quired a certain fulness, and that statue-like calmness of expression with which posterity will always be familiar; but his figure betrayed as yet nothing more than a tendency towards corpulence. He was considered as a handsomer man at this period than he had been in his earlier days. They spent the evening at the chateau of Compiegne, and were re-married on the 2d of April at Paris, amid every circumstance of imperial splendour

In July, 1810, Napoleon deposed his brother Louis, and formally annexed the kingdom of Holland to the French empire, Amsterdam took rank among the cities next after Rome, the Pope having been seized and sent prisoner to Fontainbleau the year previous, and the countries which formed the Holy See annexed to the empire of France. The Hanse towns, were shortly afterwards added, and the whole sea-coast of Germany, from the frontier of Holland to that of Denmark.

In May, 1810, the prince of Augustenburg, who had been recognized as heir to Charles XIII of Sweden, died suddenly; and the choice of a successor was, according to the constitution of Sweden, to depend on the vote of the diet, which assembled accordingly in the month of August following. In the hope of securing the friendship and protection of Napoleon, the succession was proposed to Marshal Bernadotte, brother-in-law to Joseph Buonaparte. Napoleon_ consented to the acceptance of the proffered dignity by Bernadotte, and the marshal proceeded to Stockholm, where he received an enthusiastic welcome.

On the 20th of April, 1811, Napoleon's wishes were crowned by the birth of a son. The birth was a difficult one, and the nerves of the medical attendant were shaken. At length the child appeared, but without any signs of life. After a lapse of some minutes a feeble cry was heard, and Napoleon entering the anti-chamber, in which the high functionaries of the state were assembled, announced the event in these words, "It is a King of Rome."

CHAP. XIX.

Rupture with Russia. Great preparations on both sides for the ap proaching conflict. Amount of Buonaparte's army. Resources of Alexander. Napoleon at Dresden. Passage of the Niemen. Arrives at Wilna. Enthusiasm of the Russians. Their army largely reinforc ed. Napoleon leaves Wilna. Battle of Smolensko. Russians burn the place and retreat. GREAT BATTLE OF BORODINO. Napoleon continues his advance. Moscow abandoned by the Russian Army and the Inhabitants.

We are now approaching the verge of that fated year, when fortune, hitherto unwearied in her partiality towards Napoleon, for the first time turned upon him a clouded and stormy aspect.

The conditions of the treaty of Tilsit bore hard upon the Emperor Alexander, and he was disposed to free himself from them. Certain harbors were opened partially for the admission of colonial produce, and the export of native productions; and there ensued a series of indignant reclamations on the part of Napoleon, and haughty evasions on that of the Czar, which, ere long, satisfied all near observers that Russia would not be slow to avail herself of any favorable opportunity of once more appealing to arms. The year 1811 was spent in negotiations, neither party being ready for hostilities, but both were making the most active preparations.The amount of the French army at the period in question is calculated at 850,000 men; the army of the kingdom of Italy mustered 50,000; that of Naples, 30,000; that of the grand dutchy of Warsaw, 60,000; the Bavarian, 40,000; the Westphalian, 30,000; the Saxon, 30,000; Wirtemberg, 15,000; Baden, 9,000; Saxony, 30,000; and the minor powers of the Rhenish league, 23,000. Of these armies Napoleon had the entire control. In addition, Austria was bound to furnish him with 30,000, and Prussia with 20,000 auxiliaries.The sum total is 1,187,000 men. Deducting 387,000—a large allowance for hospitals, furloughs and incomplete regiments -there remained 800,000 effective men at his immediate command. The Spanish peninsula might perhaps occupy, even now, 150,000; but still Napoleon could bring into the field against Russia, an army of 650,000 men; numbers such as had never before followed an European banner. The Emperor Alexander's resources were also extensive. He had

400,000 regulars and 50,000 Cossacks already in arms, and an enormous population, on which he had the means of drawing for recruits.

Napoleon, without waiting for any formal rupture with the Russian diplomatists at Paris, now directed the march of very great bodies of troops into Prussia and the grand dutchy of Warsaw. Alexander's minister was ordered in the beginning of April, to demand the withdrawal of these troops, together with the evacuation of the fortresses in Pomerania, in case the French government still entertained a wish to negotiate. Buonaparte instantly replied that he was not accustomed to regulate the distribution of his forces by the suggestions of a foreign power. The ambassador demanded his passports, and quitted Paris.

On the 9th of May, Napoleon left Paris with his Empress, and arrived on the 16th at Dresden, where the Emperor of Austria, the kings of Prussia, Naples, Wirtemberg and Westphalia, and almost every German sovereign of inferior rank, had been invited, or commanded, to meet him. He had sent to request the Czar also to appear in this brilliant assemblage, as affording a last chance of an amicable arrangement; but the messenger could not obtain admission to Alexander's presence. Buonaparte continued for some days to play the part of undisputed master amid this congregation of royalties, and in the blaze of successive festivals the king of Saxony appeared but as some chamberlain, or master of ceremonies to his imperial guest:

Having sufficiently indicated to his allies and vassals the conduct which they were respectively to adopt, in case the war should break out, Napoleon, already weary of his splendid idleness, sent on the Abbe de Pradt to Warsaw, to prepare for his reception among the Poles, dismissed Maria Louisa on her return to Paris, and broke up the court in which he had, for the last time, figured as the "king of kings." Marshal Ney, with one great division of the army, had already passed the Vistula; Junot, with another, occupied both sides of the Oder. The Czar was known to be at Wilna, his Lithuanian capital, there collecting the forces of his immense empire, and intrusting the general arrangements of the approaching campaign to Marshal Barclay de Tolly. The season was advancing; and it was time that the question of peace or war should be forced to a decision.

Napoleon arrived at Dantzic on the 7th of June; and during the fortnight which ensued, it was known that the final

communications between him and Alexander were taking place. The attention of mankind was never more entirely fixed on one spot than it was, during these fourteen days, upon Dantzic. On the 22d, Buonaparte broke silence in a bulletin. "Soldiers," said he, "Russia is dragged on by her fate; her destiny must be accomplished. Let us march: let us cross the Niemen: let us carry war into her territories.Our second campaign of Poland will be as glorious as our first: but our second peace shall carry with it its own guarantee: it shall put an end forever to that haughty influence which Russia has exercised for fifty years on the affairs of Europe."

The disposition of the French army when the campaign commenced was as follows:-The left wing, commanded by Macdonald, and amounting to 30,000 men, had orders to march through Courland, with the view of, if possible, outflanking the Russian right, and gaining possession of the seacoast in the direction of Riga. The right wing, composed almost wholly of the Austrians, 30,000 in number, and commanded by Schwartzenberg, were stationed on the Volhynian frontier. Between these moved the various corps forming the grand central army under the general superintendence of Napoleon himself, viz, those of Davoust, Ney, the king of Westphalia, the viceroy of Italy, Poniatowski, Junot and Victor; and in numbers not falling below 250,000. The communication of the centre and left was maintained by the corps of Oudinot, and that of the centre and extreme right by the corps of Regnier, who had with him the Saxon auxiliaries and the Polish legion of Dombrowski. The chief command of the whole cavalry of the host was assigned to Murat, king of Naples; but he was in person at the headquarters of the Emperor, having immediately under his order three divisions of horse, those of Grouchy, Montbrun and Nansouty. Augereau with his division was to remain in the north of Germany, to overawe Berlin and protect the communications with France.

A glance at the map will show that Napoleon's base of operations extended over full one hundred leagues; and that the heads of his various columns were so distributed, that the Russians could not guess whether St. Petersburg or Moscow formed the main object of his march.

The Russian main army, under Barclay de Tolly himself, had its head-quarters at Wilna; and consisted at the opening of the campaign, of 120,000. Considerably to the left lay

"the second army," as it was called, of 80,000, under Bagration; with whom were Platoff and 12,000 of his Cossacks; while at the extreme of that wing "the army of Volhynia," 20,000 strong, commanded by Tormazoff, watched Schwartzenberg. On the right of Barclay de Tolly was Witgenstein with 30,000, and between these again and the sca, the corps of Essen, 10,000 strong. Behind the whole line two armies of reserve were rapidly forming at Novogorod and Smolensko; each, probably, of about 20,000 men. On the Russian side the plan of the campaign had been settled ere now: it was entirely defensive. Taught by the events of the former war in Poland, the Czar was resolved, from the beginning, to draw Buonaparte if possible into the heart of his own country ere he gave him battle. The various divisions of the Russian force had orders to fall back leisurely as the enemy advanced, destroying whatever they could not remove along with them, and halting only at certain points, where entrenched camps had already been formed for their reception. The difficulty of feeding half a million of men in a country deliberately wasted beforehand, and separated by so great a space from Germany, to say nothing of France, was sure to increase with every hour and every step; and Alexander's great object was to husband his own strength until the polar winter should set in around the strangers, and bring the miseries which he thus foresaw to a crisis. poleon, on the other hand, had calculated on being met by the Russians at, or even in advance of, their own frontier; of gaining a great battle; marching immediately either to St. Petersburg, or to Moscow, and dictating a peace within the walls of one of the Czar's own palaces.

Na

On the 24th of June, the grand imperial army, consolidated into three masses, began their passage of the Niemen; the king of Westphalia at Grodno; the viceroy Eugene at Pilony, and Napoleon himself near Kowno. The Emperor rode on in front of his army to. reconnoitre the banks; his horse stumbled, and he fell to the ground. "A bad omen— a Roman would return," exclaimed some one; it is not certain whether Buonaparte himself or one of his attendants.The first party that crossed were challenged by a single Cossack "For what purpose," said he "do you enter the Russian country?" "To beat you and take Wilna," answered the advanced guard. The sentinel struck spurs into his horse, and disappeared in the forest. There came on at the same moment a tremendous thunder storm. Thus began the