his mission. The emperor was in his | Rhine was scarcely less disastrous than bath, and had admitted him. He had that from Moscow. Even Marbot tells listened attentively, and had only this us that the French soldiery were indigobjection to make, that the Saale was nant at the shameful neglect which had not a defensive line, that the Rhine was, caused the sacrifice of thousands of and that as I thought he ought to re-lives, and stood sullenly aloof from the treat, we should fall back to the Rhine. 'Go, tell the marshal so,' he said to the officer."

emperor. Macdonald was naturally full of resentment, and places Napoleon's conduct in the worst aspect. This was The Grand Army was forced at last his first interview with the defeated conupon Leipzig; and after a struggle of queror: "The emperor listened to my three days, in which the German auxil- story without interrupting me, the byiaries attacked it in the field- a defec- standers were deeply moved, and showed tion naturally denounced by Frenchmen, their sympathy in their attitude. I but which Napoleon might have fore-ended my remarks by saying that the seen it was driven across the Elbe in losses of the army in men and material defeat and ruin. Macdonald throws no were immense, and that not a moment fresh light on the scenes of the battle; was to be lost to save its wreck, and to and only confirms all that has been said | regain the Rhine. We were at Markrespecting the fatal neglect of not bridg- randstadt; I had walked several leagues, ing the rivers which crossed the path of I was still wet through, and very tired. the French in retreat, and the catas- The emperor saw this, and coolly said, trophe of destroying the only bridge' You had better take rest.' I left his which gave the army an avenue of es- presence indignant at this callous indifcape, before thousands of the troops ference." had effected the passage. These appall- It was not, however, only men like ing scenes have been often described, Macdonald, who felt indignation during the account of Marbot is especially the retreat from Leipzig. The favorgood; and we shall not recur to fright-ites of the old army of Italy, loaded by a ful incidents again, which strikingly Napoleon with wealth and honors, show how the staff of Napoleon, as the joined in the general chorus of comDuc de Fezensac has well pointed out, plaint. The authority of the emperor, was on many occasions far from efficient, founded on success, had, in fact, begun t and how the imperial lieutenants would to slip away from him; and the sons of not take the simplest precautions, or do the Revolution had no scruples in deanything, without the express command nouncing their chief in adverse fortune. of their master. Macdonald, more for- Augereau broke out in characteristic tunate than Poniatowski, contrived to Billingsgate: "He answered me with get over the swollen Elster, and thus an oath: 'Does the b-know what describes the heartrending spectacle he is doing? Have you not already presented by his troops on the opposite seen this? Have you not heard that bank: "The firing continued on the during the late events, and especially other side of the Elster, suddenly it ceased. Our unhappy soldiers were driven in multitudes upon the river; whole platoons rushed in, and were carried away by the flood; cries of despair burst forth from the bank on the town side; my men saw me, and above the shouting and confusion, I distinctly heard these exclamations, 'Marshal, save your soldiers, save your children!' I could do nothing for them. Agitated by passion, anger, fury, I shed tears."

The retreat of the beaten army to the

since the catastrophe which has followed, he has lost his head? The coward! He deserted and sacrificed us all; and do you think me such a fool, or a madman, that I should allow myself to be slain or taken prisoner in the outskirts of Leipzig ? You ought to have done as I did, and gone away.'"

Even Murat, the emperor's near kinsman, and raised by him to the throne of Naples, could not refrain from expressions like these; in truth he was already plotting treason: "The king of Naples

told me that the emperor intended to a victory due to his admirable skill, that direct me to make out a good defensive threw a gleam of light on the last stage position, for he wished to make a halt of of the retreat. It is puerile to make a five or six days. "F ,' added Mu- charge of this kind, which reveals the rat, make out a bad one, otherwise he animus of the discontented marshal: will ruin himself, as well as ourselves.' "The emperor appeared followed by Macdonald fearlessly urged his master his Guards and by other corps; he asked not to lose a moment to attain the Rhine. me for information, which I gave; I had In good and evil fortune he was always estimated the enemy's force at thirty frank, to the astonishment of imperial thousand men at least. Can we exCourtiers: "I was introduced. The amine his position without danger,' he emperor gave me the commission which added. 'Without danger, no; but we I had heard of from Murat. This must run risks, as I have done myself.' reconnaissance is, at present, impossi- Well, let us retreat.' As we were ble,' I said. The fog is so thick that moving forward, a shell fell and burst nothing can be seen clearly at a distance near him, but no one was hurt. He of fifteen paces. But do you really in- stopped, dismounted, and it was impostend to halt here?' "The troops are sible after this to get him out of the fatigued,' replied the emperor, and the wood." enemy pursues slowly; they are all in need of repose.' That,' I retorted, would be all very well in different circumstances; but in the actual state of disorganization, and I must add, of de-tria was acting a double part, the acceptmoralization of the army, it would be of

no use.

6

You must, as quickly as possible, fall back on the Rhine; besides, the men are hurrying to the river in disorder.' 'Nevertheless,' he said, 'I am informed that a great number had been stopped, and that fifteen battalions of those fugitives had been pursued.' 'You Te flattered and deceived,' I firmly expressed. 'It was the same thing after the death of Turenne and the rout of his army.'"

6

The old republican soldier spoke out his mind to his great master as to the extreme imprudence of rejecting the offers of Austria in 1813; even if Aus

666

ance of her terms would have put her in the wrong, and rallied opinion in France to the emperor. It may seem strange that Napoleon allowed such freedom; but, even in the days of his absolute power, he sometimes bore much from the chiefs of his armies: 'Why,' I said, 'did you not agree to the conditions sooner? The army wished it extremely; the honor of its arms had been restored; its chief commanders begged for this in its name, and in that of France in distress. I myself explained the danger of the situation to you; I represented to you that it was difficult enough to contend against the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia, and what would it be when Austria, Sweden, and other lesser States should join them? Our losses, no doubt, had been in some measure repaired, but with what means? With children of the new levy, with young horses, not trained, and already worn out by long and forced marches; the return of hostilities would cause our communications to be intercepted; a serious defeat would ruin us; we had Macdonald, however, is not just in neither a store of provisions nor maganuating that Napoleon gave proof of zines; above all, demoralization was to of personal courage before Hanau, be avoided.' All this reasoning had

Napoleon more than once showed, in his wonderful career, after Moscow and in 1814 and 1815, that he was not equal to himself in extreme misfortune. He ives proof of this defect during the retreat from Leipzig: "I joined the Emperor, and spoke strongly to him about the position of affairs. 'What Fould you have me do,' he replied, with athy; I give orders and no one atads to them.' . . . On other occaSons, at a sign, at a gesture, at a signal, ad from his lips, every one was in ovement, otherwise he would have en frantic."

LIVING AGE.

VOL. LXXX. 4106

had no effect on him during the nego- | tresses on the Meuse and the Moselle tiations; to-day he admitted it was and to fall on the communications right."

the allies, with an army largely in creased by the garrisons, the last grea manœuvre of the campaign of 1814. H informs us that he urged the emperor persist in the movement, though Par should fall, wise counsel from a militar point of view, but rejected by Napoleo on political grounds: "Whatever order you may give," I said, "Paris left with out defence will have succumbed befor we can arrive, if you go there, wha ever may be the celerity of your move ments. In your place, I would march on to Lorraine and Alsace, and collect ing part of their garrisons, would carr on an internecine war on the rear of th enemy, cutting his communications and intercepting his envoys and reinforce ments; he will be compelled to fall back and you can make the fortresses you base of operations."

In the winter of 1813, as Macdonald was in command on the Lower Rhine, charged with an impossible task, the defence of Holland, the allies, surprising Napoleon by their bold movements, invaded France even before he expected; and the marshal, with most of his brother chiefs, was forced back to the plains of Champagne, to endeavor to resist the hosts of Europe. Macdonald had been promised large reinforcements, but Napoleon had hardly a man to send him; and he contemplates the grand contest of 1814, like that of 1813, with a jaundiced eye. Undoubtedly, in this instance also, the emperor tried to accomplish more than was possible with his actual military strength; he aimed at defending three-fourths of his empire, whereas he should have thought only of defending France; and The Empire had fallen in a few days his strategy, as a whole, reveals this and the most striking feature of thi error. But his operations on the Marne immense catastrophe was the extrava and the Seine are masterpieces of war gance of Napoleon's conduct, as a leade of the highest order; they recall the of armies, and chief of a State, during achievements of 1796-7, and they shed the years immediately before his over a splendid light of glory on his fall. throw. Macdonald was not the onl Macdonald scarcely alludes to these adviser who had warned him that hi grand passages of arms, though his po- efforts to keep down Europe by militar sition on the Marne gave Napoleon an force, and to refuse offers of peace opportunity to strike down Blücher, and would be attended by the gravest disas to win a series of triumphs almost un-ters. His lieutenants had urged him in paralleled. The marshal was engaged 1812 not to advance on Moscow; the towards the close of the contest in re- had entreated him in 1813 not to stand sisting Schwartzenberg upon the Seine; on the Elbe, and to attempt to hold al and this short anecdote again illustrates Germany in his grasp; in 1814 Soul how the special privileges of the Impe- had plainly told him that the defence o rial Guard were often attended with bad France should be his only object; h results: "I found Marshal Oudinot at had been advised by Caulaincourt t Grey and the Granges; and on my ask-accept the terms offered to Austria lon ing him why he had left his position in before Leipzig. How was it then tha the morning, he said that the Young Guard was not made to be a rear-guard. 'In that case,' I replied, 'I have no more orders to give you, seek them from the emperor.'

Macdonald asserts that he was the only marshal who warned Napoleon that the enemy was at hand, when the emperor was surprised at Arics-surAube. He accompanied his master in the celebrated march to relieve the for

the greatest of captains, and certainl the ablest sovereign of his time, did no see what was seen by very inferior men overleaped himself in his vaulting am bition; ran into wild excesses in wa and in peace; and exhibited, in thi phase of his career, the perversion o genius, which is akin to foolishness The answer to the question is, in par to be found in a consideration of Napo leon's natural character; over-confidenc

and arrogance were his distinctive | donald their spokesman, and he tranfaults; and these are perilous qualities scribes part of his account of this in generals and statesmen. But it is eventful interview. M. Thiers has, in chiefly to be sought in surveying the some measure, toned down the lancircumstances of his life; he had been guage; but the text of this work was, invincible for many years; he had over- we believe, before him: "The troops run and subdued the Continent; he had say that you are summoning them to founded an empire that seemed of ada- march on the capital, they share our mant; and the lord of three-fourths of regrets, and I am here to tell you in Europe, in the pride of his power, their name that they will not expose it scoffed at the menaces of adverse for- to the fate of Moscow. . . Our resotune, would not believe that he could lution has been formed, and whatever not regain a supremacy that had been you may do, we are determined to have finally lost, and trusted, to the latest done with the present state of things; moment, to the magic of a sword, which as for myself, I declare that my sword had been a talisman of victories beyond shall never be drawn against Frenchall example. It was thus that Napoleon men, or stained with French blood."" fought for his whole empire to the last; Macdonald then handed Napoleon a that he rejected the overtures made by letter from Bermonville we have met the allies; and that he risked every-him before—he was a member of the thing on the hazards of war; and thus, new Parisian government—and this too, it was that. in this desperate con- repeated the previous statement, that test, he committed a series of grave the allies would not treat with the emmistakes; knew not how to proportion means to ends; showed a want of wisdom, and of simple prudence, which ordinary persons could not understand. Yet the spectacle which this extraordinary man presented, in his gigantic fall, was not that of mere blind recklessness, rushing inconsiderately to a certain fate; it was that of genius, grand even in its aberrations, contending against irresistible force, and keeping the issue long doubtful; and it must be observed that, even to the last, it required but little to incline the scales of fortune, so immense was Napoleon's superiority in Macdonald does not give due weight to these facts; and this part of his book, therefore, is not just.

war.

peror. Napoleon at once consented to abdicate; but it will be observed he still thought he could defeat the allies; and those who describe him as a mere heartless tyrant, should bear in mind that he made no stipulation for himself, and thought only of the empress and his infant son.

