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CHAPTER XXVII

From the Invasion of Russia by the French, to the Restoration of the Bourbons.

We must now take a rapid review of those extraordinary scenes in the North which riveted the attention of all Europe, and filled every breast with anxious expectation. The emperor Alexander felt himself humiliated, and his country injured, by that rigid observance of the "continental system" which Napoleon had insisted on; and the boundless ambition of the latter, added to his hatred of all that was English, led him to attempt the subjugation of the Russian empire. He concluded that an offensive and defensive alliance with Austria, Prussia, and the confederation of the Rhine, whose forces were destined to swell his ranks. The immense army, amounting to above 475,000 men, now marched towards the Russian frontiers; and the Russians gradually retired at the approach of the enemy, who, though checked and harassed in every way possible, pressed onward with amazing rapidity. At length a tremendous battle was fought under the walls of Smolensko, and the city was quickly after evacuated, the Russians retreating on Moscow. Having received daily accessions of troops, among whom were numerous bodies of Cossacks, Cutusoff, the Russian commander, determined on hazarding a grand battle; when a most sanguinary contest ensued, in which the French lost about 40,000 and the Russians 30,000 men. But Napoleon being reinforced, he was enabled to take possession of Moscow; he had scarcely, however, taken up his headquarters in the Kremlin, before he discovered that the city was set on fire in several places, by order of Rostopchin, its patriotic governor, and the greater part of it was soon reduced to a heap of ruins. Thus being in a moment, as it were, deprived of shelter, and feeling the severity of a Russian winter fast approaching, Napoleon endeavored to negotiate; but Alexander, who, at the commencement of the French invasion, had declared that "now the sword was drawn he would not again sheath it as long as an enemy remained in his dominions," indignantly rejected every proposition. Cut off from all supplies, and exposed to the incessant attacks of the exasperated Russians, among whom were hordes of Cossacks, the wretched troops commenced one of the most disastrous retreats ever recorded in history. Again and again had they to sustain the vigorous attacks of their pursuers, till the whole route was strewn with baggage, artillery and ammunition, and with the mangled and frozen bodies of men and horses. Of the mighty force that invaded Russia, only 30,000 returned to France; 400,000 perished or were made prisoners; while the author of all their unparalleled sufferings basely deserted his army, travelled through Poland and Germany in disguise, and reached his capital in safety.

The unexampled reverses of Napoleon were hailed by the nations on the continent as the signal for their deliverance from his iron grasp. Alexander concluded an alliance with Sweden and Prussia, and they prepared for hostilities. Some sanguinary but indecisive battles were fought, and a short armistice was agreed upon during which time Austria joined the league, and all parties prepared for the renewal of the contest with increased vigor. The greatest unanimity prevailed in the councils of the allied sovereigns. Their armies made a formidable attack on Dresden, though they failed in their object of taking the city by a coup-de-main; but the veteran Blucher defeated the enemy at Katzbach, and thereby delivered Silesia. Vandamme was beaten at Culm, and Ney at Jutterbock. It was now resolved that the whole of the allied armies should make a simultaneous effort to crush the common enemy. The forces of Napoleon were concentrated at Leipsic, and there it was that the allies attacked and totally defeated him. The sanguinary battle raged from dawn of day till night: both sides suffered immense loss, but that of the French was by far the greatest. Consulting his own personal safety, as in his retreat from Russia, Bonaparte hastily reached Paris: while the French garrisons which occupied the Saxon and Prussian fortresses were abandoned to their fate. The victory of Leipsic aroused every nation yet in alliance with France to throw off the oppressor's yoke. Among the number was Holland, whose inhabitants expelled the French, and recalled the prince of Orange.