XLII. BATTLE

only six thousand of his veterans, defeated an army of thirty thousand Oriental militia in the battle of Mount Tabor. On the morning of that battle Kleber had left Nazareth' to make an attack on the Turkish camp near the Jordan, but he met the advancing hosts in the plain in the vicinity of Mount Tabor. Throwing his little army into squares, with the artillery at the angles, he bravely maintained the unequal combat for six hours, when Napoleon, OF MOUNT arriving on the heights which overlooked the field of battle, and distinguishing his men by the steady flaming spots amid the moving throng by which they were surrounded, announced, by the discharge of a twelve pounder, that succor was at hand. The arrival of fresh troops soon converted the battle into a complete rout; the Turkish camp, with all its baggage and ammunition, fell into the hands of the conquerors, and the army which the country people called "innumerable as the sands of the sea or the stars of heaven" was driven beyond the Jordan and dispersed, never again to return.

TABOR.

XLIII.

60. Napoleon reached Egypt on the 1st of June, having lost more than three thousand men in his Syrian expedition; but scarcely had he restored quiet to that country, when, on the 11th of July, a body of nine thousand Turks, admirably equipped, and having a numerous pack of artillery, landed at Aboukir Bay, having been transported thither by the squadron of Sir Sidney Smith. Napoleon BATTLE OF immediately left Cairo with all the forces which he could command, and although he found the Turks at Aboukir strongly intrenched, he did not hesitate to attack them with inferior forces. The result was the total annihilation of the Turkish army,five thousand being drowned in the Bay of Aboukir, two thousand killed in battle, and two thousand taken prisoners.

ABOUKIR.

61. By some papers which fell into his hands, Napoleon was now, for the first time, informed of the state of affairs in Europe. Early in the season the allies had collected a force of two hundred and fifty thousand men between the German ocean and the Adriatic, as a barrier against French ambition; and fifty thousand Russians, under the veteran Suwarrow, were on the march to swell their numbers. To this vast force the French could oppose, along their eastern frontiers,

1. Mount Tabor is twenty-five miles south-east from Acre, and fifty-three north-east from Jerusalem. It is the mountain on which occurred the transfiguration of Christ.-Matthew, xvii. 2, and Mark, ix. 2. (Map No. VI.)

2. Nazareth, a small town of Palestine, celebrated as having been the early residence of the founder of Christianity, is seventy miles north-east from Jerusalem. (Map No. VI.)

and scattered over Italy, an army of only one hundred and seventy thousand. In Italy the united Russians and Austrians gradually gained ground until the French lost all their posts in that country except Genoa: many desperate battles were fought in Switzerland, but victory generally followed the allied powers, while, in Germany, the French were forced back upon the Rhine: Corfu had been conquered by the Russians and English, and Malta was closely blockaded.

62. When Napoleon was informed of these reverses of the French arms, his decision was immediately made, and leaving Kleber in command of the army of Egypt, he secretly embarked for France. After a protracted voyage, in which he was in constant fear of being captured by British cruisers, he landed at Frejus' on the 9th of October, and on the 18th found himself once more in Paris. The most enthusiastic joy pervaded the whole country on account of his return. The eyes, the wishes, and the hopes of the people, who were dissatisfied with the existing state of things, were all turned on him: men of all professions paid their court to him, as one in whose hands were, already, the destinies of their country: the Directory alone distrusted and feared him.

XLIV.

OVERTHROW
OF THE
DIRECTORY.

63. Napoleon, perceiving that the French people had grown weary of the Directory, and relying on the support of the army, concerted, with a few leading spirits, the overthrow of the government. As preliminary measures, the Council of the Ancients was induced to appoint him commander of the National Guard and of all the military in Paris, and to decree the removal of the entire Legislative body to St. Cloud,' under his protection; but the Council of Five Hundred, alarmed by rumors of the approaching dictatorship, raised so furious an opposition against him, that Napoleon was in imminent danger. As the only resource left him, he appealed to his comrades in arms, and on the 9th of November, 1799, a body of grenadiers entering the Legisla tive hall by his orders, cleared it of its members; and thus military

1. Frejus is a town of south-eastern France, in a spacious plain, one mile from the Mediterranean, and forty-five miles north-east from Toulon. Napoleon landed at St. Raphael, a small fishing village about a mile and a-half from Frejus. Frejus was a place of importance in the time of Julius Cæsar, who gave it his own name. (Map No. XIII.)

2. St. Cloud is a delightful village six miles west from Paris, containing a royal castle and magnificent garden, which were much embellished by Napoleon. Napoleon chose St. Cloud for his residence; hence the expression cabinet of St. Cloud. Under the former government the phrase was, cabinet of Versailles, or cabinet of the Tuileries.

XLV. NAPO

force was left triumphant in the place of the constitution and the laws. A new constitution was soon formed, by which LEON FIRST the executive power was intrusted to three consuls, of CONSUL whom Napoleon was the chief. The "First consul," as Napoleon was styled, was in everything but in name a monarch. Not only in Paris, but throughout all France, the feeling was in favor of the new government; for the people, weary of anarchy, rejoiced at the prospect of repose under the strong arm of power, and were as unanimous to terminate the Revolution as, in 1789, they had been to commence it. The Revolution had passed through all its changes; -monarchical, republican, and democratic; it closed with the mili tary character; while the liberty which it strove to establish was immolated by one of its own favorite heroes, on the altar of personal ambition

CHAPTER VI.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

SECTION I.

THE WARS OF NAPOLEON.

ANALYSIS. [EVENTS OF THE YEAR 1800.] 1. Napoleon's proposals for peace. Rejected by the British government.-2. Military force of Great Britain and Austria. Situation of France. Effect of Napoleon's government-3. Disposition of the French forces.-4. Successes of Moreau. [Engen. Moeskirch.] Massena is shut up in Genoa. Napoleon passes over the Great St. Bernard. [Great St. Bernard.]-5. Surprise of the Austrians. Napoleon's progress. Victory of Marengo. [Marengo.]-6. Efforts at negotiation. Malta surrenders to the British.-7. Operations of the French and Austrians in Bavaria. [Hohenlinden.] Passage of the Splugen by Macdonald. [Splugen.] Armistice. Peace of Luneville. [Luneville.]-8. Maritime confederacy against England. Its effect. Previous orders of the Danish and Russian governments. 9. [EVENTS OF 1801.] England sends a powerful fleet to the Baltic. Battle of Copenhagen. -10. The Russian emperor Paul is strangled, and succeeded by Alexander. Dissolution of the League of the North.-11. The French army in Egypt. Capitulation. General peace. [Amiens.] 12. [EVENTS OF 1802, THE YEAR OF PEACE.] Internal Affairs of France. Napoleon made consul for life.-13. Conduct of Napoleon in his relations with foreign States. Holland-the Italian republics-the Swiss cantons. Attempt to recover St. Domingo. [Historical account of St. Domingo.]-14, Circumstances leading to a RENEWAL OF THE WAR IN 1803. Hostile acts of England and France.

15. First military operations of the French, in the year 1803. [Hanover.] Preparations for the invasion of England.-16. Rebellion in Ireland. Conspiracy against Napoleon early in 1804. The affair of the Duke D'Enghien. [Baden.]-17. Hostile acts of England against Spain. The latter joins France.-18. Napoleon, emperor, May, 1804-crowned by the pope-anointed sovereign of Italy, May, 1805.

19. New coalition against France. Prussia remains neutral. Beginning of the war by Austria.-20. The French forces. Napoleon victorious at Ulm. [Ulm.] English naval victory of Trafalgar. [Trafalgar.] Additional victories of Napoleon, and treaty of Presburg, Dec. 1805. [Austerlitz.]

[1806.] 21. Conquests of the English. [Mahrattas. Buenos Ayres] Napoleon rapidly extends his supremacy over the continent. The affairs of Naples, Holland, and Germany.-22. Circumstances which led Prussia to join the coalition against Napoleon.-23. Napoleon's victories over the Prussians. He enters Berlin. [Jena. Auerstadt.]-24. The Berlin decrees. Napoleon in Poland. Battle of Pultusk. Battle of Eylau, Feb. 1807. Fall of Dantzic. [Eylau. Dantzic.]-25. Battle of Friedland. [Friedland. Niemen.] The treaty of Tilsit. Losses suffered by Prussia. [Tilsit. Westphalia.]-26. Circumstances that led to the bombardment of Copenhagen, by the English fleet. Denmark joins France. Portuguese affairs. The French in Lisbon. [Rio Janeiro, Brazil.]-27. The designs of Napoleon against the Peninsular monarchs. Affairs of Spain, 1808. Godoy-abdication of the Spanish monarch, and his son Ferdinand. Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Spain, and Murat king of Naples.-28. Resistance of the Spaniards and beginning of the Peninsular war.-29. Successes of the Spaniards at Cadiz, Valencia, Saragossa, and Baylen. [Baylen. Ebro.]-30. War in Portugal, and evacuation of that country by the French forces. [Oporto. Vimiera. Cintra.]-31. Napoleon takes the field in person, and the British are rapidly driven from Spain. [Reynosa. Burgos. Tudela. Corunna.]

[1809.] 32. Austria suddenly renews the war. Victories of Napoleon, who enters Vienna in May; and peace with Austria in October. [Eckmuhl. Aspern. Wagram.]-33. War with the Tyrolese. British expedition to Holland. Continuance of the war in the Spanish peninsula. Difficulties between Napoleon and the pope.-34. Napoleon's divorce from Josephine and marriage with Maria Louisa of Austria, 1810. Effects of this marriage upon Napoleon's future prospects. His conduct towards Holland. Sweden. His power in the central parts of Europe. Jealousy of the Russian emperor.-35. Continuance of the war in the Spanish peninsula. Wellington and Massena. [Ciudad Rodrigo. Busaco. Torres Vedras.]-36. The peninsula war during the year 1811. [Badajoz. Albuera.]

37. Events of the peninsular war from the beginning of 1812 to the retreat of the French across the Pyrenees. [Salamanca. Vittoria ]

38. NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN, 1812. Events that led to the opening of a war with Russia. The opposing nations in this war.-39. The "Grand Army" of Napoleon. The opposing Russian force.-40. Napoleon crosses the Niemen, June 1812. Retreat of the Russians. Early disasters of the French army. [Wilna.]-41. Onward march of the army. Battle of Smolensko. Entrance of the deserted city.-42. Napoleon pursues the retreating Russians, who make a stand at Borodino. [Borodino.] The evening before the battle.-43. Battle of Borodino, Sept. 7th.-44. Continued retreat of the Russians, who abandon Moscow. The city, on the entrance of the French. The burning of Moscow. Napoleon begins a retreat Oct. 19th. -45. The horrors of the retreat.-46. Napoleon at Smolensko. He renews the retreat Nov. 14th. Battles of Krasnoi, and passage of the Beresina. [Krasnoi. Beresina.] Marshal Ney. Napoleon abandons the army, and reaches Paris, Dec. 18th. His losses in the Russian campaign. 47. War between England and the United States of America. Mexico. The war in the Indian seas.

[1813.] 48. Napoleon's preparations for renewing the war. Prussia, Sweden, and Austria. Battles of Lutzen and Bautzen. Armistice, and congress of Prague. [Bautzen.]-49. War renewed Aug. 16th. Austria joins the allies. Battles. [Culm. Gross-Beren. Katsbach. Dennewitz.] Battles of Leipsic, and retreat of the French. Losses of the French. Revolts. Wellington. [1814.] 50. General invasion of France. Bernadotte and Murat. Energy and talents of Napoleon. The allies march upon Paris, which capitulates. Deposition, and abdication, of Napoleon. Treaty between him and the allies. [Elba.] Louis XVIII. Restricted limits of France. [1815.] 51. Congress of Vienna, and Napoleon's return from Elba. Marshal Ney. All France submits to Napoleon.-52. Napoleon in vain attempts negotiations. Forces of the allies; of Napoleon.-53. Napoleon's policy, and movements. Battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras, Wavre, and Waterloo. Second capitulation of Paris. Napoleon's abdication-attempted escape to America-exile-and death. 54. First objects of the allies. Return of Louis XVIII. Execution of Ney, and Labedoyére. Fate of Murat.-55. Second treaty of Paris. Its terms. Restoration of the pillaged treasures of art.

THE YEAR

1800.

Το

1. As soon as Napoleon was seated on the consular throne of France he addressed to the British government an able [1800] I. EVENTS OF communication, making general proposals of peace. this a firm and dignified reply was given, ascribing the evils which afflicted Europe to French aggression and French ambition, and declining to enter into a general pacification until France should present, in her internal condition and foreign policy, firmer pledges than she had yet given, of stability in her own government, and security to others. The answer of the British government forms the beginning of the second period of the war-that in which it was waged with Napoleon himself, the skilful director of all the energies of the French nation.

2. War being resolved on, the most active measures were taken