the centre, while the Russians manoeuvred as if with a purpose to outflank the French on the left. At this interval an unlooked-for obstacle interfered with the French movements, a snow-fall beginning, which grew so dense that the armies lost sight of each other, and vision was restricted to a few feet. In this semi-darkness the French columns lost their way, and wandered about uncertainly. For half an hour the snow continued to fall. When it ceased the French army was in a critical position. Its cohesion was lost ; its columns w^ere straggling about and incapable of supporting one another ; many of its superior ofUcers were wounded. The Russians, on the contrary, were on the point of executing a vigorous turning movement, with 20,000 infantry, supported by cavalry and artillery.

" Are you going to let me be devoured by these people ?" cried Napo- leon to Murat, his eagle eye discerning the danger.

He ordered a grand charge of all the cavalry of the army, consisting of eighty squadrons. With Murat at their head, they rushed Murat's like an avalanche on the Russian lines, breaking through the Mighty infantry and dispersing the cavalry who came to its support. Charge The Russian infantry suffered severely from this charge, its two massive lines being rent asunder, while the third fell back upon a wood in the rear. Finally Davout, whose movement had been hindred by the weather, reached the Russian rear, and in an impetuous charge drove them from the hilly ground which Napoleon wished to occupy.

The battle seemed lost to the Russians. They began a retreat, leaving the ground strewn thickly with their dead and wounded. But at this critical moment a Prussian force, some 8,000 strong, which was being pursued by Marshal Ney, arrived on the field and checked the French advance and the Russian retreat. Benningsen regained sufficient confidence to prepare for final attack, when he was advised of the approach of Ney, who was two or three hours behind the Prussians. At this discouraging news a final retreat was ordered.

The French were left masters of the field, though little attempt was made to pursue the menacing columns of the enemy, who withdrew in mili- tary array. It was a victory that came near being a defeat, and which,

72 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

indeed, both sides claimed. Never before had Napoleon been so stub- bornly withstood. His success had been bought at a frightful cost, and The Cost of Konigsberg, the old Prussian capital, the goal of his march, Victory was Still covered by the compact columns of the allies. The

Frig t u men were in no condition to pursue. Food was wanting, and

they were without shelter from the wintry chill. Ney surveyed the terrible scene with eyes of gloom. " What a massacre," he exclaimed ; " and with- out result."

So severe was the exhaustion on both sides from this great battle that it was four months before hostilities were resumed. Meanwhile Danzig, which had been strongly besieged, surrendered, and more than 30,000 men were released to reinforce the French army. Negotiations for peace went slowly on, without result, and it was June before hostilities again became imminent.

Eylau, which now became Napoleon's headquarters, presented a very different aspect at this season from that of four months before. Then all was wintry desolation ; now the country presented a beautiful scene of green woodland, shining lakes, and attractive villages. The light corps of the army were in motion in various directions, their object being to get between the Russians and their magazines and cut off retreat to Konigsberg. On June 13th Napoleon, with the main body of his army, marched towards Fried- land, a town on the River Alle, in the vicinity of Konigsberg, towards which the Russians were marching. Here, crossing the Alle, Benningsen drove from the town a regiment of French hussars which had occupied it, and fell with all his force on the corps of Marshal Lannes, which alone had reached the field.

Lannes held his ground with his usual heroic fortitude, while sending

Napoleon on successive messengers for aid to the emperor. Noon had

the Field of passed when Napoleon and his staff reached the field at full

Friedland gallop, far in advance of the troops. He surveyed the field

with eyes of hope. " It is the 14th of June, the anniversary of Marengo,"

he said ; ** it is a lucky day for us."

"Give me only a reinforcement," cried Oudinot, " and we will cast all the Russians into the water."

This seemed possible. Benningsen's troops were perilously concen- trated within a bend of the river. Some of the French generals advised de- ferring the battle till the next day, as the hour was late, but Napoleon was too shrewd to let an advantage escape him.

" No," he said, " one does not surprise the enemy twice in such a blun- der." He swept with his field-glass the masses of the enemy before him,

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 73

then seized the arm of Marshal Ney. " You see the Russians and the town of Friedland," he said. " March straight forward ; seize the town ; take the bridges, whatever it may cost. Do not trouble yourself with what is taking place around you. Leave that to me and the army."

The troops were coming in rapidly, and marching to the places assigned them. The hours moved on. It was half-past five in the afternoon when the cannon sounded the signal of the coming fray.

Meanwhile Ney's march upon Friedland had begun. A terrible fire from the Russians swept his ranks as he advanced. Aided by jj^^ Assault of cavalry and artillery, he reached a stream defended by the the indom- Russian Imperial Guard. Before those picked troops the 'tableNey French recoiled in temporary disorder ; but the division of General Dupont, marching briskly up, broke the Russian guard, and the pursuing French rushed into the town. In a short time it was in flames and the fugritive Russians were cut off from the bridges, which were seized and set on fire.

The Russians made a vigorous effort to recover their lost ground, General Gortschakoff endeavoring to drive the French from the town, and other corps making repeated attacks on the French centre. All their efforts were in vain„ The French columns continued to advance. By ten o'clock the battle was at an end. Many of the Russians had been drowned in the stream, and the field was covered with their dead, whose numbers were estimated by the boastful French bulletins at 15,000 or 18,000 men, while they made the improbable claim of having lost no more than -pi^g Total 500 dead. Konigsberg, the prize of victory, was quickly occu- Defeatof the pied by Marshal Soult, and yielded the French a vast quantity Russians of food, and a large store of military supplies which had been sent from England for Russian use. The King of Prussia had lost the whole of his possessions with the exception of the single town of Memel.

Victorious as Napoleon had been, he had found the Russians no con- temptible foes. At Eylau he had come nearer defeat than ever before in his career. He was quite ready, therefore, to listen to overtures for peace, and early in July a notable interview took place between him and the Czar of Russia at Tilsit, on the Niemen, the two emperors meeting on a raft in the centre of the stream. What passed between them is not ^^^ known. Some think that they arranged for a division of at Tilsit and Europe between their respective empires, Alexander taking ^^^ F^t^ o* all the east and Napoleon all the west. However that was, the treaty of peace, signed July 8th, was a disastrous one for the defeated Prussian king, who was punished for his temerity in seeking to fight

^4 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

Napoleon alone by the loss of more than- half his kingdom, while in addi- tion a heavy war indemnity was laid upon his depleted realms.

He was forced to yield all the countries between the Rhine and the Elbe, to consent to the establishment of a dukedom of Warsaw, under the supremacy of the king- of Saxony, and to the loss of Danzig and the surrounding territory, which were converted Into a free State. A new kingdom, named Westphalia, was founded by Napoleon, made up of the territory taken from Prussia and the states of Hesse, Brunswick and South Hanover. His youngest brother, Jerome Bonaparte, was made its king. It was a further step in his policy of founding a \>'estern empire.

Louisa, the beautiful and charming queen of J:>ederick William, sought Tilsit, hoping by the seduction of her beauty and grac^ of address to induce Napoleon to mitigate his harsh terms. But in vain sae brought to bear upon him all the resources of her intellect and her attractive charm of man- ner. He continued cold and obdurate, and she left Tilsit deeply mortified and humiliated. ^

In northern Europe only one enemy of Napoleon remained. Sweden retained its hostility to France, under the fanatical enmity of Gui tavus IV., who believed himself the instrument appointed by Providence to i^einstate the Bourbon monarchs upon their thrones. Denmark, which refused to ally itself with England, was visited by a British fleet, which ^^om- Sweden^" barded Copenhagen and carried off all the Danish ships^ of war, an outrage which brought this kingdom into close allianc?^ with France. The war in Sweden must have ended in the conquest o.^ that country, had not the people revolted and dethroned their obstinate king. Charles XIII., his uncle, was placed on the throne, but was induced to adopt Napoleon's marshal Bernadotte as his son. The latter, as crown prince, practically succeeded the incapable king in 1810.

