Cæsar or Alexander, or the fierce inroads of Timour or Genghis Khan, than anything yet experienced in Christendom. But they possessed this superiority over the achievements of antiquity or the sanguinary conquests of modern barbarism, that it was not over inexperienced tribes or enervated nations that the triumphs had been won, but the most warlike nation of the civilised world that had been overthrown, and the army which had not long before withstood the banded strength of Europe which had been dissolved. 101. The talents displayed by Napoleon in this campaign, though of a very high order, were not equal to the transcendant abilities evinced at Ulm and Austerlitz. Doubtless the celerity with which the hazardous advance of the Duke of Brunswick across the Thuringian Forest to turn the French left and interpose between the Rhine and their army, was turned to the best account, and the Prussians cut off from their magazines and communications at the very moment they were endeavouring to inflict that injury on the enemy: the vigour of the fight at Jena, and the incomparable energy with which the mighty host which there conquered was dispersed in pursuit of the broken remains of the enemy, and incessantly pressed on till they were totally destroyed, were worthy of the highest admiration. But in the very outset of the campaign, he exposed himself to unnecessary hazard, and but for a change of position on the part of the bulk of the Prussian army, of which he was ignorant, might have been involved in as great a catastrophe as the rout on the banks of the Isar had been to the Imperialists. To advance and attack the Prussian army, strongly posted at Jena, through the narrow and rugged defiles of the Landgrafenberg, was a greater piece of rashness in military conduct than it was in the Archduke John to advance against Moreau through the pines of Hohenlinden. Napoleon has told us this himself, "The first principle of the military art," says he, "is never to fight with a defile in your rear; for if defeated in such a station, total ruin is hardly avoidable.” Had the whole Prussian army, a hundred thousand strong, continued posted at the opening of the defiles as it was only the day before, instead of a rear-guard of forty thousand only, the French would probably have never been able to debouch, and a disastrous defeat have been experienced. There was little of the usual calculation of means to end in this great commander, when he himself, with eighty thousand men, was opposed only to Hohenlohe with forty thousand, while Davoust, with thirty thousand, was left to struggle with the King in person, at the head of sixty-five thousand. No man knew better than Napoleon that such combinations were against the first principles, not merely of the military art, but of common sense applied to such subjects. But the truth is, that the campaign of Austerlitz had given him an undue confidence in his destiny; he deemed himself invincible, because he had always hitherto proved so; and already were to be seen the symptoms of that fatal rashness which was to lead him to the Moscow retreat and the disasters of Leipsic. 102. After making every allowance for the magnitude of the defeat sustained by the Prussians at Jena and Auerstadt, and the extraordinary circumstance of the fugitives from these two fields getting intermingled during their nocturnal flight, there is something extraordinary and almost unaccountable in the sudden prostration of the monarchy. Had the people been lukewarm or disaffected in the cause, this result would have admitted of easy solution; but this was very far indeed from being the case; public spirit ran high, patriotic ardour was universal, and unanimity unprecedented against Gallic aggression existed among all classes. Yet in the midst of this ardent and enthusiastic feeling, pusillanimity the most disgraceful was generally evinced, and fortresses all but impreg nable surrendered at the first summons of a contemptible enemy! Where were the soldiers of the Great Frederick, where the constancy of the Seven Years' War, when Magdeburg, Stettin, Cüstrin, and Glogau lowered | hensions at these portentous events. their colours without firing a shot, and the weakness of these garrisons permitted the army on the Vistula to be reinforced at the decisive moment by forty thousand men, who otherwise would have been chained round their walls? These unprecedented capitulations demonstrate that, however high was the spirit of part of the nation, the same feelings were not universal, and that the kingdom of Prussia, newly cemented by the genius of Frederick, had not yet acquired that general patriotic spirit which can withstand the severer shocks of adversity, and constitutes the only secure basis of national independence. And the English historian who recollects how the energies of his own country were prostrated in a similar manner after the battle of Hastings, will probably be inclined to judge charitably of an infant nation placed in such trying circumstances; and feel a deeper thankfulness for that long career of national independence, that unbroken line of national glory, which has formed the indomitable public spirit of his own country, and constitutes the unseen chain which has so long held together the immense fabric They looked back to ancient times, and read in the long degradation of Greece and the Byzantine empire, the consequences of their subjugation by the military force of Rome, and could anticipate no brighter prospect for futurity than the ultimate resurrection of Europe after many ages of slavery and decline. So little can the greatest intellects anticipate the future course of events in a society so perpetually influenced by new moving powers as that of modern Europe; and so necessary is it, in forming a judgment on the ultimate consequences of existing changes, not merely to look back to the lessons of history, but to take into account also the hitherto unexperienced influence of fresh causes rising into action in the ever-varying scene of human affairs. of the British dominions. 103. In proportion to the unbounded enthusiasm which these wondrous events excited in France, was the despondency which they diffused through the other states of Europe. Alarm now seized the most sanguine, despair took possession of the most resolute. The power which had risen up in Europe to vanquish and destroy seemed beyond the reach of attack. Every effort made against it, every coalition formed for its overthrow, had led only to fresh triumphs, and a more complete consolidation of its strength. The utmost efforts of Austria, supported by all the wealth of England and all the military strength of Russia had sunk in the conflict; and now a few weeks had sufficed to dissipate that admirable army 104. That bright dawn, however, which philanthropy looked for in vain, and philosophy was unable to anticipate in the dark gloom of the political horizon, the ardent mind of a hero had *See, in particular, Sir James Mackintosh's letter on this subject, Memoirs, i. 304. "I do not," says he, "despair of the fortunes of the human race. But the moral days and nights of these mighty revolutions have not yet been measured by human innight may be before the dawn of a brighter tellect. Who can tell how long that fearful to-morrow? Experience may, and I hope does, justify us in expecting that the whole course of human affairs is towards a better state; but it does not signify to us, supposing that many steps of this progress may be to the worse. The race of man may reach the promised land; but there is no assurance the wilderness. The prospect of the nearest that the present generation will not perish in part of futurity of all that we can discover, except with the eyes of speculation, seems The mere establishment of very dismal. absolute power in France seems the least part of the evil: an evil greater than despotism, or rather the worst form of despotism, approaches; a monarchy literally universal intosh to M. Ogilvie, Feb. 24, 1808.-MACKINTOSH's Memoirs, i. 383.-It is curious, but not unnatural, to observe the earliest and warmest gloomy in their anticipations of its ultimate advocates of the French Revolution most which the Great Frederick had beeffects. Ardour of imagination, the habit of queathed as the phalanx of indepen-looking before the multitude into the ultidence to his country. The thoughtful and philanthropic, more even than the multitude, were penetrated with appre seems about to be established.-Sir J. Mack mate consequences of passing events, a sinproduced in the same minds, in 1790 and cere desire for the good of mankind naturally 1806, these opposite results. 66 to France, it will come to an end. You will speedily see new wars arise, and if we hold firm, France, worn out with conquests, will at length succumb." already begun to descry; and, what is I cannot foresee the issue of this strugvery remarkable, he fixed on the pre-gle; but supposing it to be favourable cise circumstances in the temper of the times which were destined to make it ultimately expand to all the lustre of day. "I reckon much," said Blucher to Bourrienne at Hamburg, whither he had retired on his parole from Lübeck, on the public spirit of Germany, on the enthusiasm which reigns in our universities. Success in war is ephemeral; but defeat itself contributes to nourish in a people the principles of honour and a passion for national glory. Be assured, when a whole people are resolved to emancipate themselves from foreign domination, they will never fail to succeed. I have no fears for the result. We shall end by having a landwehr such as the slavish spirit of the French could never produce. England will yield us its subsidies; we shall renew our alliances with Russia and Austria. I know well the principles of the coalition. The sole object which the allied sovereigns have in view is to put a limit to the system of aggression which Napoleon has adopted, and which he pursues with the most alarming rapidity. In our first wars against France at the commencement of its Revolution, we fought for the rights of kings, in which, for my part, I felt very little interest but now the case is totally changed; the population of Prussia makes common cause with its government; the safety of our hearths is at stake; and reverses, when such a spirit is abroad, destroy armies without breaking the spirit of a nation. I look forward without anxiety to the future, because I foresee that fortune will not always favour your Emperor. The time may come when Europe in a body, humiliated by his exactions, exhausted by his depredations, will rise up in arms against him. The more he enchains different nations, the more terrible will be the explosion when they burst their fetters. Who can now dispute the insatiable passion for aggrandisement with which he is animated? No sooner is Austria subjugated than Prussia is destroyed; and though we have fallen, Russia remains to continue the strife. 105. Blucher was right in these anticipations. It is not in the suffering but the prosperity of nations that the seeds of ruin are in general to be found; the anguish and humiliation which are the consequences of weakness, disunion, or corruption, are often the severe school of ultimate improvement. If we would discern the true cause of the fall of Prussia, we must go back to the vacillation and selfishness which characterised its national councils during the ten prosperous years which succeeded the treaty of Bâle in 1795: which caused it to temporise when the moment for action had arrived, and brought it in heedless security to the very edge of perdition; which lowered the national feeling by sacrificing the national honour, and paralysed the arms of its allies by inspiring distrust in the good faith of its government. In the misery and degradation consequent on the battle of Jena, is to be found the commencement of the causes destined to produce the glorious resurrection of 1813. Periods of adversity are seldom lost in the end to nations any more than individuals; it is the flow of unbroken prosperity, which, by promoting the growth of the selfish passions, is the real source, in most cases, of irremediable ruin. Those twin curses of humanity, despotism and democracy, act in precisely the same way on the sources of public welfare, by poisoning the fountains of individual exertion, and inducing in the active members of society a slavish submission to the authority of the irresistible executive, or a selfish prosecution of their own interest, instead of a generous devotion to the public good. Till this last stage of national degradation has arrived, there is always a hope of revival to its fortunes. No misfortunes are irremediable as long as the spirit of the people is unbroken; no calamities irreparable but those which undermine their virtue. CHAPTER XLIV. CAMPAIGN OF EYLAU. DECEMBER 1806-MARCH 1807. rious result from their exertions, and, without underrating the forces of their opponents, indulged a sanguine hope that the north would prove the limits of their power, and that, while they repelled them from their own frontiers, they would afford the means of liberation to oppressed Europe. The severity of a Polish winter could not deter these undaunted combatants. Eager for the conflict, both the mighty hosts approached the Vistula; and, at a period of the year when some respite is usually given in ordinary war to suffering humanity, they commenced a new campaign, and advanced through a snowy wilderness to the bloody field of Eylau. 1. THE campaign of Jena had destroyed the power of Prussia; inconsiderate valour had yielded to overwhelming force and skilful combination; with more justice the King than the people could say with Francis I. at Pavia, Tout est perdu hors l'honneur. But Russia was still untouched; and while her formidable legions remained unsubdued, the war, so far from being completed, could hardly be said to have seriously commenced. Napoleon felt this. On the Trebbia, at Novi, at Dürrenstein, and Austerlitz, the French had experienced the stern valour of these northern warriors; and he counted the hours, as the mortal conflict approached, which was to bring either universal empire or irreparable ruin 2. Alexander had displayed the greatin its train. Nor were the Russians est activity in repairing the losses which less desirous to commence the strug- his army had sustained in the camgle. Confident in the prowess of their paign of Austerlitz. Thirty fresh squadarms-proud of the steady growth of rons and fifty-one battalions had been an empire, the frontiers of which have added to its amount,* all the chasms never yet receded, and which its mean- occasioned by the casualties of war est peasant believes is one day to sub- supplied, and the new French organidue the world-they anticipated a glo-sation into divisions universally adopt The Russian army was organised into eighteen divisions, each of which was composed of six regiments of infantry, ten squadrons of heavy cavalry, ten of light, two batteries of heavy cannon, three of light or horse artillery, and a company of pioneers; in all for each, eighteen battalions, twenty squadrons, and seventy-two pieces of cannon; about 12,000 men. The army was thus divided: 1. Guard, under Grand-duke Constantine, 3. Army of Moldavia-Five divisions under Michelson Battalions. Squadrons. Cannons. 84 147 170 504 90 100 306 besides the local corps in Georgia, Finland, and garrison battalions. The whole regular force was about 380,000 men; but in no country is the difference between the numbers on paper and in the field so great as in Russia, and the troops engaged in the campaign of Poland never exceeded 80,000 men.-JOMINI, ii. 335; and WILSON, 4. ed. Nor was this all:- Anxious to | ing forward to defend the western rouse the religious enthusiasm of his frontiers of the empire were very difsubjects, and deeply impressed with ferent from those with whom the the magnitude of the struggle which French had hitherto, for the most part, was approaching, he had called out a contended in the fields of Germany or defensive militia of six hundred thou- the Italian plains. The forces of civisand men, and excited their devout lisation, the resources of art, were exloyalty to the highest degree by a pro-hausted; the legions of Napoleon had clamation, in which Napoleon was represented as the relentless enemy of the Christian religion, and they were called on to shed their best blood in defence of the faith of their fathers.* This proclamation excited the ridicule of a large part of Europe, still tainted by infidel fanaticism, and not then awakened to the impossibility of combating revolutionary energy with any other weapons but those of religious fervour. But it was admirably calculated for the simple-minded people to whom it was addressed, and excited such an enthusiasm, that not only was this immense armament without difficulty raised, but, contrary to usual custom, the peasants drawn for the regular army joyfully left their homes, and marched with songs of triumph, amidst the blessings of their countrymen, towards the frontier, the anticipated scene of their glory or their martyrdom. 3. The troops who were now press Buonaparte," said this proclamation, which was read in all the Russian churches, "after having, by open force or secret intrigue, extended his power over the countries which he oppresses, menaces Russia, which Heaven protects. It is for you to prevent the destroyer of peace, of the faith, and of the happiness of mankind, from seducing the orthodox Christians. He has trampled under foot every principle of truth; in Egypt he preached the Koran of Mahomet, in France manifested his contempt for the religion of Jesus Christ by convoking Jewish synagogues. Do you love your fellowcreatures? Fly the persecutor of Christians. Do you desire to be saved? Oppose an invincible barrier to his advances. He has dared to the combat God and Russia; prove that you are the defenders of the Most High and of your country. Chase far from your frontiers that monster; punish his barbarity to so many innocent persons, whose blood cries aloud to Heaven for vengeance. God will hear the prayer of the faithful; he will shield you with his power; he will cover you with his grace. Your exploits will be celebrated by the church and by your country; immortal crowns or abodes of eternal felicity await you."-HARDENBERG, ix. 376. reached the old frontier of Europe; the energy of the desert, the hosts of Asia were before them; passions hitherto, save in La Vendée, unexperienced in the contest, were now brought into action. Religious enthusiasm, patriotic ardour, the fervour of youthful civilisation, were arrayed against the power of knowledge, the discipline of art, the resources of ancient opulence. There was to be seen the serf but recently emancipated from the servitude of his fathers, whose mother and sisters had checked the lamentations of nature when he assumed the military habit, and bade him go forth, the champion of Christendom, to present glory and future paradise; there the peasant, inured from infancy to hardy exercise, ignorant alike of the enjoyments and the corruptions of urban society, long accustomed to rural labour, and habituated equally to the glow of a Russian bath or the severity of a Scythian winter; there the Cossack, whose steed, nourished on the steppes of the Don, had never yet felt the curb, while his master, following his beloved Hetman to the theatre of action, bore his formidable lance in his hand, his pistols and sword by his side, and his whole effects, the fruit of years of warfare, in the folds of his saddle. Careless of the future, the children of the desert joyfully took their way to the animating fields of plunder and triumph; mounted on small but swift and indefatigable horses, they were peculiarly adapted for a country where provisions were scanty, forage exhausted, and hardships universal. The heat of summer, the frost of winter, were alike unable to check the vigour of their desultory operations; and when the hosts on either side were arrayed in battle, and the charge of regular forces was requisite, they often appeared with decisive effect at the critical moment. Urging their horses |