CHAP. 1813. Defection CHAPTER LIV GEORGE III. (CONTINUED.)-1813. Defection of allies from Napoleon-His spirit and resources under this reverse of fortune-His departure from St. Cloud— Line occupied by the belligerents Battles of Lutzen and Bautzen-Armistice and mediation of Austria-It fails, and Austria joins the allies-Influence of England-Napoleon's position at Dresden - Schwartzenburg attacks the city, and fails-Napoleon's reverses commence- He retreats to Leipsic -Is defeated there, and flies to the Rhine-Dissolution of the Rhenish confederation, &c.-Other states declare themselves free-Declaration of the allies at Frankfort-Rejected by Bonaparte-State of the armies in Spain-Efforts of the guerillas, &c.-Plan of the French campaign-The Douro taken as their base of operations-Joseph leaves MadridAffairs on the eastern coast of Spain; siege of Tarragona, &c.-Lord Wellington's advance-Surprise of Villatte's corps at Salamanca-The French army-Attack of its rear-guard at Morales-French retire behind the Carrion-Fall back on Burgos, and finally on Vittoria-Great battle, and defeat of the French, &c.-Joseph flies to Pampeluna, and thence to the Pyrenees-Pampeluna and St. Sebastian invested-Soult sent to take the chief command in Spain-Advances to attack the position of the allies, and is repulsed, and passes the Bidassoa Suchet's movements-Siege and capture of St. Sebastian-Affairs in Catalonia-Ingratitude of the Spanish government-Campaign in the Pyrenees, from the passage of the Bidassoa to the retreat of the French to Bayonne-American campaign-Naval contest between the Shannon and the Chesapeak. THE first event, abroad, which marked this eventfrom Na- ful year, was the defection of the Prussian general D'Yorck, whose convention with the Russian Wittgenstein was not ratified by the king, his master, poleon. LIV. 1813. who was then within the grasp of Bonaparte: but CHAP. no sooner was he free from danger, and aware that there was a chance of emancipation for himself and his country, than he expressed decided approbation at the conduct of his general, and soon afterwards joined the emperor Alexander at Breslau. As the season advanced, a Russian envoy was despatched to Vienna, and an armistice was concluded: an Austrian ambassador arrived in London; and Sweden, by entering into an advantageous treaty, agreed to strike a decisive blow against the French in Pomerania: alliances also with England were subsequently formed both by Prussia and Russia. In the mean time, the advance of Wittgenstein compelled the French to abandon the Oder, on which they had fallen back under Eugene Beauharnois, and to take up the defence of a new frontier on the Elbe among all the great allies of France, Austria alone preserved a neutrality; but it scarcely could be expected that the court of Vienna, even if it had been inclined to favor the projects of Napoleon, could long resist the general outcry of Germany. Though the decline of Bonaparte's power was now evident; though all Europe had become weary of his domination, and those allies, by whose concurrence he had been raised, took part against him; though, at home, the priests had been secretly conspiring against him, since his rupture with the pope, and the mass of the nation began to show itself as weary of his conquests, as it once was of the factions from which he rescued France;-his indomitable spirit still bore him up against all reverses. During the first three months of the year, he strained every nerve to recruit his armies, or rather to create new ones: by a decree of the conservative senate on the tenth of January, 250,000 conscripts more than he had demanded were placed at his disposal; for he found means to impart a portion of his spirit, even to those who were tired of his dominion; and he exhibited no slight knowlege of the French character, when he declared in the LIV. 1813. CHAP. Moniteur of the thirtieth of March, that even if the enemy stood on Montmartre, he would not give up a village of the empire: by the beginning of April, he had procured decrees for levies to the amount of 535,000 men. On the fifteenth, he left St. Cloud, Maria Louisa having been declared regent of the French empire, till victory should restore the emperor to his capital.' Campaign Germany was again destined to be the field of in Germa- battle: the Elbe, from its mouth to the frontiers of ny. Bohemia, formed the line of division between the belligerents; and on the other side, three Prussian fortresses, besides Dantzic, were in the hands of the French: Napoleon also exacted their contingents from the princes of the Rhenish confederation, while he retained his faithful ally, the king of Saxony, and gained a willing one in Denmark, disgusted at the prospect of the Norwegian appropriation. Painful as was the situation of the towns and places that lay between the armies, a still more cruel fate befel Hamburg; which, having opened its gates to the Cossacks in March, was re-occupied by the French in May, and abandoned