Events followed each other rapidly. Napoleon, in his desire to add kingdom after kingdom to his throne, invaded Portugal and interfered in the affairs of Spain, from whose throne he removed the last of the Bourbon kings, replacing him by his brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The result was a revolt of the Spanish people which all his efforts proved unable to quell, aided, as they were eventually, by the power of England. In Italy his intrigues continued. Marshal Murat succeeded Joseph Bonaparte on the (chrone of Naples. Eliza, Napoleon's sister, was made queen of Tuscany. The Pope a '^^^ temporal sovereignity of the Pope was seriously inter-

Captiyeat fered with and finally, in 1809, the pontiff was forcibly on aine eau j.gniQyg(;j from Rome and the states of the Church were added to the French territory, Pius VII., the pope, was eventually brought to

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 75

France and obliged to reside at Fontainebleau, where he persistently refused to yield to Napoleon's wishes or perform any act of ecclesiastical authority while held in captivity.

These various arbitrary acts had their natural result, that of active hostility. The Austrians beheld them with growing indignation, and at length grew so exasperated that, despite their many defeats, they decided again to dare the power and genius of the conqueror. In April, 1809, the Vienna Cabinet once more declared war against France and made all haste to put its armies in the field. Stimulated by this, a revolt broke out in the Tyrol, the simple-minded but brave and sturdy mountaineers gathering under the leadership of Andreas Hofer, a man of authority among them, and wel- coming the Austrian troops sent to their aid.

As regards this war in the Tyrol, there is no need here to go into details. It must suffice to say that the bold peasantry, aided Andreas Hofer by the natural advantages of their mountain land, for a time and the War freed themselves from French dominion, to the astonishment *" ® ^^° and admiration of Europe. But their freedom was of brief duration, fresh troops were poured into the country, and though the mountaineers won more than one victory, they proved no match for the power of their foes. Their country was conquered, and Hofer, their brave leader, was taken by the French and remorselessly put to death by the order of Napoleon.

The struggle in the Tyrol was merely a side issue in the new war with Austria, which was conducted on Napoleon's side with his usual celerity of movement. The days when soldiers are whisked forward at locomotive speed had not yet dawned, yet the French troops made extraordinary prog- ress on foot, and war was barely declared before the army of Napoleon covered Austria. This army was no longer made up solely of Frenchmen. The Confederation of the Rhine practically formed part of Napoleon's empire, and Germans now fought side by side with Frenchmen ; Marshal Lefebvre leadingr the Bavarians, Bernadotte the Saxons, Au- t,. .

^ ' The Army of

gereau the men of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Hesse. On the Napoleon other hand, the Austrians were early in motion, and by the loth Marches of April the Archduke Charles had crossed the Inn with his army and the King of Bavaria, Napoleon's ally, was in flight from his capital. The quick advance of the Austrians had placed the French army in danger. Spread out over an extent of twenty-five leagues, it ran serious risk of being cut in two by the rapidly marching troops of the Archduke. Napoleon, who reached the front on the 17th, was not slow to perceive the peril and to take steps of prevention, A hasty concentration of his forces was ordered and vigorously begun. 5 '

76 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

" Never was there need for more rapidity of movement than now," he wrote to Massena. " Activity, activity, speed !"

Speed was the order of the day. The French generals ably seconded

the anxious activity of their chief. The soldiers fairly rushed together.

A brief hesitation robbed the Austrains of the advantage

Overcome which they had hoped to gain. The Archduke Charles, one

of the ablest tacticians ever opposed to Napoleon, had the

weakness of over-prudence, and caution robbed him of the opportunity

given him by the wide dispersion of the French.

He was soon and severely punished for his slowness. On the 19th Davout defeated the Austrians at Fangen and made a junction with the Bavarians. On the 20th and 21st Napoleon met and defeated them in a series of engagements. Meanwhile the Archduke Charles fell on Ratisbon, held by a single French regiment, occupied that important place, and attacked Davout at Eckmiihl. Here a furious battle took place. Davout, outnumbered, maintained his position for three days. Napoleon, warned of the peril of his marshal, bade him to hold oh to the death, as he was hastening to his relief with 40,000 men. The day was well advanced when the emperor came up and fell with his fresh troops on the Austrians, who, still bravely fighting, were forced back upon Ratisbon. During the night the Archduke wisely withdrew and marched for Bohemia, where a large reinforcement awaited him. On the 23d Napoleon attacked the town, and Th B tti f carried it in spite of a vigorous defence. His proclamation to Eckmuhl and his soldiers perhaps overestimated the prizes of this brief but the Capture active campaign, which he declared to be a hundred cannon,

of Ratisbon r n n 1 > -11 • 1

lorty liags, all the enemy s artillery, 50,000 prisoners, a large number of wagons, etc. Half this loss would have fully justified the Arch- duke's retreat.

In Italy affairs went differently. Prince Eugene Beauharnais, for the first time in command of a French army, found himself opposed by the

Archduke John, and met with a defeat. On April i6th, seeking The Campaign , , . , . . 1 1 1 a 1 1 1 i ^

In Italy ^^ retrieve his disaster, he attacked the Archduke, but the

Austrians bravely held their positions, and the French were

again obliged to retreat. General Macdonald, an officer of tried ability,

now joined the prince, who took up a defensive position on the Adige,

whither the Austrians marched. On the ist of May Macdonald perceived

among them indications of withdrawal from their position.

" Victory in Germany !" he shouted to the prince. " Now is our time

for a forward march !"

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 77

J

He was correct, the Archduke John had been recalled in haste to aid his brother in the defence of Vienna, on which the French were advancing in force.

The campaign now became a race for the capital of Austria. During its progress several conflicts took place, in each of which the French won. The city was defended by the Archduke Maximilian with an army of over 15,000 men, but he found it expedient to withdraw, and on the 13th the troops of Napoleon occupied the place. Meanwhile Charles had concen- trated his troops and was marching hastily towards the opposite side of the Danube, whither his brother John was advancing from Italy.

It was important for Napoleon to strike a blow before this junction could be made. He resolved to cross the Danube in the suburbs of the capital itself, and attack the Austrians before they were reinforced. In the vicinity of Vienna the channel of the river is broken by many islets. At the island of Lobau, the point chosen for the attempt, the river is broad and deep, but Lobau is separated from the opposite bank by only a narrow branch, while two smaller islets offered themselves as aids in the construc- tion of bridges, there being four channels, over each of which a bridge was thrown.

The work was a difficult one. The Danube, swollen by r^^^ Bridges the melting snows, imperilled the bridges, erected with diffi- over the culty and braced by insufficient cordage. But despite this "^nube peril the crossing began, and on May 20th Marshal Massena reached the other side and posted his troops in the two villages of Aspern and Essling, and along a deep ditch that connected them.

As yet only the vanguard of the Austrians had arrived. Other corps soon appeared, and by the afternoon of the 21st the entire army, from 70,000 to 80,000 strong, faced the French, still only half their number, and in a position of extreme peril, for the bridge over the main channel of the river had broken during the night, and the crossing was cut off in its midst.

Napoleon, however, was straining every nerve to repair the bridge, and Massena and Lannes, in command of the advance, fought like men fighting for their lives. The Archduke Charles, the ablest soldier Napoleon had yet encountered, hurled his troops in masses upon Aspern, which covered the bridge to Lobau. Several times it was taken and retaken, but the French held on with a death grip, all the strength of the Austrians seeming insuffi- cient to break the hold of Lannes upon Essling. An advance in force, which nearly cut the communication between the two villages, was checked by an impetuous cavalry charge, and night fell, leaving the situation unchanged.

78 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

At dawn of the next day more than 70,000 French had crossed the stream ; Marshal Davout's corps, with part of the artillery and most of the ammunition, being still on the right bank. At this critical moment the large bridge, against which the Austrians had sent fireships, boats laden with stone and other floating missiles, broke for the third time, and the engin- eers of the French army were again forced to the most strenuous and hasty exertions for its repair.

