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British general from the heights of Talavera. Assault CHAP. after assault was repulsed, regiment after regiment culbuté, as the French say, and the first regular battle between the French and English, with large and equal forces, took place to the advantage of the latter. The scheme, however, of as yet invading Spain with 25,000 English, whilst the French were so numerous and the Spaniards so undisciplined, proved as vain as in Moore's campaign, and Sir Arthur Wellesley retired to Portugal, which he prepared to defend as the basis of future operations.

The year 1809 was marked by the variety of British attempts to distract or damage the conqueror of the continent. The French fleet was destroyed in the Basque roads. The French West Indies and Bourbon, no longer reinforced, were easily reduced by the English, as were the Ionian islands. Instead of the French invading Sicily, the English roamed along the Calabrian shore. The latter, however, were not fortunate in all their undertakings. An expedition to the Scheldt, chiefly for the purpose of destroying the naval preparations at Antwerp, commenced by a landing in the isle of Walcheren. Here the incapacity and disaccord of the military and naval commanders nullified their efforts, and led to the loss of the greater part of the force employed, which sunk under the fever incidental to the climate.

But an event which promised to have greater importance than even victory upon the fortunes of Europe, and of him who bespoke it, was the marriage of the French Emperor with the Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria. The campaign of Wagram, it has been explained, had not consolidated the dominant power of France so much as it displayed its weakness. The reverse of Aspern was not quite wiped away by the success of Wagram. The campaign thus victorious was won in some measure by German auxiliaries. Bernadotte, in an order of the

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CHAP. day, attributed the glory of Wagram to the Saxons. The assertion outstepped even the mendacity of bulletins. Still it went abroad. An alliance was indispensable to the maintenance of French supremacy. And Russia no longer offered a sure support.

Napoleon had for some time meditated a divorce with Josephine. He had at a much earlier period seriously mooted it, the foibles or lightheartedness of his wife having been exaggerated to him by several of his brothers and sisters, who hated her. There were but civil marriages at the time of his union with her, and though he made his sister at a later date add the religious sanction to the civil contract, he avoided this in his own case until the Pope insisted on it as a preliminary to his coronation. But even this was done in secret. He had at first looked to find heirs to the throne in his family. The eldest son of Louis, christened Napoleon, was a boy of promise, but he was carried off early by disEugène Beauharnais was then considered the future heir, at least of Italy. But though of a mild as well as noble nature, he wanted the military talents and commanding character requisite for any successor of Napoleon, who should not be his son. A feud had always existed between the family of Josephine and that of Bonaparte. Future dissensions between them might prove the ruin of the empire. These considerations, joined to the necessities of an alliance, cemented by closer than political ties, decided Napoleon to a divorce with the Empress, and a second marriage with the princess of a sovereign house.

ease.

The friendship which the Czar professed for him at Tilsit and Erfurt, prompted him to apply for the hand of Alexander's younger sister. The reply of the Czar expressed willingness on his own part, but a declaration that his mother was complete mistress in this matter. That princess would not hear of it. Yet, though broached at Erfurt, the negotiations lingered, and after

Wagram, when the Russian court continued to entertain the proposal coldly, some diplomatist of inferior rank suggested an Austrian princess. Annoyed at the time by the cooling of Russian cordiality, Napoleon adopted the suggestion of an Austrian alliance. Prince Metternich caught at the idea,* as did Schwarzenberg, and, through the sedulous efforts of both, the negotiation was brought to a successful conclusion. In February 1810 Napoleon made the formal demand of the hand of Maria Louisa. In the last days of March she entered Compiègne and became Empress of the French.