to the revenge of Napoleon under the rigorous administration of the inexorable Davoust. The war of liberation began with the battle of Lutzen, on the second of May, which Bonaparte gained with an army composed chiefly of raw conscripts still there were no longer the brilliant results of victory, the cannon, the standards, the baggage taken the day of panic was now gone; and the allies made a regular retreat, not a disorderly flight, over the Elbe. The occupation of Dresden was followed by another victory at Bautzen, on the twenty-first of May, which obliged the allies. to evacuate their line of defence, that covered Silesia, and to retire into Bohemia; but their retreat was still orderly, not a cannon or a prisoner being left in possession of the enemy. This victory opened to the French a passage to the Oder: Glogau was relieved, Breslau occupied, and Berlin itself threatened. At this crisis, an appeal made to Austria LIV. 1813. took effect: an armistice had been agreed to soon CHAP. after the battle, both parties being exhausted, and expecting reinforcements; during which period, the emperor Francis interposed his mediation. How visible appears the hand of Providence in the fall of Napoleon! had he been repulsed from Bautzen, before Austria entered into any stipulation with the allies, that power would probably have pressed for nothing beyond the independence of Germany: now to this demand she added the abandonment of the duchy of Warsaw and of Illyria, the re-establishment of the Prussian monarchy, and the dissolution of the confederation of the Rhine. Napoleon's pride could not yield to this: the tenor of his answer was even affronting; and on the twelfth of August, Austria, joining the allies, declared war against France: during the armistice, she had concerted a preliminary alliance with Russia and Prussia, which came into operation of itself with the declaration of war. Great Britain also took advantage of this opportunity to put forth her mighty powers, and at the right time: Sweden had been first taken into her pay: in the middle of June she concluded a treaty of subsidies with Russia and Prussia; giving, in addition, her guarantee for paper to the amount of £5,000,000 sterling, under the name of federative money; and in the beginning of October, she signed a treaty of alliance with Austria, stipulating for mutual aid with all their forces: her victories also, as well as her purse, came most opportunely to rouse and push to its conclusion that European reaction against France, which otherwise might have languished; for tidings of the great battle of Vittoria arrived at the very point of time to strengthen the confidence of German courts and ministers. Bonaparte's principal officers now advised him Losses of to retreat at once to the Rhine; but he had fortified Napoleon. Dresden, and distributed his army in separate corps around it, holding the imperial guard under his own command, as a reserve; and with these he deter LIV. 1813. CHAP. mined to try the fortune of war. As soon as the armistice expired, Napoleon had hastened with his guard, and some of his divisions, to surprise Blucher; but that general, according to a concerted plan, retreated, and carried with him two Westphalian regiments, who deserted the French ranks: in the mean time, prince Schwartzenburg, to whom the command in chief of all the armies was confided, attacked Dresden, and was on the point of success; when Napoleon returned with his legions, repulsed the enemy from the city walls, and in two successive days of fighting wholly routed his opponents, taking all their cannon, with 20,000 prisoners. This victory, however, though of a decisive character, was followed by a quick succession of reverses. Vandamme, who had pursued a part of the retreating army into Bohemia, being taken in front and rear by a Prussian and a Russian army, was obliged to surrender with his whole division: besides, the defensive plan of the allies, said to have been recommended by Bernadotte, now proved fatal to Napoleon this was, to retreat from him, but always to make head against his lieutenants. Thus Blucher, that old man with the spirit of youth, defeated Macdonald on the twenty-sixth of August, and almost annihilated his army: Oudinot, sent against Berlin, as the minister of Napoleon's vengeance, had been just before defeated by Bernadotte at Gross-Beeren; and Ney, despatched to repair this loss, could not master fortune: he was routed by the same commander in the battle of Dennewitz, where his Saxon regiments deserted him during the heat of the conflict; and it became evident that none of the auxiliaries could be depended on in the mean time, Napoleon's generals became dispirited; and, contrary to their master's inclination, counselled retreat the allied force daily increased, while his own diminished; Bavaria was obliged to declare against him; and Leipsic was menaced in his rear so that in the early part of October he was forced to transfer his head quarters to that city, |