The struggle of the day that had just begun was one of extraordinary -,. „ valor and obstinacy. Men went down in multitudes ; now

struggle of the Austrians, now the French, were repulsed ; the Austrians, Esslingand impetuously assailed, slowly fell back; and Lannes was pre- paring for a vigorous movement designed to pierce their centre, when word was brought Napoleon that the great bridge had again yielded to the floating debris^ carrying with it a regiment of cuirassiers, and cutting off the supply of ammunition. Lannes was at once ordered to fall back upon the villages, and simultaneously the Austrians made a powerful assault on the French centre, which was checked with great difficulty. Five times the charge was renewed, and though the enemy was finally repelled, it became evident that Napoleon, for the first time in his career, had met with a decided check. Night fell at length, and reluctantly he gave the order to retreat. He had lost more than a battle, he had lost the brilliant soldier Lannes, who fell with a mortal wound. Back to the Napoleon Forced island of Lobau marched the French; Massena, in charge of the to his First rear-guard, bringing over the last regiments in safety. More Ke rea than 40,000 men lay dead and wounded on that fatal field,

which remained in Austrian hands. Napoleon, at last, was obliged to acknowledge a repulse, if not a defeat, and the nations of Europe held up their heads with renewed hope. It had been proved that the Corsican was not invincible.

Some of Napoleon's generals, deeply disheartened, advised an immedi- ate retreat, but the emperor had no thought of such a movement. It would have brought a thousand disasters in its train. On the contrary, he held the island of Lobau with a stronof force, and brought all his resources to bear on the construction of a bridge that would defy the current of the stream. At the same time reinforcements were hurried forward, until by the 1st of July, he had around Vienna an army of 150,000 men. The Austrians had probably from 135,000 to 140,000. The archduke had, morever, strongly fortified the positions of the recent battle, expecting the attack upon them to be resumed.

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NAPOLEON AND THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA AT TILSiT (from the painting by grosJ

Tilsit is a city of about .5,000 inhabitants in Eantern Prussia. Here the Treaty ofP^^^ce between the French J a city^o j^^^^;^^^^^p^^„^3 ^„d ^i3o between France and Prussia was signed in July, 1807

EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND 8i

Napoleon had no such intention. He had selected the heights ranging from Neusiedl to Wagram, strongly occupied by the Austrlans, ^pj^g second but not fortified, as his point of attack, and on the night of Crossing of July 4th bridges were thrown from the island of Lobau to the the Danube mainland, and the army which had been gathering for several days on the island began its advance. It moved as a whole against the heights of Wagram, occupying Aspern and Essling in its advance.

The great battle began on the succeeding day. It was hotly contested at all points, but attention may be confined to the movement against the plateau of Wagram, which had been entrusted to Marshal Davout. The height was gained after a desperate struggle ; the key of the battlefield was held by the French ; the Austrlans, impetuously ^^^^^^^ assailed at every point, and driven from every point of vantage, began a retreat. The Archduke Charles had anxiously looked for the com- ing of his brother John, with the army under his command. He waited in vain, the laggard prince failed to appear, and retreat became inevitable. The battle had already lasted ten hours, and the French held all the strong points of the field ; but the Austrlans withdrew slowly and in battle array, presenting a front that discouraged any effort to pursue. There was nothing resem- bling a rout.

The Archduke Charles retreated to Bohemia. His forces were dis- persed during the march, but he had 70,000 men with him when Napoleon reached his front at Znaim, on the road to Prague, on the nth of July. Further hostilities were checked by a request for a truce, preliminary to a peace. The battle, already begun, was stopped, and during the night an armistice was signed. The vigor of the Austrian resistance and the doubt- ful attitude of the other powers made Napoleon willing enough to treat for terms.

The peace, which was finally signed at Vienna, October 14, 1809, took from Austria 50,000 square miles of territory and 3,000,000 inhabitants, together with a war contribution of $85,000,000, ^. ®^*^® ° while her army was restricted to 150,000 men. The overthrow of the several outbreaks which had taken place in north Germany, the defeat of a British expedition against Antwerp, and the suppression of the revolt in the Tyrol, ended all organized opposition to Napoleon, who was once more master of the European situation.

Raised by this signal success to the summit of his power, lord para- mount of Western Europe, only one thing remained to trouble the mind of the victorious emperor. His wife, Josephine, was childless ; his throne threatened to be left without an heir. Much as he had seemed to love his

82 EUROPE IN THE GRASP OF THE IRON HAND

wife, the companion of his early days, when he was an unknown and uncon- sidered subaltern, seeking humbly enough for military employment in Paris, yet ambition and the thirst for glory were always the ruling passions in his nature, and had now grown so dominant as to throw love and wifely devo- tion utterly into the shade. He resolved to set aside his wife and seek a new bride among the princesses of Europe, hoping in this way to leave an heir of his own blood as successor to his imperial throne.

Negotiations were entered into with the courts of Europe to obtain a daughter of one of the proud royal houses as the spouse of the plebeian emperor of France. No maiden of less exalted rank than a princess of the imperial families of Russia or Austria was high enough to meet the ambitious aims of this proud lord of battles, and negotiations were entered into with both, ending in the selection of Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor Francis of Austria, who did not venture to refuse a demand for his daughter's hand from the master of half his dominions. ^ Napoleon was not long in finding a plea for setting aside

Josephine and the wife of his days of poverty and obscurity. A defect in Marriage of ^j-^g marriage was alleged, and the transparent farce went on. The divorce of Josephine has awakened the sympathy of a century. It was, indeed, a piteous example of state-craft, and there can be no doubt that Napoleon suffered in his heart while yielding to the dictates of his unbridled ambition. The marriage with Maria Louisa, on the 2d of April, 1 8 10, was conducted with all possible pomp and display, no less than five queens carrying the train of the bride in the august ceremony. The purpose of the marriage did not fail ; the next year a son was born to Napoleon. But this imperial youth, who was dignified with the title of King of Rome, was destined to an inglorious life, as an unconsidered te'iant of the gilded halls of his imperial grandfather of Austria.

CHAPTER IV.

The Decline and Fall of Napoleon's Empire.

AMBITION, unrestraiued by caution, uncontrolled by moderation, has its inevitable end. An empire built upon victory, trusting solely to military genius, prepares for itself the elements of its overthrow. This fact Napoleon was to learn. In the outset of his career he opposed a new art of war to the obsolete one of his enemies, and his path to empire was over the corpses of. slaughtered armies and the ruins of fallen king- doms. But year by year they learned his art, in war after war their resist- ance grew more stringent, each successive victory was won with more

difficulty and at sfreater cost, and finally, at the crossing^ of the

. The Causes of

Danube, the energy and genius of Napoleon met their equal, ^|^g j^j^^ ^^^

and the standards of France went back in defeat. It was the Decline of

tocsin of fate. His career of victory had culminated. From apoeons

•' Power

that day its decline began.

It is interesting to find that the first effective check to Napoleon's victorious progress came from one of the weaker nations of Europe, a power which the conqueror contemned and thought to move as one of the minor pieces in his game of empire. Spain at that time had reached almost the lowest stage of its decline. Its king was an imbecile ; the heir to the throne a weakling ; Godoy, the " Prince of the Peace," the monarch's favorite, an ambitious intriguer. Napoleon's armies had invaded Portugal and forced its monarch to embark for Brazil, his American ^.^^ ^^^ ^^^ domain. A similar movement was attempted in Spain. This trigues in country the base Godoy betrayed to Napoleon, and then, Portugal and frightened by the consequences of his dishonorable intrigues, sought to escape with the king and court to the Spanish dominions in America. His scheme was prevented by an outbreak of the people of Madrid, and Napoleon, ambitiously designing to add the peninsula to his empire, induced both Charles IV. and his son Ferdinand to resign from the throne. He replaced them by his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, who, on June 6, 1808, was named King of Spain.

