1813.] BATTLES OF WELLINGTON AND SOULT. 567 of the country," Wellington writes, "are not only reconciled to the invasion, but wish us success, afford us all the supplies in their power, and exert themselves to get for us intelligence. . . The inhabitants, who had at first left their habitations, have in general returned to them, and they are living very comfortably and quietly with our soldiers cantoned in their houses." * Lord Wellington, in the course of a month, became straitened for room, in his position on the right bank of the Nivelle. He determined to cross the Nive, and establish himself between that river and the Adour. General Hill forded the river on the 9th of December, and the French posts were withdrawn to Bayonne. Then Soult resumed the offensive, and a series of obstinate engagements took place on the 10th, 11th, and 13th, in which all the attacks of the French were repulsed. In these engagements Soult first brought force to bear on the British left, under Hope, and then threw all his strength upon the British right, under Hill. Wellington was ready to give aid to this brave and skilful general, in the battle of the 13th, when 13,000 men were opposed to 30,000. But the aid was not required. Soult withdrew to his camp at Bayonne; and Wellington, well pleased, exclaimed, "Hill, the day is all your own." From the middle of December, 1813, to the middle of February, 1814, there was an interval of rest in the hostile camps at the feet. of the Pyrenees. On the 14th of November, the Senate of France presented an Address to Napoleon at the Tuileries. In his answer he said, "A year ago all Europe marched with us: now all Europe is marching against us. It is because the opinion of the world is formed by France or by England. We should have every thing to fear but for the energy and power of the nation." The Senate "Despatches," 568 NAPOLEON PREPARES FOR A CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE. [1814. placed at the emperor's disposal 300,000 conscripts. From September, 1805, to this 15th of November, the Senate had given him authority to devote to what was called the glory of France no less a number than two million one hundred and three thousand of her sons." In the year 1813, the Senate had granted to Napoleon one million one hundred and forty thousand conscripts. In a Declaration of the 1st of December, the Allied Powers said, “they did not make war on France, but against that preponderance which, to the misfortune of Europe and of France, the emperor Napoleon has too long exercised beyond the limits of his empire." On the 21st of December, the first corps of prince Schwarzenberg crossed the Rhine at Bâle. Blücher crossed the Rhine on the 31st. On the 29th, Napoleon's brother Joseph wrote to him," The violation of the Swiss territory has laid France open to the enemy." He wished the emperor to be persuaded that his heart was wholly French. He was also aware of what he owed to Spain. He saw his duties, and he wished to fulfil all of them. Napoleon put a crushing hand upon Joseph's maudlin epistle: " France is invaded: all Europe is in arms against France, and above all against me. You are no longer king of Spain. I do not want Spain either to keep or to give away. I will have nothing more to do with that country except to live in peace with it, and have the use of my army." He had found out the full truth of what he himself said, Spain is the cancer of the Empire." He had concluded a treaty on the 11th of December with the ex-king Ferdinand, recognizing him as king of Spain and the Indies, on the condition that he should make the English abandon his territories. He knew the character of that weak and treacherous Bourbon. He saw in his restoration to the crown of Spain that future of superstition and tyranny, which would produce civil war; destroy the seeds of liberty and patriotism that had been sown; and give France at some not distant day the power of destroying the boundary of the Pyrenees. He made other arrangements with reference to the future. He released the Pope from his confinement at Fontainebleau. He made a pretence of calling out the National Guard; but he was afraid of them. The people showed no disposition to resist the invaders of their country, as in the first days of the Revolution. If the invaders were to be driven back it must be by the merc military strength which he could still wield, and by his own wondrous energy. In the third week of January he made his preparations for a final struggle. He appointed the empress as Regent, and his brother Joseph as his Lieutenant. He had 70,000 men in the field; and be set out for Paris, on the 25th of January, to put himself at their head, at Chalons. There were two columns of the Allies marching on Paris,-one by the valley of the Seine, the other by the valley of the Marne. On the 29th of January, he fought the battle of Brienne with Blücher, a battle which cost him 5000 killed and wounded, and 3000 prisoners. This battle decided nothing. He wrote to his brother," Since the battle of Brienne, the Allies have had great respect for our armies. They did not believe we had any." He thought that this opinion might hasten the peace. A Congress was to be held at Chatillon. Negotiations went on, whilst Napoleon, placing "Histoire Parlementaire," vol. xxxix. p. 526. 66 + Correspondence with Joseph," vol. ii. p. 255. Ibid., p. 258. 1814.] BATTLES WITH BLÜCHER AND SCHWARZENBERG. 539 himself between Blücher and Schwarzenberg, could prevent their junction. and attack either of them as he saw that opportunity might favour him Never did he display more activity. The greatness of the stake stirred him into almost preternatural energy to win the game. His confidence in his good destiny led him to reject the terms which he probably might have obtained at Chatillon. Lord Aberdeen, the negotiator for England, was anxious for peace. But Napoleon would not forego the condition that the Rhine should be the frontier of France. The four Powers saw that only a firm agreement amongst themselves would prevent a peace which would throw away all the successes which they had obtained. They bound themselves by the treaty of Chaumont, of the 1st of March, to continue the contest with Napoleon if he should not agree to their conditions. He would still have been the sovereign ruler of France, emperor; or king, as Talleyrand wished him to be called. The succession of the throne would have been guaranteed to his family. Some in England thought him mad to hesitate. Others, and those the majority, feared that he would become reasonable. Lord Colchester enters in his Diary of the 22d of March, "General apprehension of preliminaries of peace having been already signed at Chatillon; an almost universa dread of any pretended peace with Bonaparte." Those who hoped for peace through negotiation with him, and those who dreaded it, were not long kept in suspense. By a rapid and daring movement, Napoleon placed himself in the rear