By degrees, as the increasing masses of the French showed that other corps had arrived to support Lannes, the whole Russian army passed over, and Benningsen, contrary to his original intention, found himself involved in a general action.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon arrived at the heights of Heinrichsdorf, which overlooked the whole field, and dispatched his staff with orders for the battle. The corps of Ney, Victor and Mortier, together with the infantry and cavalry of the Imperial Guard had already come up, and were soon followed by a part of Murat's dragoons, so that the Emperor, confident of victory, remarked, "this is the anniversary of Marengo; the battle could not have been fought on a more propitious day." The French force in the field now amounted to eighty thousand men ; while Benningsen, who had detached a considerable force to the rear to secure the bridge over the Pregel at Wehlau, should a retreat become necessary, could bring but forty-six thousand to resist the attack. The general result of the action, therefore, may be said to have been decided by the preliminary movements, for the defeat of Benningsen was inevitable, with such a fearful majority of numbers against him.

Nevertheless, the battle was contested by the Russians with prodigious bravery. By the resistless weight of the opposing masses, they were indeed gradually forced back to Friedland, through its streets, and across the river; but when the whole fire of the French infantry and artillery was concentrated on their columns, and this was followed up by a desperate charge of Murat's cuirassiers and dragoons, they retired with the steadiness and precision of field-day evolutions-not one square was broken, not one gun captured during the retreat. Indeed, the result of the action furnishes the best proof of the unconquerable valor of the Russian troops. Seventeen thousand of them remained on the field killed or wounded; five hundred only were made prisoners; no standards were taken; and but seventeen pieces of cannon, lost early in the day, fell into the hands of the enemy. On the other hand, the French lost two eagles and eight thousand men.

After the battle, the Russians retired in good order to Wehlau, which they reached on the 15th, without being pursued or molested by Napoleon. In the mean time, Lestocq had advanced to Koningsberg, where, forming a junction with Kamenskoi, he was enabled to show an array of twenty-four thousand men ; with which force he resolved to make a stand against the fifty thousand who were approaching, under Soult and Davoust, until the large magazines in the town were removed. His heroic efforts were crowned with brilliant success. For two entire days he resisted every attempt of the French host to dislodge him, conveyed the magazines and military stores to a place of safety in the rear, and on the 17th effected his retreat with little loss to Wehlau, where he joined the main army. Benningsen continued his retreat on the same day, reached Tilsit on the 18th, and during the 19th and 20th crossed the Niemen at that place, and burned the bridge behind him.

The Emperor Alexander, disheartened by the defeat and loss he had sustained, foiled in the objects for which he had undertaken the war, and deserted by those for whose advantage, more than for his own, he had joined the alliance against France, was now desirous for peace; and communicated his wishes, through Prince Bagrathion, to the French commander. These advances gave Napoleon the greatest satisfaction; for,

though as yet victorious over the Muscovite legions, he had learned to appreciate their prowess in the field, and knew, also, that his further progress toward the Russian dominions would, in the end, reverse the proportion of numbers now existing between his own army and that of his antagonist. With these dispositions on both sides, there was little difficulty in coming to an understanding. France had nothing to ask from Russia, but that she should promote the Continental System by closing her ports against England: and Russia had nothing to demand of France, but that she should withdraw her armies from Poland and permit Alexander to pursue his projects of conquest in Turkey. An armistice, therefore, was immediately concluded. The Niemen separated the two armies; Napoleon established his head-quarters at Tilsit, and Alexander, at Piktuhpohnen, on the opposite bank of the river.

On the 25th of June, the two Emperors held a private conference on a raft moored in the middle of the Niemen, the respective armies being drawn up in triple lines on both sides of the stream.

The interview lasted two hours, and ended in the establishment of a good understanding and perfectly friendly relations between the two sovereigns. On the following day, they met again at Tilsit, where they were joined by the King of Prussia; and, after a fortnight of conference, two treaties were definitively concluded; one, between France and Russia, and the other between France and Prussia.

By the former, Napoleon agreed to restore to the King of Prussia, Silesia and nearly all his German dominions on the right bank of the Elbe, with the fortresses on the Oder and in Pomerania. The provinces which, prior to 1772, formed part of the kingdom of Poland, and had since then been annexed to Prussia, were erected into a separate principality, to be called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and bestowed on the King of Saxony. Dantzic, with a limited portion of territory in its neighborhood, was declared a free and independent city, under the protection of the Kings of Prussia and Saxony; which was, in effect, declaring it a frontier town of France. A right to a free military road across the Prussian states, was granted to the King of Saxony, to connect his German with his Polish dominions. The navigation of the Vistula was declared free to Prussia, Saxony and Dantzic; the Dukes of Oldenberg and Mecklenberg were reinstated in their dominions, on condition, however, that their harbors should be occupied by French troops; the Kings of Naples and Holland, with the Confederation of the Rhine, were recognized by the Emperor of Russia; a new kingdom, styled that of Westphalia, was erected in favor of Jerome Bonaparte, composed of the Prussian provinces on the left bank of the Elbe; hostilities were to cease between Russia and Turkey; Wallachia and Moldavia were to be evacuated by the Russians, but not occupied by the Turks until the conclusion of a general peace; and the Emperors of Russia and France mutually guarantied their respective dominions, and agreed to establish commercial relations with each other on the most favorable footing.

By the second treaty, the King of Prussia recognized the Confederation of the Rhine, and the Kings of Naples, Holland and Westphalia. He ceded to the kings or princes who should be designated by Napoleon, all the dominions which, at the commencement of the war, he possessed between the Rhine and the Elbe, and engaged to offer no opposition to any arrangement in regard to them, which his Imperial majesty might choose

to adopt. He also ceded to the King of Saxony the circle of Gotha, in Lower Lusatia; he renounced all right to his acquisitions in Poland subsequent to January 1st, 1772, and to the city and territory of Dantzic; consented to close his harbors to the ships and commerce of Great Britain; and entered into a contract for the restoration of the strong-holds of Prussia at certain fixed periods, and the payment of the sums necessary for their civil and military evacuation. These concessions, together with the enormous contributions exacted by Napoleon, entirely paralyzed the strength of Prussia, and rendered her for a long time incapable of extricating herself from that iron net in which she was enveloped by the French troops.

But the important changes announced in these two treaties, were not the only consequences of the interviews at Tilsit. By a secret convention concluded at the same time between the two Emperors, Turkey was abandoned almost without reserve to the Russian Autocrat; and, in return, Alexander agreed that if England should decline to make peace with France on certain terms designated by Napoleon, "France and Russia would jointly summon the three courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon, to close their harbors against English vessels, recall their ambassadors from London, and declare war against Great Britain." By a further agreement, the dominions of the pope, as well as Malta and Egypt, were ceded to France; the sovereigns of the houses of Bourbon and Braganza in the Spanish Peninsula, were to be replaced by princes of the family of Napoleon; and when the final partition of the Turkish Empire should take place, Wallachia, Moldavia, Servia and Bulgaria were to be allotted to Russia; and Greece, Macedonia, Dalmatia and the seaports of the Adriatic, to France.

CHAPTER XXVII.

FROM THE PEACE OF TILSIT, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES IN THE SPANISH PENINSULA.

WHEN the battle of Trafalgar destroyed Napoleon's prospect of invading England, and extinguished his hope of soon bringing the maritime war to a successful issue, he did not abandon the contest in despair. He readily saw that his preparations in the Channel must go for nothing, that the flotilla at Boulogne would fall to pieces before a fleet capable of protecting its passage could be assembled, and that every successive year would enable England more exclusively to monopolize the commerce of the world, and drive his flag more completely from the ocean. Yet, fertile in resource, indomitable in resolution, implacable in hatred, he resolved to change the method, not the object of his hostility; and indulged the belief that he could succeed, through the extent and terror of his continental victories, in achieving England's destruction by a process more slow, but perhaps more certain.

The first part of his plan was to combine the European states in one great alliance against England, and compel them to exclude the British flag

and British merchandise from their harbors. The second part was, to obtain possession by fraud, or force, or negotiation, of all the fleets of Europe, and gradually bring them to a central point near the English coast, whence he could eventually make his long-contemplated descent upon that country. By the Continental System he hoped to weaken the resources of England, to decrease her revenue, and spread commercial distress through her borders, until the unanimity of her inhabitants should be destroyed, and thus prepare the way for the grand assault, which was his ultimate reliance. With an eye to the same end, he constantly exerted himself to increase his own naval force. Amid all the expenditure of his military campaigns, he proposed to construct, and to a certain extent actually did construct, from ten to twenty ships of the line every year, while vast sums were annually expended on the naval harbors of Antwerp, Flushing, Cherbourg and Brest.

It was in pursuance of these projects that, on the 21st of November, 1806, he issued a proclamation from Berlin-since known as the Berlin Decree-declaring that "The British islands are in a state of blockade. Every species of commerce and communication with them is prohibited; all packages or letters addressed in English, or in English characters, shall be seized at the Post Office; all British subjects, of whatever rank or condition, who shall be found in the countries occupied by our troops, or those of our allies, shall be made prisoners of war; every warehouse, merchandise, or property of any sort, belonging to a subject of Great Britain, or coming from its manufactories or colonies, is declared lawful prize. Half the value of confiscated property shall be applied to indemnifying merchants whose vessels have been seized by the English cruisers. No vessels coming directly from England, or any of her colonies, shall be received into any of our harbors; and every vessel which, by means of a false declaration shall have effected such entry, shall be confiscated. The prize-court of Paris is intrusted with the determination of all questions arising out of this decree in France and the countries occupied by our armies; that of Milan, with the decision of similar questions in the kingdom of Italy. This decree shall be communicated to the Kings of Spain, Naples, Holland and Etruria, and to our allies whose subjects, like ours, have been victims of the injustice and barbarity of British legislation."

Such was the famous Berlin Decree, and orders were dispatched for its immediate and vigorous execution. Its unjust character and ruinous tendency was so strongly felt in Holland, that Louis Bonaparte, the king, at first positively refused to submit to its enforcement, and for some time could be prevailed on to promulgate it only in foreign countries occupied by the Dutch troops. In the north of Germany it was vigorously carried into effect, and was made the pretext for a thousand iniquitous extortions and abuses, which greatly augmented its oppression. An army of locusts, in the form of inspectors, custom-house officers and other functionaries, fell on the countries occupied by the French troops, and made the search for English goods a plea for innumerable frauds.

The English government replied to the Berlin Decree, by an Order in Council, on the 7th of January, 1807, declaring that, "No vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another, if both belong to France and her allies, and shall be so far under their control, as that British vessels are excluded therefrom; and the captains of all British vessels are hereby

required to warn every neutral vessel coming from any such port, destined to such other port, to discontinue her voyage; and any vessel, after being so warned, or after having had a reasonable time allowed it for obtaining information of the present Order in Council, which shall, notwithstanding, persist in such voyage to such other port, shall be declared good prize. This Order was soon after modified in favor of vessels containing grain or provisions for Great Britain, and of all vessels whatever, belonging to the Hanse Towns, if employed in any trade to or from the British dominions. After the treaty of Tilsit had subjected the Continent to the control of Napoleon, it appeared that some more vigorous and extensive retaliation was indispensable on the part of Great Britain. A few months' experi ence showed that the Berlin Decree, by prohibiting the importation of every kind of British produce, necessarily left the Continental market open to the manufacturing industry and colonial produce of other states. obvious and direct reply would have been to prohibit the importation into the British dominions of the produce of France and its dependencies; but a little reflection showed that this would accomplish only a partial retri. butive effect, by reason of the comparatively great extent of British commerce and manufactures. Therefore, on the 11th of November, 1807, a new Order in Council was issued declaring France and all the Continental powers allied with her, in a state of blockade, and that all vessels were good prize which should be bound for any of their harbors, excepting such as had previously touched at, or cleared from, a British port.

The

Napoleon replied to this by a new decree issued from Milan, on the 17th of December, 1807, declaring, that "every vessel, of whatever nation, which shall have submitted to be searched by British cruisers, or paid any impost levied by the British government, shall be considered as having lost the privileges of a neutral flag, and declared good prize. Every vessel, of whatever nation, and with whatever cargo, coming from any British harbor, or from any of the British colonies, or from any country occupied by British troops, or bound for Great Britain, or for British colonies, or for any country occupied by the British troops, is also declared good prize."

It may safely be affirmed that the rage of belligerent powers and the mutual violation of the law of nations, could not go beyond these furious manifestoes. But, such was the exasperation now produced on both sides, by the long continuance and desperate character of the contest, the feelings of generosity and the dictates of prudence were alike forgotten. Nevertheless, the very extravagance of these notable decrees, by rendering their strict execution impossible, led from the first to a system of unlimited evasion, of which Napoleon himself set the example. He soon discovered that a lucrative source of revenue might be opened by granting, at exorbitant prices, licenses to import British produce and manufactures: a condition was attached to the license, that an equal amount of French or Continental produce should be exported; but this was readily evaded by making up cargoes of old and almost worthless merchandise, and shipping it under a fictitious certificate of value. Thus arose a system, the most extraordinary and inconsistent that ever was known upon the earth. While the two governments were carrying on their commercial warfare with daily increasing virulence; while Napoleon denounced the penalty of death against every public functionary who should connive at the introduction of British merchandise, and consigned to the flames, whatever of