Hitherto Napoleon had dealt with emperors and kings, whose overthrow carried with it that of their people. In Spain he had a new element, the

(83)

84 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

people itself, to deal with. The very weakness of Spain proved its strength. Deprived of their native monarchs, and given a king not of their own choice, ^,u T. t^ ^ ^- the whole people rose in rebellion and defied Napoleon and

The Bold Defi= . . . . . ...

ance of the his armies. An insurrection broke out in Madrid in which

People of 1,200 French soldiers were slain. Juntas were formed in dif-

ferent cities, which assumed the control of affairs and refused obedience to the new king. From end to end of Spain the people sprang to arms and began a guerilla warfare which the troops of Napoleon sought in vain to quell. The bayonets of the French were able to sustain King Joseph and his court in Madrid, but proved powerless to put down the peo- ple. Each city, each district, became a separate centre of war, each had to be conquered separately, and the strength of the troops was consumed in petty contests with a people who avoided open warfare and dealt in surprises and scattered fights, in which victory counted for little and needed to be re- peated a thousand times.

The Spanish did more than this. They put an army in the field which

. , J, ., was defeated by the French, but they revenged themselves

liant Victory brilliantly at Baylen, in Andalusia, where General Dupont,

and King Jo= with a corps 20,000 strong-, was surrounded in a position from

seph's Flight . . . . ^ ^ . . . ^,,. ,.

which there was no escape, and forced to surrender himself

and his men as prisoners of war.

This undisciplined people had gained a victory over France which none of the great powers of Europe could match. The Spaniards were filled with enthusiasm ; King Joseph hastily abandoned Madrid ; the French armies retreated across the Ebro. Soon encouraging news came from Portugal. The English, hitherto mainly confining themselves to naval warfare and to aiding the enemies of Napoleon with money, had landed an army in that country under Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Lord Wellington) and other generals, which would have captured the entire French army had it not capitulated on the terms of a free passage to France. For the time being the peninsula of Spain and Portugal was free from Napoleon's power.

The humiliating reverse to his arms called Napoleon himself into the field. He marched at the head of an army into Spain, defeated the insur- The Heroic gents wherever met, and reinstated his brother on the throne.

Defence of The city of Saragossa, which made one oi tne most heroic aragossa defences known in history, was taken, and the advance of the British armies was checked. And yet, though Spain was widely overrun, the people did not yield. The junta at Cadiz defied the French, the guerillas continued in the field, and the invaders found themselves baffled by an enemy who was felt oftener than seen.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 85

The Austrian war called away the emperor and the bulk of his troops, but after it was over he filled Spain with his veterans, increasing the strength of the army there to 300,000 men, under his ablest generals, Soult, Massena, Ney, Marmont, Macdonald and others. They marched through Spain from end to end, yet, though they held all the salient points, the people refused to submit, but from their mountain fastnesses kept up a petty and annoying war.

Massena, in 181 1, invaded Portugal, where Wellington with an English

army awaited him behind the strong- lines of Torres Vedras, „, ... ^ , / . , => ^ ^ ' Wellington's

which the ever-victorious French sought in vain to carry by Career in assault. Massena was compelled to retreat, and Soult, by Portugal and whom the emperor replaced him, was no more successful against the shrewd English general. At length Spain won the reward of her patriotic defence. The Russian campaign of 18 12 compelled the emperor to deplete his army in that country, and Wellington came to the aid of the patriots, defeated Marmont at Salamanca, entered Madrid, and forced King Joseph once more to flee from his unquiet throne.

For a brief interval he was restored by the French army under Soult and Suchet, but the disasters of the Russian campaign brought the reign of King Joseph to a final end, and forced him to give up the pretence of reigning over a people who were unflinchingly determined The Reward to have no king but one of their own choice. The story of of Patriotic the Spanish war ends in 18 13, when Wellington defeated the ^^^ French at Vittoria, pursued them across the Pyrenees, and set foot upon the soil of France.

While these events were taking place in Spain the power of Napoleon was being shattered to fragments in the north. On the banks of the Nie- men, a river that flows between Prussia and Poland, there gath-

A I^6cord of

ered near the end of June, 181 2, an immense army of more Disaster than 600,000 men, attended by an enormous multitude of non- combatants, their purpose being the invasion of the empire of Russia. Of this great army, made up of troops from half the nations of Europe, there reappeared six months later on that broad stream about 16,000 armed men, almost all that were left of that stupendous host. The remainder had per- ished on the desert soil or in the frozen rivers of Russia, few of them sur- viving as prisoners in Russian hands. Such was the character of the dread catastrophe that broke the power of the mighty conqueror and delivered Europe from his autocratic grasp.

The breach of relations between Napoleon and Alexander was largely due to the arbitrary and high-handed proceedings of the French emperor,

86 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

who was accustomed to deal with the map of Europe as if it represented his private domain. He offended Alexander by enlarging the duchy of Warsaw Napoleon and — ^^^ °^ ^^^ o^n creations — and deeply incensed him by ex- theCzarat tending the French empire to the shores of the Baltic, thus Enmity robbing of his dominion the Duke of Oldenburg, a near rela-

tive of Alexander. On the other hand the Czar declined to submit the com- mercial interests of his country to the rigor of Napoleon's " continental blockade," and made a new tariff, which interfered with the importation of French and favored that of English goods. These and other acts in which Alexander chose to place his own interests in advance of those of Napoleon were as wormwood to the haughty soul of the latter, and he determined to punish the Russian autocrat as he had done the other monarchs of Europe who refused to submit to his dictation.

For a year or two before war was declared Napoleon had been prepar- ing for the greatest struggle of his life, adding to his army by the most rig- orous methods of conscription and collecting great magazines of war mate- rial, though still professing friendship for Alexander. The latter, however, was not deceived. He prepared, on his part, for the threatened struggle, made peace with the Turks, and formed an alliance with Bernadotte, the crown prince of Sweden, who had good reason to be offended with his former lord and master. Napoleon, on his side, allied himself with Prussia and Austria, and added to his army large contingents of troops from the German states. At length the great conflict was ready to begin between the two autocrats, the Emperors of the East and the West, and Europe resounded with the tread of marching feet.

In the closing days of June the grand army crossed the Niemen, its last The Invasion of regiments reaching Russian soil by the opening of July. Na- Russiabythe poleon, with the advance, pressed on to Wilna, the capital of Grand Army Lithuania. On all sides the Poles rose in enthusiastic hope, and joined the ranks of the man whom they looked upon as their deliverer. Onward went the great army, marching with Napoleon's accustomed rapid- ity, seeking to prevent the concentration of the divided Russian forces, and advancing daily deeper into the dominions of the czar.

The French emperor had his plans well laid. He proposed to meet the Russians in force on some interior field, win from them one of his accus- tomed brilliant victories, crush them with his enormous columns, and force the dismayed czar to sue for peace on his own terms. But plans need two sides for their consummation, and the Russian leaders did not propose to lose the advantage given them by nature. On and on went Napoleon, deeper and deeper into that desolate land, but the great army he was tg

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 8:

crush failed to loom up before him, the broad plains still spread onward empty of soldiers, and disquiet began to assail his imperious soul as he found the Russian hosts keeping constantly beyond his reach, luring fu p „ j, him ever deeper into their vast territory. In truth Barclay de Baffled by Tolly, the czar's chief in command, had adopted a policy theRussian which was sure to prove fatal to Napoleon's purpose, that of persistently avoiding battle and keeping the French in pursuit of a fleeting will-of-the-wisp. while their army wasted away from natural disintegration in that inhospitable clime.

He was correct in his views. Desertion, illness, the death of young recruits who could not endure the hardships of a rapid march in the severe heat of midsummer, began their fatal work. Napoleon's plan of campaign proved a total failure. The Russians would not wait to be defeated, and each day's march opened a wider circle of operations before the advancing host, whom the interminable plain filled with a sense of hopelessness. The heat was overpowering, and men dropped from the ranks as rapidly as though on a field of battle. At Vitebsk the army was inspected, and the emperor was alarmed at the rapid decrease in his forces. Some of the divi- sions had lost more than a fourth of their men, in every corps the ranks were depleted, and reinforcements already had to be set on the march.

Onward they went, here and there bringing the Russians to bay in a minor engagement, but nowhere meeting them in numbers. Europe waited in vain for tidings of a great battle, and Napoleon began to look upon his proud army with a feeling akin to despair. He was not alone in his eager- ness for battle. Some of the high-spirited Russians, among them Prince Bagration, were as eager, but as yet the prudent policy of Barclay de Tolly prevailed.

On the 14th of August, the army crossed the Dnieper, and marched, now 175,000 strong, upon Smolensk, which was reached on the i6th. This ancient and venerable town was dear to the Russians, and Smolensk Cap- they made their first determined stand in its defence, fighting tured and in behind its walls all day of the 17th. Finding that the assault F'^mes was likely to succeed, they set fire to the town at night and withdrew, leaving to the French a city in flames. The bridge was cut, the Russian army was beyond pursuit on the road to Moscow, nothing had been gained by the struggle but the ruins of a town.

The situation was growing desperate. For two months the army had advanced without a battle of importance, and was soon in the heart of Russia, reduced to half its numbers, while the hoped-for victory seemed 9LS far ofl as ever. And the short surnmer of the north was nearing its eq4,

88 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

The severe winter of that climate would soon begin. Discouragement everywhere prevailed. Efforts were made by Napoleon's marshals to induce him to give up the losing game and retreat, but he was not to be moved from his purpose, A march on Moscow, the old capital of the empire, he felt sure would bring the Russians to bay. Once within its walls he hoped to dictate terms of peace.

Napoleon was soon to have the battle for which his soul craved. Bar- clay's prudent and successful policy was not to the taste of many of the Russian leaders, and the czar was at length induced to replace him by fiery old Kutusoff, who had commanded the Russians at Austerlitz. A change in the situation was soon apparent. On the 5th of September the French army debouched upon the plain of Borodino, on the road to Moscow, and the emperor saw with joy the Russian army drawn up to dispute the way to the " Holy City" of the Muscovites. The dark columns of troops were strongly intrenched behind a small stream, frowning rows of guns threat- ened the advancing foe, and hope returned to the emperor's heart.

Battle began early on the 7th, and continued all day \f *. longf, the Russians defending their ground with unyieldinof

Borodino ^ , . ...

stubborness, the French attacking their positions with all their old impetuous dash and energy. Murat and Ney were the heroes of the day. Again and again the emperor was implored to send the imperial guard and overwhelm the foe, but he persistently refused. " If there is a second battle to-morrow," he said, "what troops shall I fight it with? It is not when one is eight hundred leagues from home that he risks his last resource."

The guard was not needed. On the following day Kutusoff was obliged to withdraw, leaving no less than 40,000 dead or wounded on the field. Among the killed was the brave Prince Bagration. The retreat was an orderly one. Napoleon found it expedient not to pursue. His own losses aggregated over 30,000, among them an unusual number of generals, of whom ten were killed and thirty-nine wounded. Three days proved a brief time to attend to the burial of the dead and the needs of the wounded. Napoleon named the engagement the Battle of the Moskwa, from the river that crossed the plain, and honored Ney, as the hero of the day, with the title of Prince of Moskwa.

Th F' ts" ht ^^ ^^ ^5^^ ^^ Holy City was reached. A shout of

of the Holy " Moscow ! Moscow!" went up from the whole army as they City of gazed on the gilded cupolas and magnificent buildings of that

Russia & r fc> &

famous city, brilliantly lit up by the afternoon sun. Twenty miles in circumference, dazzling with the green gf its copper domes and

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 91

its minarets of yellow stone, the towers and walls of the famous Kremlin rising above its palaces and gardens, it seemed like some fabled city of the Arabian ISTights. With reiicwed enthusiasm the troops rushed towards it, while whole regiments of Poles fell on their knees, thanking God for deliver- ing this stronghold of .their oppressors into their hands.

It was an empty city into which the French marched; its streets deserted, its dwellings silent. Its busy life had vanished like a morning mist. Kutusoff had marched his army through it and left it to his foes. The inhabitants were gone, with what they could Army in the carry of their treasures. The city, like the empire, seemed ^^^ Russian likely to be a barren conquest, for here, as elsewhere, the policy of retreat, so fatal to Napoleon's hopes, was put into effect. The emperor took up his abode in the Kremlin, within whose ample precincts he found quarters for the whole imperial guard. The remainder of the army was stationed at chosen points about the city. Provisions were abundant, the houses and stores of the city being amply supplied. The army enjoyed a luxury of which it had been long deprived, while Napoleon confidently awaited a triumphant result from his victorious progress.

A terrible disenchantment awaited the invader. Early on the following morning word was brought him that Moscow was on fire. Flames arose from houses that had not been opened. It was evidently a premeditated conflagration,' The fire burst out at once in a dozen quarters, and a high wind carried the flames from street to street, from house to house, from church to church. Russians were captured who boasted that they had fired the town under orders and who met death unflinchingly. The r^, x> • *

"=" -^ 1 he Burning or

governor had left them behind for this fell purpose. The the Great

poorer people, many of whom had remained hidden in their ^'<^y ^f

. rioscow.

huts, now fled in terror, taking with them what cherished

possessions they could carry. Soon the city was a seething mass of flames.

The Kremlin did not escape. A tower burst into flames. In vain the imperial guard sought to check the fire. No fire-engines were to be found in the town. Napoleon hastily left the palace and sought shelter outside the city, where for three days the flames ran riot, feeding on ancient palaces and destroying untold treasures. Then the wind sank and rain poured upon the smouldering embers. The great city had become a desolate heap of smoking ruins, into which the soldiers daringly stole back in search of valuables that might have escaped the flames.

This frightful conflagration was not due to the czar, but to Count Rostopchin, the governor of Moscow, who was subsequently driven from Russia by the execrations of those he had ruined. But it served asaprocla-

92 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

mation to Europe of the implacable resolution of the Muscovites and their determination to resist to the bitter end.

Napoleon, sadly troubled in soul, sent letters to Alexander, suggesting the advisability of peace. Alexander left his letters unanswered. Until October i8th the emperor waited, hoping against hope, willing to grant almost any terms for an opportunity to escape from the fatal trap into which his overweening ambition had led him. No answer came from the czar. He was inflexible in his determination not to treat with these invaders of his country. In deep dejection Napoleon at length gave the order to retreat — too late, as it was to prove, since the terrible Russian winter was ready to descend upon them in all its frightful strength.

The army that left that ruined city was a sadly depleted one. It had The Grand been reduced to 103,000 men. The army followers had also

Army Begins become greatly decreased in numbers, but still formed a host, sRe rea among them delicate ladies, thinly clad, who gazed with terri- fied eyes from their traveling carriages upon the dejected troops. Articles of plunder of all kinds were carried by the soldiers, even the wounded in the wagons lying amid the spoil they had gathered. The Kremlin was destroyed by the rear guard, under Napoleon's orders, and over the drear Russian plains the retreat began.

It was no sooner under way than the Russian policy changed. From retreating, they everywhere advanced, seeking to annoy and cut off the enemy, and utterly to destroy the fugitive army if possible. A stand was made at the town of Maloi-Yaroslavitz, where a sanguinary combat took place. The French captured the town, but ten thousand men lay dead or wounded on the field, while Napoleon was forced to abandon his projected line of march, and to return by the route he had followed in his advance on Moscow. From the bloody scene of contest the retreat continued, the battlefield of Borodino being crossed, and, by the middle of November, the ruins of Smolensk reached.

Winter was now upon the French in all its fury. The food brought

from Moscow had been exhausted. Famine, frost, and fatigue had proved

more fatal than the bullets of the enemy. In fourteen days after reaching

The Sad Rem- Moscow the army lost 43,000 men, leaving it only 60,000 strong.

nant of the On reaching Smolensk it numbered but 42,000, having lost

Army of i8,ooo more within eieht days. The unarmed followers are

Invasion ., 11

said to have still numbered 60,000. Worse still, the supply

of arms and provisions ordered to be ready at Smolensk was in great part

lacking, only rye-flour and rice being found. Starvation threatened to aid the

winter cold in the destruction of the feeble remnant of the " Grand Army."