In that year the attention of the French ruler seemed more particularly turned towards the north. He had concluded the appropriation of Italy, and the immensity of the French forces had driven, or was driving, the English within the lines of Torres Vedras. The French Emperor considered the south as actually or virtually his. He proceeded, in consequence, with strange greed to swallow up the north also. Holland he first looked to absorb. The British expedition to the Scheldt had turned his attention to a coast and country so fitted for at least menacing England. He deemed its annexation to France, indeed, a measure so menacing and disagreeable to England, that he empowered the Dutch government or its agents to make proposals of peace in London, the basis of which was a promise to abstain from the intended absorption of Holland, if England would lay down its arms, and sanction the possession of half Europe by the French. Strange to say, Fouché, the Police Minister, set on foot a similar negotiation through the financier Ouvrard. But if Fox could not cede Sicily during his administration, Lord Wellesley could

Gentz's Tagebüch. Germans, other than Austrians, look aghast at the marriage, that seemed to put a seal upon their servitude, although, by alienating Russia from Napoleon, it was the principal cause of its

breaking up. Their remarks on the
marriage were bitter : one said, that
by the marriage Austria vaccinated
Napoleon with its own stupidity and
ill-fortune.-Lebensbilder aus dem
Befreiungskriege, vol. i.

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not abandon the Spaniards and their independence. And the offers of Napoleon were scarcely noticed on the other side of the Channel. Meantime King Louis of Holland had come to Paris to be present at the Emperor's marriage, in no good humour; he disagreed vitally with his queen, Hortense, the daughter of the Empress Josephine, and even sought a separation with her. He could never hope to conciliate the Dutch, whilst the injunctions of the Emperor were to annihilate their trade, to withhold all communication with England, and make their country and their resources subservient to his hostility against that kingdom. Harassed by the exigencies of the Emperor in Paris, who at the same time prevented his departure, or, as he meditated, his escape, Louis consented to all the demands made of him, one of which was the cession of the Dutch territories south of the Rhine. In this neither Louis nor Napoleon were sincere. The latter looked to absorb the whole of Holland, whilst Louis had gone so far as to send orders secretly to the Dutch government to resist. This state of things could not continue. And Louis, on returning to the Hague, finding that the French armies pressed on to the occupation of his towns and territories even north of the Rhine, abdicated in favour of his son, and fled to Bohemia. Napoleon, in lieu of Holland, which he annexed to his own empire, gave the young prince the Grand Duchy of Berg, vacant by the promotion of Murat to the crown of Naples, and divided Holland into French departments.

Almost simultaneously with the dethronement of Louis Bonaparte, took place that of Gustavus, King of Sweden. He was the only monarch who came forward as the antagonist of the French revolution, and consequently of Bonaparte, on chivalrous principles. He had been the ally of Russia in this antagonism. But when the Czar Alexander and Napoleon met at Tilsit, Sweden

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was sacrificed by the former as Turkey was by the latter. Finland soon became the spoil of the Czar. Gustavus shown common prudence and moderate skill, he might have delayed, if not defeated, the conquest of Finland. But he left his generals unsupported, and they betrayed him. More obstinate from adversity, Gustavus threatened to jeopardise the whole monarchy, and the Swedes, in self-preservation, deposed him. Another sovereign and heir-apparent was found, but the latter dying, and the new king, formerly Duke of Sudermania, being aged, it was necessary to elect an heir. The son of Gustavus should have been the chosen, but it was feared he might revenge the misfortunes of his father upon those who overthrew him. The election in consequence fell upon Bernadotte, the French commander on the opposite shore of the Baltic. Napoleon, though he disliked Bernadotte, and had sent him to that remote command in disgrace, still abetted and approved of his nomination, on condition that he joined the war against England, supported the blockade, and rendered Sweden as subservient to France as Holland and Prussia.

Whilst the northern monarchies of Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland were thus reduced to French dependence, Napoleon completed his empire in these regions by a decree, which even his chosen historian, Bignon, records with astonishment at its audacity. It came forth in the shape of a Senatus Consultum apparently for the purpose of annexing the Swiss Canton of the Valais, and converting it into the department of the Simplon; but as a corollary to this appropriation of a Swiss valley, followed the declaration that the mouths of the Scheldt, Meuse, Rhine, Ems, Weser, and Elbe, with the countries adjoining them, were indispensable to the completion of the French empire and its defence against England, and that they were consequently annexed to it. As the enemy pro

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