of the Allied forces. But they marched boldly for the capital. They fought a hard battle; and on the 30th of March occupied the entire line of defence which protected Paris on the north-east. On the 31st of March Paris capitulated. Marmont and Mortier had fought in vain outside the barriers. The people within had neither the means nor the inclination to defend themselves. Whilst this final struggle was proceeding in the north, Wellington was making head against Soult in the south. On the 27th of February was fought the battle of Orthez. Soult was beaten, and was pursued to the Adour. His losses in fight were great, but desertion thinned his ranks more extensively than the charges of the English bayonets. The conscripts threw away their arms. The spirit of the French was broken; for their enthusiasm had long ceased to be national; and the pride of conquest had faded away since the charm had been broken. On the 8th of March, two divisions of the army of Wellington were to occupy Bordeaux, which was laid open by the battle of Orthez. When marshal Beresford marched to that city, his prudent chief gave him especial caution not to commit himself to any premature adoption of the cause of the Bourbons. These were Wellington's words on the 7th of March: "If they should ask you for your consent to proclaim Louis XVIII., to hoist the white standard, &c., you will state that the British nation and their allies wish well to Louis XVIII.; and as long as the public peace is preserved where our troops are stationed, we shall not interfere to prevent that party from doing what may be deemed most for its interest: nay, further, that I am prepared to assist any party that may show itself inclined to aid us in getting the better of Bonaparte. That the object of the Allies, however, in the war, and above all in entering France, is, as is stated in my proclamation, Peace; and that it is well known that the Allies are now engaged in negotiating a treaty with Bonaparte. VOL. VII. PP 570 PARIS CAPITULATED TO THE ALLIES-TOULOUSE. [1814 That, however I might be inclined to aid and support any set of people against Bonaparte while at war, I could give them no further aid when peace should be concluded; and I beg the inhabitants will weigh this matter well before they raise a standard against the government of Bonaparte, and involve themselves in hostilities." Soult had retreated to Toulouse. On the 9th of April, Wellington crossed the Garonne. On the 10th he attacked Soult in his entrenched camp on a range of heights on the eastern side of the city. It was a battle in which the two great commanders put forth all their strength against each other, with no adequate results for the loss of eight thousand men. It was a useless battle; for the war was ended. The Senate had declared that Napoleon had forfeited the throne. A Provisional Government had been formed. The emperor of the French had abdicated on the 4th of April. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia had been in Paris four days. National guards were not there to make a last desperate effort for national independence. The fickle Parisians shouted with white cockades in their hats, and ladies from every window waved white handkerchiefs, as Alexander and Frederick William rode slowly along the Boulevards. Soult has been unjustly accused of having fought at Toulouse, out of mere pride and obstinacy, when he knew that the fate of Napoleon was decided. Wellington in the House of Lords absolved him from the odious charge that he knew of the abdica "Despatches," vol. xi. p. 557. 1814.] 'ABDICATION OF NAPOLEON-PEACE OF PARIS. 571 tion. News did not then travel quickly to the French provinces. There was then no uninterrupted line of railways from the Seine to the Garonne. But was any one of those conflicts useless, which Wellington had sustained so gloriously since he passed the Nive in the beginning of December? Was there any one of that series of battles and marches without a sensible effect upon the great issue of the war? Wellington was Wellington was as effectually fighting against Bonaparte, as if he had met him face to face upon the heights of Montmartre. The tyranny would have been far more difficult to put down -it would have been perhaps impossible even to limit its range-had not Wellington held two of France's greatest generals in check, with their large number of fighting men, in the south, whilst Blücher and Schwarzenberg were engaged in a very difficult struggle with the masterly strategy of Napoleon in the north. If Soult and Suchet had been free to fly to the relief of their emperor, in all probability he would not have set out on his journey to Fréjus on the 20th of April, there to embark for the island of Elba, of which he was to be the ruler, in full sovereignty. It was a change from the magnificent empire which he might have possessed in peace, had his mind been of that lofty character which "makes ambition virtue." He stood upon one of the hills of Elba, and could behold at once the whole extent of his sea-girt dominions. "Ah," said he, "it must be confessed that my island is somewhat small." On the 23rd of April, three days after Napoleon had left Fontainebleau, a Convention between Count d'Artois and the Allied powers was signed at Paris, by which it was stipulated that all hostilities should cease; that the foreign armies should evacuate the French territory; and that the boundaries of France should be the same as on the 1st of January, 1792. On the 3rd of May Louis the Eighteenth entered Paris. "Vive le Roi!" was shouted as loudly for the unwarlike king, as "Vive l'Empereur!" had been shouted during ten years for the magnificent conqueror. Louis was to give the French. a representative government. His was not to be so showy a career as that which looked to the glory of accomplishing the Universal Monarchy. The Peace of Paris between France and the Allied Powers was ratified on the 30th of May. A Congress to be held at Vienna was to confirm its conditions, and to re-organize Europe. There were three months of public joy in England, such as never had been witnessed-we will not say in a generation, or in the memory of man, but to parallel which we must look back to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Henry the Fifth rode into London after the battle of Agincourt, and Elizabeth went in a chariot to St. Paul's to return thanks for the destruction of the Armada. The weather was of extraordinary beauty. The spring had put forth its earliest blossoms, when intelligence reached London that the Allied armies were in Paris, and that Napoleon had abdicated. There were illuminations for three nights. Most men said, with Wilberforce, "This hath God done."* Some, and those of the most temperate, were, with Horner, " of the small minority of those who dread the consequences of the restoration of the Bourbons." Others, stronger in their opinions, thought, as Robert Hall Letter in "Life," April 9, vol. iv. |