*

ed the left, was engaged, while Hoche, with the centre, was seeking his way. On the next, Hoche found himself alone opposed to the enemy, while Ambert had lost himself in the mountains. Owing to the nature of the ground, to his force, and to the advantage of his position, Brunswick was completely successful. He lost but about a dozen men: Hoche was obliged to retire with the loss of about three thousand; but he was not disheartened, and proceeded to rally his troops at Pirmasens, Hornbach, and Deux-Ponts. Hoche, though unfortunate, had nevertheless displayed a boldness and a resolution which struck the representatives of the army. The committee of public welfare, which, since the accession of Carnot, was enlightened enough to be just, and which was severe towards want of zeal alone, wrote him the most encouraging letters, and for the first time bestowed praise on a beaten general. Hoche, without being for a moment daunted by his defeat, immediately formed the resolution of joining the army of the Rhine, with a view to overwhelm Wurmser. The latter, who had remained in Alsace, while Brunswick had retired to Kaiserslautern, had his right flank uncovered. Hoche directed General Taponnier with twelve thousand men upon Werdt, to cut the line of the Vosges, and to throw himself on the flank of Wurmser, while the army of the Rhine should make a general attack upon the front of the latter.

Owing to the presence of St. Just, continual combats had taken place at the end of November and the beginning of December between the army of the Rhine and the Austrians. By going every day into the fire, it began to be familiarized with war. Pichegru commanded it. The corps sent by Hoche into the Vosges had many difficulties to surmount in penetrating into them, but it at length succeeded,

* "Hoche was a gallant man in every sense of the word; but, though he distinguished himself greatly in battle, he had not the good fortune to die there. He was deservedly esteemed among the first of France's earlier generals before Bonaparte monopolized her triumphs."

Byron. E.

Lord

† "Charles Pichegru, a French general, was born in 1761, of a respectable though poor family. In the year 1792 he was employed on the staff of the army of the Rhine, rose rapidly through the ranks of general of brigade and of division, and, in 1793, assumed the chief command of that same army. He was the inventor of the system of sharp-shooting, of flying artillery, and of attacks perpetually repeated, which rendered the enemy's cavalry almost useless. In 1794 the army of the North was committed to Pichegru, who made a most victorious campaign. In the following year the National Convention appointed him commandant of Paris against the Terrorists, whose projects he succeeded in overthrowing. He joined the army of the Rhine a short time after, when he testified a desire to re-establish the house of Bourbon on the throne, which, coming to the knowledge of the Directory, they recalled him, on which he retired to his native place, Arbois, where he spent several months in domestic retirement. In 1797 he was chosen president of the council of Five Hundred, and became the hope of the Clichyan party. He was, however, arrested by the troops of the directorial triumvirate, conveyed to the Temple, and condemned, together with fifty other deputies, to be transported to Guiana. After some months' captivity in the pestilential deserts of Sinnimari, Pichegru contrived to make his escape, and set sail for England, where he was most warmly received. He then went to live in obscurity in Germany, but, in 1804, came secretly to Paris with Georges and a great number of conspirators, to try to overturn the consular government. The plot being discovered, Pichegru was arrested and conducted to the Temple, where he was one morning found dead in his bed. Several physicians who met on the occasion asserted that he had strangled himself with his cravat." - Biographie Moderne. E.

"Pichegru," observed Napoleon, "instructed me in mathematics at Brienne, when I was about ten years old. He possessed considerable knowledge in that science. As a general, he was a man of no ordinary talent, far superior to Moreau, though he had never done anything extraordinary, as the success of his campaigns in Holland was in a great measure owing to the battle of Fluerus. Pichegru, after he had united himself to the Bourbons, sacrificed the lives of upwards of twenty thousand of his soldiers, by throwing them purposely into the enemy's hands, whom he had informed beforehand of his intentions."-A Voice from St. Helena. E.

"Nature had made Pichegru a soldier. She had given him that eagle eye which fixes victory on the field of battle, but she had denied him the qualities of a statesman. He was a mere child in politics, and took it into his head to conspire openly, before the face of the Directory, without once thinking that the Directors had it in their power to stop him. I know for certain, that among the conditions which he had made with the royal house was this, that a statue should be erected to him in his lifetime as the restorer of the monarchy. Louis XVIII. has faithfully executed this clause of the contract, not, it is true, during the general's life, but since his death. I have seen in the court of the Louvre this bronze without glory. The legitimacy of a cause never removes the stain of treason."-Memoirs of a Peer of France. E.

and seriously alarmed Wurmser's right by its presence. On the 22d of December (Nivose 2), Hoche marched across the mountains, and appeared at Werdt, on the summit of the eastern slope. He overwhelmed Wurmser's right, took many pieces of cannon and a great number of prisoners. The Austrians were then obliged to quit the line of the Motter, and to move first to Sultz, and afterwards on the 24th to Weissenburg, on the very lines of the Lauter. The retreat was effected with disorder and confusion. The emigrants and the Alsacian nobles who had flocked to join Wurmser, fled with the utmost precipitation. The roads were covered by whole families seeking to escape. The two armies, Prussian and Austrian, were dissatisfied with one another, and lent each other little assistance against a foe full of ardour and enthusiasm.

The two armies of the Rhine and the Moselle had joined. The representatives gave the chief command to Hoche, and he immediately made dispositions for retaking Weissenburg. 'The Prussians and the Austrians, now concentrated by their retrograde movement, were better able to support one another if they pleased. They resolved therefore to take the offensive on the 26th of December (6 Nivose), the very day on which the French general was preparing to rush upon them. The Prussians were in the Vosges and around Weissenburg. The Austrians were spread, in advance of the Lauter, from Weissenburg to the Rhine. Had they not been determined to take the offensive, they would most assuredly not have received the attack in advance of the lines and having the Lauter at their back; but they had resolved to attack first; and the French, in advancing upon them, found their advanced guards in march. General Dessaix, who commanded the right of the army of the Rhine, marched upon Lauterburg; General Michaud was directed upon Schleithal; the centre attacked the Austrians, drawn up on the Geisberg; and the left penetrated into the Vosges to turn the Prussians. Dessaix carried Lauterburg; Michaud occupied Schleithal; and the centre, driving in the Austrians, made them fall back from the Geisberg to Weissenburg itself. The occupation of Weissenburg was likely to prove disastrous to the allies, and it was in imminent danger; but Brunswick, who was at Pigeonnier, hastened to this point, and kept the French in check with great firmness. The retreat of the Austrians was then effected with less disorder; but next day the French occupied the lines of Weissenburg. The Austrians fell back upon Germersheim, the Prussians upon Bergzabern. The French soldiers still advanced shouting, "Landau or death!" The Austrians hastened to recross the Rhine, without attempting to remain another day on the left bank, and without giving the Prussians time to arrive from Mayence. The blockade of Landau was raised, and the French took up their winter quarters in the Palitinate. Immediately afterwards, the two allied generals attacked one another in contradictory statements, and Brunswick sent his resignation to Frederick William. Thus, on this part of the theatre of the war, we had gloriously recovered our frontiers, in spite of the united forces of Prussia and Austria.

The army my of Italy had undertaken nothing of importance, and, since its defeat in the month of June, it had remained upon the defensive. In the month of September, the Piedmontese, seeing Toulon attacked by the English, thought at length of profiting by this circumstance, which might occasion the loss of the French army. The King of Sardinia repaired in person to the theatre of war, and a general attack of the French camp was resolved upon for the 8th of September. The surest way of operating against the French would have been to occupy the line of the Var, which separated Nice from their territory. In so doing, the enemy would have made himself master of all the positions which they had taken beyond the Var. He would have obliged them to evacuate the county of Nice, and perhaps even to lay down their arms. An immediate attack of their camp was preferred. This attack, executed with detached corps, operating by several valleys at once, was not successful; and the King of Sardinia, dissatisfied with the result, immediately retired to his own dominions. Nearly about the same time the Austrian general, De Vins, at length thought of operating upon the Var; but he executed his movement with no more than three or four thousand men, advanced no further than Isola, and, suddenly stopped by a slight check, he again VOL. II. 22

ascended the High Alps, without following up this attempt. Such had been the insignificant operations of the army of Italy.

A more serious interest fixed the whole attention on Toulon. That place, оссиpied by the English and the Spaniards, secured to them a footing in the South, and a position favourable for an attempt at invasion. It therefore behoved France to recover Toulon as speedily as possible. The committee had issued the most urgent orders on this point, but the means of siege were utterly wanting. Carteaux, after reducing Marseilles, had debouched with seven or eight thousand men by the gorges of Ollioules, had made himself master of them after a slight action, and had established himself at the very outlet of these gorges, in presence of Toulon. General Lapoype, detached from the army of Italy with nearly four thousand men, had placed himself on the opposite side to that on which Carteaux was, towards Solliés and Lavalette. The two French corps thus posted, the one on the west, the other on the east, were so far apart that they could scarcely perceive one another, and could not lend each other any assistance. The besieged, with a little more activity, might have attacked them singly, and overwhelmed them one after another. Luckily, they thought of nothing but fortifying the place and manning it with troops. They landed eight thousand Spaniards, Neapolitans, and Piedmontese, and two English regiments from Gibraltar, and thus raised the force of the garrison to fourteen or fifteen thousand men. They strengthened all the defences, and armed all the forts, especially those on the coast, which protected the road where their squadrons lay at anchor. They were particularly solicitous to render Fort Eguillette, situated at the extremity of the promontory which encloses the inner or little road, inaccessible. So difficult did they make the approach to it, that it was called in the army Little Gibraltar. The Marseillais, and all the people of Provence who had taken refuge in Toulon, laboured themselves at the works, and manifested the greatest zeal. The union, however, could not last in the interior of the place, for the reaction against the Mountain had caused the revival of all sorts of factions. There were republicans and royalists of all degrees. The allies themselves did not agree.

The Spaniards were offended at the superiority affected by the English, and harboured a distrust of their intentions. Lord Hood, taking advantage of this disunion, said that, since they could not agree, it would be best for the moment not to proclaim any authority. He even prevented the departure of a deputation which the inhabitants would have sent to the Count de Provence, to induce that prince to come to their city in quality of regent. From that moment it was easy to account for the conduct of the English, and to perceive how blind and how culpable those had been, who had delivered Toulon to the most cruel enemies of the French

navy.

The reduction of

The republicans could not hope, with such means as they then possessed, to retake Toulon. The representatives even recommended that the army should fall back beyond the Durance, and wait for the following season. Lyons, however, having placed fresh forces at their disposal, troops and matériel were directed upon Toulon. General Doppet, to whom was attributed the taking of Lyons, was appointed to supersede Carteaux. Doppet himself was soon displaced, and succeeded by Dugommier,* a very brave officer, and possessing much more experience. Twenty-eight or thirty thousand men were collected, and orders were given to terminate the siege before the conclusion of the campaign.

The French began by closely hemming in the place, and establishing batteries against the forts. General Lapoype, detached from the army of Italy, was still to the east, and Dugommier, the commander-in-chief, to the west, in advance of Ollioules. The latter was charged with the principal attack. The committee of public welfare had caused a regular plan of attack to be drawn up by the committee of for

* " Dugommier was a native of Martinique, in the West Indies, where he possessed a large estate previously to the Revolution. He embraced the popular party, and, in 1793, was employed as general of brigade, and, next, as cominander-in-chief of the army of Italy. In the same year he took Toulon, after a sanguinary contest. In 1794, after gaining several victories, he was killed in

tifications. The general summoned a council of war to discuss the plan sent from Paris. This plan was ably conceived, but there was one better adapted to circumstances, and which could not fail to produce more speedy results.

In the council of war there was a young man who commanded the artillery in the absence of the superior officer of that arm. His name was Bonaparte, and he was a native of Corsica.* Faithful to France, in which he had been educated, he fought

* " Napoleon Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, on the 15th of August, 1769, being the second of the five sons of Carlo Buonaparte, by Letitia Ramolini (since so well known as Madame Mere), a lady of great personal and mental attractions. Napoleon was early sent to France and placed at the military school of Brienne, and thence in 1784 removed to that of Paris, in quality of king's scholar. Here he distinguished himself by his strong desire to excel in the mathematics and military exercises. He very honourably passed his examination preparatory to being admitted into the artillery, of which he was appointed a second lieutenant in 1785. After serving a short time, he quitted his regiment and retired to Corsica, but returning to Paris in 1790, he became a captain in 1791; and at the siege of Toulon in 1793, having the command of the artillery, his abilities began to develop themselves. He was soon after made general of brigade, and, supported by the patronage of Barras, was appointed to command the conventional troops at Paris, with which he defeated those of the sections in the memorable struggle of the 5th of October, 1794. At the desire of the officers and soldiers of the army of Italy, he was appointed to the command of that army, and three days before his departure for Nice, in March, 1796, he married Josephine Beauharnois, widow of the Count de Beauharnois, who suffered under Robespierre. The army opposed to him consisted of 60,000 Austrians and Sardinians, commanded by the Austrian general, Beaulieu. After several skirmishes he wholly outmanœuvred the enemy, and in the course of April won the battles of Montenotte, Millesimo, and Mondovi, which obliged the King of Sardinia to sign a treaty in his own capital. On the 10th of May following he gained the battle of Lodi. This memorable campaign terminated in the treaty of Leoben, the preliminaries of which were signed on the 16th of April, 1797. After making some arrangements in regulation of the Cisalpine republic, which he had established at Milan, Bonaparte signed the definitive treaty with the Austrians at Campo Formio, and returned to Paris, where of course he was received with great respect and rejoicing. He was now nominated general-in-chief of an expedition against England, apparently a mere demonstration, as that against Egypt was at this time in preparation. On the 19th of May, 1798, Bonaparte sailed from Toulon with a fleet of thirteen ships of the line, as many frigates, and an immense number of transports, with 40,000 troops on board, the flower of the French army. From this critical field of action, Bonaparte released himself with his usual decision and activity; having received information of the disasters experienced by the republican armies in Italy and Germany, as also of the disordered state of parties in France, he took measures for secretly embarking in August, 1799, and accompanied by a few officers entirely devoted to him, he landed at Frejus in October following, and hastened to Paris. He immediately addressed a letter to the Directory, justifying the measures which he had pursued, and replying to the censures on the Egyptian expedition. Courted by all parties, and by Sieyes and Barras, at that time the leading men of the government, the latter, who seems to have entertained an idea of restoring the monarchy, confided his plan to Bonaparte, who, however, had other objects in view. After many conferences with Sieyes and the leading members of the council of Ancients, on whom he could rely, he disclosed his own projects, the consequence of which was the removal of the sitting of the legislature to St. Cloud, and the devolvement to Bonaparte of the command of the troops of every description, in order to protect the national representation. On the 19th of November, the meeting accordingly took place at St. Cloud, when soldiers occupied all the avenues. The council of Ancients assembled in the galleries; and that of the Five Hundred, of whom Lucien Bonaparte was president, in the orangery. Bonaparte entered into the council of Ancients, and made an animated speech in defence of his own character, and called upon them to exert themselves in behalf of liberty and equality. In the meantime a violent altercation took place in the council of Five Hundred, where several members insisted upon knowing why the meeting had been removed to St. Cloud. Lucien Bonaparte endeavoured to allay the rising storm, but the removal had created great heat, and the cry was, "Down with the dictator! No dictator!" At that moment Bonaparte himself entered, followed by four gren adiers, on which several of the members exclaimed, "What does this mean? No sabres here! No armed men!" while others, descending into the hall, collared him, exclaiming, " Outlaw him, down with the dictator!" On this rough treatment, General Lefebvre came to his assistance, and Bonaparte, retiring, mounted his horse, and, leaving Murat to observe what was going forward, sent a picket of grenadiers into the hall. Protected by this force, Lucien Bonaparte declared that the representatives who wished to assassinate his brother were in the pay of England, and proposed a decree which was immediately adopted, "that General Bonaparte, and all those who had seconded him, deserved well of their country: that the Directory was at an end; and that the executive power should be placed in the hands of three provisionary consuls, namely, Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos." Such was the Cromwellian extinction of the French Directory, which was followed by the constitution, called that of the year eight; in which Bonaparte was confirmed first consul, and Cambaceres and Le Brun assistant consuls. The same commission created a senate, a council of state, a

in Corsica for the cause of the Convention against Paoli and the English. He had then joined the army of Italy, and served before Toulon. He displayed extraordi

tribunate, and a legislative body. Leaving Paris in April, 1800, Bonaparte proceeded with a well appointed army for Italy, passed the Great St. Bernard by an extraordinary march, and, bursting into that country like a torrent, utterly defeated the Austrians under General Melas at Marengo, on the 14th of the following June. This battle and that of Hohenlinden, enabled him a second time to dictate terms of peace to Austria, the result of which was the treaty of Luneville with that power, and ultimately that of Amiens with Great Britain, concluded in March, 1802. All these successes advanced him another step in his now evident march to sovereignty, by securing him the consulate for life. The despair of the friends of the Bourbons at the increasing progress of Bonaparte towards sovereign sway at this time produced an endeavour at assassination by the explosion of a machine filled with combustibles, as he passed in his carriage through the Rue St. Nicaise, from which danger he very narrowly escaped. This plan failing, it as usual served the intended victim, by enabling him to execute and transport several personal enemies. Generals Pichegru and Moreau, Georges, the two Counts de Polignac, and forty-three more were arrested, of whom Pichegru died in prison; Georges and eleven more suffered on the scaffold, and Moreau was exiled and departed for America. On the 2d of December, 1804, Bonaparte was crowned emperor of France in the church of Notre Dame in Paris, by the hands of Pope Pius VI. whom he obliged to come in person from Rome to perform the ceremony. He was immediately recognised by the Emperors of Austria and Russia, and the Kings of Prussia, Spain, and Denmark; the King of Sweden alone refusing. Great Britain being his sole enemy of magnitude, on the 7th of August he published a manifesto, announcing an invasion of England, and assembling a numerous flotilla at Boulogne, formed in the neighbourhood a camp of 200,000 men. In less than six weeks the pretended army of England was on the banks of the Danube, and the capitulation of General Mack at Ulm was the rapid consequence. On the 11th of November, 1805, the French army entered Vienna, which Francis II. had quitted a few days before, to retire with a remnant of his army into Moravia, where the Emperor Alexander joined him with a Russian army, which he commanded in person. Napoleon encountered the two emperors on the 2d of December, on the plains of Austerlitz, where the great military talents of the French leader again prevailed, and the treaty of Presburg followed; which recognised him King of Italy, master of Venice, of Tuscany, of Parma, of Placentia, and of Genoa. Prussia also ceded the grand duchy of Berg, which he gave to Murat. The electors of Bavaria, of Wirtemberg, and Saxony, were transformed into kings: the crown of Naples was bestowed on his brother Joseph, that of Holland on Louis, and that of. Westphalia on Jerome; the republican Lucien declining every gift of this nature. In July, 1806, he ratified at Paris the famous treaty of the confederation of the Rhine, in which he transferred to himself the preponderance previously enjoyed by the house of Austria. In September following, a powerful Prussian army was got together, and that wretched campaign ensued which ended in the decisive battle of Jena, fought on the 14th of October, 1806, the consequence of which defeat was more fatal than the defeat itself. The severe campaign against Russia succeeded, in which were fought the battles of Pultusk and Friedland, and which ended in the treaty of Tilsit. Napoleon now turned his attention to Spain, and affected to ineet the king and his son Ferdinand at Bayonne, to adjust their family differences. The result was the abdication of Charles IV., and the forced resignation of Ferdinand. On the 25th of October, 1808, