CHAPTER IV.

THE YEAR 1813.

THE year 1813 was another year of battles and bloodshed. When it opened, the remnant of the Grand Army had not yet made good its escape. It repassed the Niemen on the 30th December, 1812; but from the Niemen it was driven back on the Vistula, from the Vistula to the Oder, and from the Oder to the Elbe. The sixth coalition was now formed, and France, with her allies, such as Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine, and Denmark, found herself confronted by Russia, England, Prussia, Spain, and Sweden. Austria for a time held aloof, playing the mediator and preparing for war at the same time. She had suffered so severely from miscalculating the resources of France and the genius of Napoleon on previous occasions that she long hesitated. Then she feared and doubted Russia. What if she were to join the allies, and France and Russia were to come to terms, as France and Russia had come to terms after Friedland to the detriment of Prussia? The relations between Austria and Russia had not been friendly for some time. After Austerlitz, Austria had concluded a separate peace with France. During the campaign of 1807, Austria held aloof while Napoleon was fighting with the Czar in Poland. In 1809 Russia sided with France against Austria, and in 1810 came the matrimonial alliance, which meant an understanding between

France and Austria and war with Russia. In 1812 Austria furnished a corps of 30,000 men to France. The court of Vienna had therefore good reason to fear that Napoleon might turn the past to account and sow dissension between his father-in-law and the Czar in the event of Austria casting in her lot with the allies. He attempted this when Austria at last declared against him, but the illusions of Tilsit and Erfurth had vanished. There was Moscow to be revenged, and when Caulaincourt was sent to negotiate with the Czar in secret, Alexander received him in presence of the King of Prussia and the ambassadors of England, Prussia, and Austria. It may be said that during the Wagram campaign the Russians gave Napoleon but little support, and that during the march to Moscow and back the Austrians helped the French as little as possible. Still a good deal of distrust existed between Vienna and St. Petersburg, and it was not until August, that is to say, after Lutzen, Bautzen, and Wurschen had been fought, that Austria threw off the mask and joined the sixth coalition. After the three battles above-named, which were all favourable to the French arms, an armistice was concluded at Pleiswitz which brought about a congress, or the semblance of a congress, at Prague. Several French historians have blamed Napoleon for allowing his enemies time to breathe and to bring up reinforcements. But the armistice was as necessary to the French as to the allies; their successes had been dearly purchased; they were sadly deficient in cavalry; and, as Napoleon said himself, he could not follow up his victories, and he was paralysed by the dubious attitude of Austria.

The armistice having been denounced, hostilities were resumed on the 17th August. The Emperor Napoleon threatened at the same time Berlin, Breslau, and Prague, which weakened his centre. However, he foiled the allies in a rash and sanguinary attack upon Dresden, where Moreau fell mortally wounded. The strategy of the allies now consisted in refusing to accept battle where Napoleon

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commanded in person, and in attacking his lieutenants, and this plan was crowned with success. Macdonald was beaten at Katzbach, Vandamme at Kulm, Oudinot at Gross-Beeren on his road to Berlin, and Ney at Dennewitz, while Davoust was obliged to fall back behind the Elbe. Bavaria now went over to the allies, and was shortly afterwards followed by Baden and Wirtemberg. Then came Leipsic, during which the Saxons went over to the enemy-all but their old king. The disaster of Leipsic brought the campaign of 1813, but not the war, to a close. Not more than a fifth of the French army recrossed the Rhine, while 120,000 men were left in the fortresses along the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula. Rapp was shut up at Dantsic, Davoust at Hamburg, Du Tailly at Torgau, Lemarois at Magdeburg, Lapoye at Wittenberg, Grandeau at Stettin, d'Albe at Custrin, and Laplane at Glogau. On the 9th November Napoleon returned to Paris, and when the year closed the allies were crossing the Rhine and invading the northern departments of France.

In Spain matters went very badly with the French. "In May the British army," as Lord Londonderry says, "was lying between the Agueda and the Tagus, observed by a greatly superior force, and master only of Portugal, from which it seemed competent for an enemy, with a little skill and determination, to drive it. The month of December beheld the English troops victors in five pitched battles, after having swept the whole armed power of France over broad and rapid rivers, across wide and fertile plains, through the passes of the Pyrenees, and back into the hitherto unviolated territory of la belle France. . . . Never was such a series of brilliant successes accomplished by a British army as was achieved by Lord Wellington and his companions in the course of that campaign. The strongholds of Burgos, Pampeluna, and St. Sebastian were incapable of arresting their triumphs. The first was abandoned and blown up; the second yielded to the slow

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but sure process of blockade; and the third, in spite of Soult's best efforts, was carried by assault in open day."

The great victory, however, was that of Vittoria, the news of which was hailed with delight in Germany, revived the drooping spirits of the allies, and was so severely felt by Napoleon that he at once sent Soult back to Spain as his lieutenant-general; but Soult was unable to stop the British, who crossed the Bidassoa, and gained the battles of the Nive and the Nivelle.

Austria, as we have remarked, was for some time deterred from joining the coalition lest Russia should conclude a separate peace with Napoleon. Lord Londonderry, after describing the battle of Vittoria, says: “It does not appear to have formed any part of Lord Wellington's plan at this period of the war to carry his victorious arms into the south of France. He felt that an accommodation between Napoleon, the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Prussia, which seemed then not unlikely, might occur, and that would render it impossible for him to maintain himself beyond the Pyrenees."

The reign of King Joseph naturally came to an end with the events above referred to. Forced to take refuge in France, he was soon afterwards ordered by his brother to leave the frontier and to repair to Mortfontaine. The Emperor was about to reopen negotiations with his captive, Ferdinand VII.

When hostilities broke out, the King of Saxony, distracted between his engagements with Napoleon and the increasing enthusiasm of his army and his people for the cause of the allies, was doubtful which side to take. Napoleon, however, after entering Dresden, informed hist Majesty that if he did not at once return to his capital he would lose his crown.

On the 13th March a treaty was concluded with Sweden, by which that Power was to furnish 30,000 men to the coalition, and was to receive 1,000,000l. a year from

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England, and the island of Guadaloupe. A promise of Norway was also held out in the event of Denmark refusing to join the allies, and Denmark did refuse.

After writing several letters to Napoleon, urging him, in the interests of humanity, to put an end to a war which was disastrous to France, to Naples, and to all Europe, Murat, whose letters remained unanswered, reluctantly joined the standard of his imperial brother-in-law; but he deserted the French army after Leipsic, as he had deserted it during the retreat from Moscow, and he soon afterwards entered into negotiations with the court of Vienna, which, being opposed to the return of the Bourbons to Italy, was quite willing to recognise his right to the throne of Naples.

Before the close of the year, too, the Prince of Orange landed in Holland, which country at once began to assert its independence.

No letters on the 1st or 2nd January.

To GENERAL CLARKE.

"PARIS, 3rd January, 1813. "The King of Spain demanding the recall of Marshal Soult, or at least that he may return on furlough, send him by an extraordinary courier a furlough to come back to Paris. General Gazan or Marshal Jourdan can take the command of his corps. You must send these orders by duplicate and triplicate.

"Inform the king that under present circumstances I think he should take up his head-quarters at Valladolid; that the twenty-ninth bulletin will have made him acquainted with the state of affairs in the north, which requires our care and our efforts; that he can occupy Madrid with one extremity of his line; and that he ought to take advantage of the inaction of the English to pacify Navarre, Biscay, and the province of Santander.

"NAPOLEON."