History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in M.DCC.LXXXIX. to the Restoration of the Bourbons in M.DCCC.XV.

1. AT one in the morning, the corps | joy which he felt at the recommenceof Davoust broke up and crossed the ment of war was apparent even on his river, and shortly after its advanced visage, and communicated a universal guard took possession of Kowno. The degree of animation. Two hundred tent of the Emperor was placed on an thousand men, including forty thoueminence three hundred paces from sand horse, of whom twelve thousand the bank, and as the sun rose he be- were cuirassiers, cased in glittering held the resplendent mass slowly de- steel, passed the river that day in prescending to the bridges. The world sence of the Emperor. They equalled had never seen so magnificent an array in number, and far exceeded in equipas lay before him. Horse, foot, and ment and discipline, the bands which cannon, in the finest order, and in the crossed the Hellespont on their way to highest state of equipment, incessantly the Holy Land, and which the imagiissued from the forest, and wound nation of the poet compared to the down the paths which led to the river; leaves that fall in autumn.* Could the glittering of the arms, the splen- the eye of prophecy have foreseen the dour of the dress, the loud shouts of thin and shattered remains of this the men as they passed the imperial countless host, which a few months station, inspired universal enthusiasm, afterwards were alone destined to reand seemed to afford a certain presage gain the shores of the Niemen, the of success. The burning impatience of change would have appeared too dreadthe young conscripts; the calm assur-ful for any human powers of destrucance of the veteran soldiers; the con- tion to have accomplished. fident ardour of the younger officers; the dubious presentiments of the older generals; filled every heart with thrilling emotion. The former were impatient for the campaign as the commencement of glory and fortune; the latter dreaded it as the termination of ease and opulence. None entered on it without anxiety and interest, but none with such sanguine hopes as the Emperor. No sinister presentiments were visible on his countenance; the

VOL. X.

2. The passage of troops continued incessantly during the 24th and 25th; and the cavalry under Murat, passing Davoust's corps, took the lead in the advance. The Viceroy and Jerome, at the head of their respective armies,

"The birds that follow Titan's hottest ray Pass not by so great flocks to warmer coasts,

Nor leaves by so great numbers fall away
When winter nips them with his new-come
frosts."

TASSO, Ger. Lib. ix. 66.
A

crossed some days afterwards at Pilony | aced in their homes, they will defend and Grodno, the former at the head of them with their wonted firmness and seventy, the latter of sixty-five thou- intrepidity. Providence will bless our sand men, and immediately began to just cause. The defence of our counadvance against the corps of Bagra- try, of our independence and national thion, which lay in the opposite coun- honour, have forced me to unsheath try; whilst Macdonald passed the Nie- the sword. I will not return it to the men at Tilsit, and, on the 2d July, scabbard as long as a single enemy reSchwartzenberg crossed the frontier by mains on the Russian territory." passing the Bug at Moguilnica. The Emperor Alexander was at a ball at the country-house of General Benningsen, in the neighbourhood of Wilna, when the intelligence of the passage of the river reached him. He concealed the despatches, and remained with the company till its close, with out exhibiting any change of manner, or revealing in any way the momentous news he had received.

4. The intelligence of the invasion of the French, and these moving addresses, excited the utmost enthusiasm in the people and the army. It was not mere military ardour or the passion for conquest, like that which animated the French troops; but a deeprooted resolution of resistance, founded on the feelings of patriotism and the spirit of devotion. Less buoyant at first, it was more powerful at last; founded on the contempt of life, it remained unshaken by disaster, unsubdued by defeat. As the French army advanced, and the dangers of Russia increased, it augmented in strength; and while the ardour of the invaders was quenched by the difficulties of their enterprise, the spirit of the Russians rose with the sacrifices which their situation required. It was with feelings of regret, therefore, that the Russian army received orders to retire before the enemy. This resolution had been previously taken, and all the commanders furnished with directions as to the route they were to follow. The enormous superiority of Napoleon rendered it hopeless to attempt any resistance, till time and the casualties incident to so long a march had thinned his formidable ranks. Nor was it long before the wisdom of this resolution became apparent. The sultry heat of the weather at the crossing of the Niemen was succeeded by a tempest, the fury of which resembled the devastating hurricanes of tropical climates. Upon the countless multitudes of Na

3. On the same night, however, after the festivities were over, he prepared and published the following proclamation to the nation and the army:"For long we have observed the hostile proceedings of the French Emperor towards Russia, but we always entertained the hope of avoiding hostilities by measures of conciliation; but, seeing all our efforts without success, we have been constrained to assemble our armies. Still we hoped to maintain peace by resting on our frontiers in a defensive attitude, without committing any act of aggression. All these conciliatory measures have failed: the Emperor Napoleon, by a sudden attack on our troops at Kowno, has declared war. Seeing, therefore, that nothing can induce him to remain at peace, all that remains for us is to invoke the succour of the Most High, and oppose our forces to the enemy. I need not remind the officers and soldiers of their duty, to excite their valour; the blood of the brave Sclavonians flows in their veins. Soldiers! you defend your religion, your country, and your liberty. I am with you: God is against the ag-poleon, who traversed an exhausted gressor." The commencement of the war was likewise announced in a letter addressed to the governor of St Petersburg, which concluded with these remarkable words :-"I have the fullest confidence in the zeal of my people, and the bravery of my soldiers. Men

country, covered with sterile sands or inhospitable forests, its violence fell with unmitigated severity. The horses perished by thousands, from the combined effects of incessant rain and unwholesome provender; one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, and five

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History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in M.DCC ...