"Well, gentlemen,' he said, 'since it is so I will abdicate. My wish was to secure the welfare of France. I have failed; events have turned against me. I do not intend to increase our misfortunes; but if I abdicate, what will you do? Do you wish to have the king of Rome as my successor, and the empress as regent? We unanimously agreed. 'We must,' he added, 'treat for an We have reached the most honorable armistice, and I shall send commissionpassage in the marshal's career. The ers to Paris. I select for this important emperor, and his still large army, had mission marshals the Prince of the attained Fontainbleau, after the fate of Moskwa, the Duke of Ragusa, and the Paris, and his purpose was to attack the Duke of Vicenza. . The emperor, allies in the rear, distributed carelessly after the act of abdication had been around the capital, an operation which, drawn up, threw himself upon a sofa, he has declared, must have been suc- and exclaimed, with a careless air, Bah, cessful. His lieutenants, however, were gentlemen, leave all this alone, let us sick of the war; they had taken it into march to-morrow, and we shall defeat their heads that Napoleon intended to them!' He had remarked, 'I will preight a pitched battle in the very streets pare instructions for the commissioners, of Paris, and they resolved to oppose an but I prohibit them from making perattempt of the kind. They made Mac-sonal conditions for myself.'"

Ney, Marmont, and Caulaincourt had, | accept this sovereignty, and cannot find we have seen, been selected by Napo- an asylum elsewhere, he may come to leon to treat for his cause; but Marmont my dominions; he will be received as a was replaced by Macdonald at the last sovereign; he may take the word of moment. The three plenipotentiaries Alexander.” had now reached Paris, and had an interview with the Czar Alexander, the arbiter of the situation for the time. The conversation was friendly and long, and Macdonald and Caulaincourt strongly urged the claims of Marie Louise and of the king of Rome, and denounced the Bourbons, the Senate, Talleyrand, and his crew. It is not probable that they could have succeeded, for the restoration of Louis XVIII. had been almost arranged; but they terrified the provisional government: "We went to the house of Marshal Ney. We were told that our arrival had caused the greatest alarm among the partisans of the new order of things, more than two thousand white cockades had been taken out of peoples' hats; the Senate was in a state of consternation."

The defection, however, of the corps of Marmont at this crisis decided the question, and made the efforts of the envoys hopeless. Macdonald endeavors to palliate Marmont's conduct; but his was a repentance like that of Judas; and he infamously betrayed a too generous master. The czar announced the decision of the allies: "He spoke at once on the subject of our conference, and said that our request had been answered in the negative. Thus was extinguished the last and feeble ray of hope which our first interview had produced, namely, that a regency would be established after the abdication of Napoleon in favor of his son."

The plenipotentiaries next fought for Napoleon's interests, and, as is well known, Elba was assigned to him. The language of the czar was noble and generous: "Napoleon has been unfortunate; from this day forward I am once more his friend; all has been forgotten. He shall have the island of Elba, or some other spot to rule over; he is to retain the title by which he has been generally known; his family will have pensions, and will retain their property. Tell him, gentlemen, that if he will not

Macdonald, Ney, and Caulaincourt L returned to Fontainbleau and were thanked by Napoleon for their services. The abdication was signed, and Elba accepted; and Macdonald confesses that the allies felt an immense sense of relief when all was over. Napoleon's military power was, in truth, still formidable; and if the marshals had resolved to fall away from him the great mass of the army was devoted to his cause: "Napoleon had the great majority of the inhabitants of the capital in his favor, and the whole of the National Guard; the allies by no means felt themselves secure. The armies, stil numerous, which had evacuated Spain. the frontiers of Italy and Piedmont could unite with ours; the garrisons or the Rhine and the Meuse could form a large body of troops, and could suppor the risings, which though at first partial, might become national; the energy of Napoleon, though weakened by mul tiplied reverses, might awaken and pow erfully stir France.'

Macdonald and Caulaincourt had loy ally served the emperor in these nego tiations, from first to last. But Ney had begun to play a double part; the "bravest of the brave" was really : weak man; and while still acting as hi master's envoy, had made his peac with the provisional government: "W were at dinner with Marshal Ney, wher one of his aides-de-camp came into th room, and, with a radiant face, said Your letter has been received by th emperor of Russia in the best spirit. He pointed to an order on his neck given to him by that sovereign: 'Ther is the proof.' He added that M. d Talleyrand, the president of the pro visional government, thanked the mai shal for the important counsel he ha given."

Napoleon was deeply touched by th noble conduct of Macdonald at this mo trying crisis. The one of the marshal who owed him least, and had neve