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 93

Onward went the despairing host, at every step harassed by the Russians, who followed like wolves on their path. Ney, in command of the rear- guard, was the hero of the retreat. Cut off by the Russians from the main column, and apparently lost beyond hope, he made a wonderful escape by crossing the Dnieper on the ice during the night and rejoining his compan- ions, who had given up the hope of ever seeing him again.

On the 26th the ice-cold river Beresina was reached, destined to be the most terrible point on the whole dreadful march. Two bridges -pj^^ Dreadful were thrown in all haste across the stream, and most of the Crossing of men under arms crossed, but 18,000 stragglers fell into the the Beresina hands of the enemy. How many were trodden to death in the press or were crowded from the bridge into the icy river cannot be told. It is said that when spring thawed the ice 30,000 bodies were found and burned on the banks of the stream. A mere fragment of the great army remained alive. Ney was the last man to cross that frightful stream.

On the 3d of December Napoleon issued a bulletin which has become famous, telling the anxious nations of Europe that the grand army was anni- hilated, but the emperor was safe. Two days afterwards he surrendered the command of the army to Murat and set out at all speed for Paris, where his presence was indispensibly necessary. On the 13th of December some 16,000 haggard and staggering men, almost too weak to hold the arms to which they still despairingly clung, recrossed the Niemen, which the grand army had passed in such magnificent strength and with such abounding resources less than six months before. It was the greatest and most astound- ing disaster in the military history of the world.

This tale of terror may be fitly closed by a dramatic story told by General Mathieu Dumas, who, while sitting at breakfast in Gumbinnen, saw enter a haggard man, with long beard, blackened face, and red and glaring eyes.

" I am here at last," he exclaimed. " Don't you know me.''"

" No," said the general. " Who are you ?"

" I am the rear-guard of the Grand Army. I have fired the last musket- shot on the bridge of Kowno. I have thrown the last of our arms into the Niemen, and came hither through the woods. I am Marshal Ney."

" This is the beginning of the end," said the shrewd Talleyrand, when Napoleon set out on his Russian campaign. The remark proved true, the disaster in Russia had loosened the grasp of the Corsican on the throat of Europe, and the nations, which hated as much as they feared their ruthless enemy, made active preparations for his overthrow. While he was in France, actively gathering men and materials for a renewed struggle, signs

94 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

of an implacable hostility began to manifest themselves on all sides in the surrounding states. Belief in the invincibility of Napoleon had vanished, and little fear was entertained of the raw conscripts whom he was forcing Europe in Arms ^'^^^ ^^^ ranks to replace his slaughtered veterans. Against Prussia was the first to break the bonds of alliance with

Napoleon France, to ally itself with Russia, and to call its people to

arms against their oppressor. They responded with the utmost enthusiasm, men of all ranks and all professions hastened to their country's defence, and the noble and the peasant stood side by side as privates in the same regi- ment. In March, 1813, the French left Berlin, which was immediately occupied by the Russian and Prussian allies. The king of Saxony, how- ever, refused to desert Napoleon, to whom he owed many favors and whose anger he feared ; and his. State, in consequence, became the theatre of the war.

Across the opposite borders of this kingdom poured the hostile hosts. The opening meeting in battle at Liitzen and Buntzen. Here the French of the held the field, driving their adversaries across the Oder, but

ina strugge ^^^ j^^ ^j^^ wild dismay seen at Jena. A new spirit had been aroused in the Prussian heart, and they left thousands of their enemies dead upon the field, among whom Napoleon saw with grief his especial friend and favorite Duroc.

A truce followed, which the French emperor utilized in gathering fresh levies. Prince Metternich, the able chancellor of the Austrian empire, sought to make peace, but his demands upon Napoleon were much greater than the proud conqueror was prepared to grant, and he decisively refused to cede the territory held by him as the spoils of war. His refusal brought upon him another powerful foe, Austria allied itself with his enemies, formally declaring war on August 12, 1813, and an active and terrible struggle began.

Napoleon's army was rapidly concentrated at Dresden, upon whose Th B tti f works of defence the allied army precipitated itself in a vigor- Dresden, Na= ous assault on August 26th. Its strength was wasted against poleon's Last i\^q vigorously held fortifications of the city, and in the end the gates were flung open and the serried battalions of the Old Guard appeared in battle array. From every gate of the city these tried soldiers poured, and rushed upon the unprepared wings of the hostile host. Before this resistless charge the enemy recoiled, retreating with heavy loss to the heights beyond the city, and leaving Napoleon master of the field. On the next morning the battle was resumed. The allies, strongly posted, still outnumbered the French, and had abundant reason to exx>ect

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 95

victory. But Napoleon's eagle eye quickly saw that their left wing lacked the strength of the remainder of the line, and upon this he poured the bulk of his forces, while keeping their centre and right actively engaged. The result justified the instinct of his genius, the enemy was driven back in disastrous defeat, and once again a glorious victory was inscribed upon the banners of France — the final one in Napoleon's career of fame.

Yet the fruits of this victory were largely lost in the events of the remainder of the month. On the 26th Bliicher brilliantly defeated Marshal Macdonald on the Katzbach, in Silesia; on the 30th General a Series of Vandamme, with 10,000 French soldiers, was surrounded and French captured at Culm, in Bohemia; and on the 27th Hirschfeld, at «sasters Hagelsberg, with a corps of volunteers, defeated Girard. The Prussian- Swedish army similarly won victories on August 25th and September 6th, and a few weeks afterward the Prussian general. Count York, supported by the troops of General Horn, crossed the Elbe in the face of the enemy, and gained a brilliant victory at Wartenburg. Where Napoleon was present victory inclined to his banner. Where he was absent his lieute- nants suffered defeat. The struggle was everywhere fierce and desperate, but the end was at hand.

The rulers of the Rhine Confederation now began to desert Napoleon and all Germany to join against him. The first to secede was Bavaria, which allied itself with Austria and joined its forces to those of the allies. During October the hostile armies concentrated in front of ^^ ^ ^ ,

.^ . . The Fatal

Leipzig, where was to be fought the decisive battle of the war. Meeting of

The struggle promised was the most gigantic one in which t^® Armies

Napoleon had ever been engaged. Against his 100,000 men

was gathered a host of 300,000 Austrians, Prussians, Russians, and

Swedes.

We have not space to describe the multitudinous details of this mighty struggle, which continued with unabated fury for three days, October i6th, 17th, and 1 8th, It need scarcely be said that the generalship shown by Na- poleon in this famous contest lacked nothing of his usual brilliancy, and that he was ably seconded by Ney, Murat, Augereau, and others of his famous generals, yet the overwhelming numbers of the enemy enabled them to defy all the valor of the French and the resources of their great leader, and at evening of the i8th the armies still faced each other in battle array, the fate of the field yet undecided.

Napoleon was in no condition to renew the combat. During the long affray the French had expended no less than 250,000 cannon balls. They had but 16,000 left, which two hours' firing would exhaust. Reluctantly he gave

6

96 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

the order to retreat, and all that night the wearied and disheartened troops filed through the gates of Leipzig, leaving a rear-guard in the city, who de- fended it bravely against the swarming multitude of the foe. A disastrous blunder terminated their stubborn defence. Orders had been left to blow up the bridge across the Elster, but the mine was, by mistake, set off too soon, and the gallant garrison, 12,000 in number, with a multitude of sick and wounded, was forced to surrender as prisoners of war.

The end was drawing near. Vigorously pursued, the French reached the Rhine by forced marches, defeating with heavy loss the army of Austri- ans and Bavarians which sought to block their way. The stream was crossed and the French were once more upon their own soil. After years of contest, Germany was finally freed from Napoleon's long-victorious hosts.

Marked results followed. The carefully organized work of Napoleon's

policy quickly fell to pieces. The kingdom of Westphalia was dissolved.

T,. o , The elector of Hesse and the dukes of Brunswick and Olden-

The Break-up

of Napoleon's burg returned to the thrones from which they had been driven, European T\\Q Confederation of the Rhine ceased to exist, and its states allied themselves with Austria. Denmark, long faithful to France, renounced its alliance in January, 18 14. Austria regained posses- sion of Lombardy, the duke of Tuscany returned to his capital, and the Pope, Pius VII., long held captive by Napoleon, came back in triumph to Rome. A few months sufficed to break down the edifice of empire slowly reared through so many years, and almost all Europe outside of France united itself in hostility to its hated foe.

Napoleon was offered peace if he would accept the Rhine as the French frontier, but his old infatuation and trust in his genius prevailed over the dic- tates of prudence, he treated the offer in his usual double-dealing way, and the allies, convinced that there could be no stable peace while he remained on the throne, decided to cross the Rhine and invade France.

Bliicher led his columns across the stream on the first day of 18 14,

Schwarzenberg marched through Switzerland into France, and Wellington

crossed the Pyrenees. Napoleon, like a wolf brought to bay,

France and sought to dispose of his scattered foes before they would unite,

the Abdica- and began with Bliicher, whom he defeated five times within

Em**rr^ as many days. The allies, still in dread of their great

opponent, once more offered him peace, but his success

robbed him of wisdom, he demanded more than they were willing to give,

and his enemies, encouraged by a success gained by Bliicher, broke off the

negotiations and marched on Paris, now bent on the dethronement of their

dreaded antagonist.

THE FALL AND DECLINE OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE 97

A few words will bring the story of this contest to an end. France was exhausted, its army was incapable of coping with the serried battalions marshalled against it, Paris surrendered before Napoleon could come to its defence, and in the end the emperor, vacillating and in despair, was obliged, on April 7, 1814, to sign an unconditional act of abdication. The powers of Europe awarded him as a kingdom the diminutive island of Elba, in the Mediterranean, with an annual income of 2,000,000 francs and an army composed of 400 of his famous guard. The next heir to the throne returned as Louis XVIII. France was given back its old frontier of 1492, the foreign armies withdrew from her soil, and the career of the great Corsican seemed at an end.

In spite of their long experience with Napoleon, the event proved that the powers of Europe knew not all the audacity and mental resources of the man with whom they had to deal. They had made what might have proved a fatal error in giving him an asylum so near the coast of France, whose people, intoxicated with the dream of glory through which he had so long led them, would be sure to respond enthusiastically to an appeal to rally to his support.

The powers were soon to learn their error. While the Congress of Vienna, convened to restore the old constitution of Europe, was deliber- ating and disputing, its members were startled by the news that the de- throned emperor was again upon the soil of France, and that Napoleon Louis XVIII. was in full flight for the frontier. Napoleon Returns had landed on March i, 18 15, and set out on his return to ''o'" E a Paris, the army and the people rapidly gathering to his support. On the 30th he entered the Tuileries in a olaze of triumph, the citizens, thoroughly dissatisfied with their brief experience of Bourbon rule, going mad with enthusiasm in his welcome.

Thus began the famous period of the '* Hundred Days." The powers declared Napoleon to be the " enemy of nations," and armed a half million of men for his final overthrow. The fate of his desperate attempt was soon decided. For the first time he was to meet the British in battle, and in Wellington to encounter the only man who had definitely made head against his legions. A British army was dispatched in all haste to Belgium, Bliicher with his Prussians hastened to the same region, and the mighty final struggle was at hand. The persistent and unrelenting enemies of the Corsican conqueror, the British islanders, were destined to be the agents of his overthrow.

The little kingdom of Belgium was the scene of the momentous contest that brought Napoleon's marvelous career to an end. Thither he led his

98 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF NAPOLEON'S EMPIRE

army, largely made up of new conscripts ; and thither the English and the Prussians hastened to meet him. On June i6, 1815, the prelude to the The Gathering great battle took place. Napoleon met Bliicher at Ligny and of the Armies defeated him; then, leaving Grouchy to pursue the Prussians, in e gium -^^ turned against his island foes. On the same day Ney en- countered the forces of Wellington at Quatre Bras, but failed to drive them back. On the 17th Wellington took a new position at Waterloo, and awaited there his great antagonist.

June i8th was the crucial day in Napoleon's career, the one in which his power was to fall, never to rise again. Here we shall but sketch in out- line this famous battle, reserving a fuller account of it for our next chapter, The Terrible under the story of Wellington, the victor in the fray. The Defeat at stupendous struggle, as Wellington himself described it,

^^^^^ was "a battle of giants." Long the result wavered in the balance. All day long the British sustained the desperate assaults of their antagonists. Terrible was the contest, frightful the loss of life. Hour after hour passed, charge after charge was hurled by Napoleon against the British lines, which still closed up over the dead and stood firm ; and it seemed as if night would fall with the two armies unflinchingly face to face, neither of them victor in the terrible fray.

The arrival of Blucher with his Prussians turned the scale. To Napo- leon's bitter disappointment Grouchy, who should have been close on the heels of the Prussians, failed to appear, and the weary and dejected French were left to face these fresh troops without support. Napoleon's Old Guard in vain flung itself into the gap, and the French nation long repeated in pride the saying attributed to the commander of this famous corps : "The guard dies, but it never surrenders."

In the end the French army broke and fled in disastrous rout, three- fourths of the whole force being left dead, wounded, or prisoners, while all its artillery became the prize of the victors. Napoleon, pale and confused, was led by Soult from the battlefield. It was his last fight.

apoeon ee p^-^ abdication was demanded, and he resicrned the crown in His Fate ' ^ ^

favor of his son. A hopeless and unnerved fugitive, he fled

from Paris to Rochefort, hoping to escape to America. But the British fleet held that port, and in despair he went on board a vessel of the fleet, trusting himself to the honor of the British nation. But the statesmen of England had no sympathy with the vanquished adventurer, from whose ambition Europe had suffered so terr'"' He was sent as a state prisoner to the

island of St. Helena, there to e^d his days. His final hour of glory came in 1842, when his ashes were brought in pomp and display to Paris.

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WELLINGTON AT WATERLOO GIVING THE WORD TO ADVANCE

This spirited illustration figures the final event in the mighty struggle at ^Vaterloo .hen the Fr^nch^ after hurhng ^^^^^^^'^^^^J^'' tinies against the unyielding British ranks, like storm ^vaves upon a rock-bound shore, "agger^d ha.k m a^.pa

ga?e the magic Avord of command : " Let all the line advance ! " Ihose words signified the final do^^ntali oi p

CHAPTER V.

Nelson and Wellington, the- Champions of England.

FOR nearly twenty years went on the stupendous struggle between Napoleon the Great and the powers of Europe, but in all that time, and amonof the multitude of men who met the forces of France in battle, only two names emerge which the world cares to remember, those of Horatio Nelson, the most famous of the admirals of England, and Lord Wellington, who alone seemed able to overthrow the greatest military genius of modern times. On land the efforts of Napoleon were seconded by the intrepidity of a galaxy of heroes, Ney, Murat, Moreau, Massena, and other men of fame. At sea the story reads differently. That era of stress and strain raised no great admiral in the service of France ; England and her ships were feebly commanded, and the fleet of Great France on Britain, under the daring Nelson, kept its proud place as ^ ^^

mistress of the sea.

The first proof of this came before the opening of the century, when Napoleon, led by the ardor of his ambition, landed in Egypt, with vague hopes of rivaling in the East the far-famed exploits of Alexander the Great. The fleet which bore him thither remained moored in Aboukir Bay, where Nelson, scouring the Mediterranean in covers the quest of it, first came in sight of its serried line of ships on French Fleet August I, 1798. One alternative alone dwelt in his cour- »" Aboukir ageous soul, that of a heroic death or a glorious victory. " Before this time to-morrow I shall have gained a victory or Westminster Abbey," he said.

In the mighty contest that followed, the French had the advantage in numbers, alike of ships, guns, and men. They were drawn up in a strong and compact line of battle, moored in a manner that promised to bid defiance to a force double their own. They lay in an open roadstead, but had every advantage of situation, the British fleet being obliged to attack them in a position carefully chosen for defence. Only the genius of Nelson enabled him to overcome those advantages of the enemy. 'Tf we succeed, what will the world say ?" asked Captain Berry, on hearing the admiral's plan of battle. " There is no if in the case," answered the admiral. " That we shall succeed is certain : who may live to tell the story, is a very different question."

I02 NELSON AND WELLINGTON, THE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND

The story of the "Battle of the Nile" belongs to the record of The Glorious eighteenth century affairs. All we need say here is that it Battle of the ended in a glorious victory for the English fleet. Of thirteen ^''®' ships of the line in the French fleet, only two escaped. Of

four frigates, one was sunk and one burned. The British loss was 895 men. Of the French, 5,225 perished in the terrible fray. Nelson sprang, in a moment, from the position of a man without fame into that of the naval hero of the world — as Dewey did in as famous a fray almost exactly a century later. Congratulations and honors were showered upon him, the Sultan of Turkey rewarded him with costly presents, valuable testimonials came from other quarters, and his own country honored him with the title of Baron Nelson of the Nile, and settled upon him for life a pension of ^2,000.

The first great achievement of Nelson in the nineteenth century was the result of a daring resolution of the statesmen of England, in their desperate contest with the Corsican conqueror. By his exploit at the Nile the admiral had very seriously weakened the sea-power of France. But there were powers then in alliance with France — Russia, Sweden and Den- mark— which had formed a confederacy to make England respect their naval rights, and whose combined fleet, if it should come to the aid of France, might prove sufficient to sweep the ships of England from the seas. The weakest of these powers, and the one most firmly allied to France, was Denmark, whose fleet, consisting of twenty-three ships of the line and about thirty-one frigates and smaller vessels, lay at Copenhagen. At any moment this powerful fleet might be put at the disposal of Napoleon. This possible danger the British cabinet resolved to avoid. A plan was laid to destroy the fleet of the Danes, and on the 12th of March, 1801, the British fleet sailed with the purpose of putting this resolution into effect. The Fleet Nelson, then bearing the rank of vice-admiral, went with

Sails for the fleet, but only as second in command. To the disgust

Copenhagen ^£ ^j^^ English people, Sir Hyde Parker, a brave and able seaman, but one whose name history has let sink into oblivion, was given chief command — a fact which would have insured the failure of the expedi- tion if Nelson had not set aside precedent, and put glory before duty. Parker, indeed, soon set Nelson chafing by long drawn-out negotiations, which proved useless, wasted time, and saved the Danes from being taken by surprise. When, on the morning of April 30th, the British fleet at length advanced through the Sound and came in sight of the Danish line of defence, they beheld formidable preparations to meet them.

Eighteen vessels, including full-rigged ships and hulks, were moored in a line nearly a mile and a half in length, flanked to the northward by two

NELSON AND WELLINGTON, THE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND 103

artificial islands mounted with sixty-eight heavy cannon and supplied with furnaces for heating shot. Near by lay two large block-ships, '^he Danish Across the harbor's mouth extended a massive chain, and Line of shore batteries commanded the channel. Outside the harbor's Defence mouth were moored two 74-gun ships, a 40-gun frigate, and some smaller vessels. In addition to these defences, which stretched for nearly four miles in length, was the difficulty of the channel, always hazardous from its shoals, and now beaconed with false buoys for the purpose of luring the British ships to destruction.

With modern defences — rapid-fire guns and steel-clad batteries — the enterprise would have been hopeless, but the art of defence was then at a far lower level. Nelson, who led the van in the 74-gun ship Elephant, gazed on these preparations with admiration, but with no evidence of doubt as to the result. The British fleet consisted of eighteen line of battle ships, with a large number of frigates and other craft, and with this force, and his in- domitable spirit, he felt confident of breaking these formidable lines.

At ten o'clock on the morning of April 2d the battle began, two of the British ships running aground almost before a gun was fired. The Attack on At sight of this disaster Nelson instantly changed his plan of the Danish sailing, starboarded his helm, and sailed in, dropping anchor F'^et within a cable's length of the Dannebrog, of 62 guns. The other ships fol- lowed his example, avoiding the shoals on which the Bellona2.n6. Russell \\2id grounded, and taking position at the close quarters of 100 fathoms from the Danish ships.

A terrific cannonade followed, kept up by both sides with unrelenting fury for three hours, and with terrible effect on the contesting ships and their crews. At this juncture took place an event that has made Nelson's name immortal among naval heroes. Admiral Parker, whose flag-ship lay at a distance from the hot fight, but who heard the incessant and furious fire and saw the grounded ships flying signals of distress, began to fear that Nel- son was in serious danger, from which it was his duty to withdraw him. At about one o'clock he reluctantly hoisted a signal for the action to cease.

At this moment Nelson was pacing the quarter-deck of the Elephant, inspired with all the fury of the fight; " It is a warm business," he said to Colonel Stewart, who was on the ship with him ; " and any moment may be the last of either of us ; but, mark you, I would not for thousands be any- where else."

As he spoke the flag-lieutenant reported that the signal to cease action was shown on the mast-head of the flag-ship London, and asked if he should report it to the fleet.

I04 NELSON AND WELLINGTON, THE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND

" No," was the stern answer ; ** merely acknowledge it. Is our signal

for 'close action' still flying?"

"Yes," replied the officer.

„ p. . " Then see that you keep it so," said Nelson, the stump

Answered the of his amputated arm working as it usually did when he was

Signal to ^ agitated. "Do you know," he asked Colonel Stewart, "the

^^^iocf* Action

meaning of signal No. 39, shown by Parker's ships?"

" No. What does it m.ean ?"

"To leave off action!" He was silent a moment, then burst out, '* Now damn me if I do !"

Turning to Captain Foley, who stood near him, he said : " Foley, you know I have only one eye ; I have aright to be blind sometimes." He raised his telescope, applied it to his blind eye, and said : " I really do not see the signal."

On roared the guns, overhead on the Elephant still streamed the signal for " close action," and still the torrent of British balls rent the Danish ships. In half an hour more the fire of the Danes was fast weakening. In an hour it had nearly ceased. They had suffered frightfully, in ships and lives, and only the continued fire of the shore batteries now kept the contest alive. It was impossible to take possession of the prizes, and Nelson sent a flag of truce ashore with a letter in which he threatened to burn the vessels, with all on board, unless the shore fire was stopped. This threat proved effec- tive, the fire ended, the great battle was at an end.

At four o'clock Nelson went on board the London, to meet the admiral. He was depressed in spirit, and said : " I have fought contrary to orders, and may be hanged ; never mind, let them."

There was no danger of this ; Parker was not that kind of man. He had raised the signal through fear for Nelson's safety, and now gloried in his success, giving congratulations where his subordinate looked for blame. The Danes had fought bravely and stubbornly, but they had no commander of the spirit and genius of Nelson, and were forced to yield to British pluck and endurance. Until June 13th, Nelson remained in the Baltic, watching the Russian fleet which he mieht still have to fieht. Then came orders for his return home, and word reached him that he had been created Viscount Nelson for his services.

There remains to describe the last and most famous of Nelson's exploits, that in which he put an end to the sea-power of France, by destroy- ing the remainder of her fleet at Trafalgar, and met death at the moment of victory. Four years had passed since the fight at Copenhagen. During much of that time Nelson had kept his fleet on guard off Toulon, impatiently

NELSON AND WELLINGTON, THE CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND 105

waiting until the enemy should venture from that port of refuge. At length, the combined fleet of France and Spain, now in alliance, escaped his vigil- ance, and sailed to the West Indies to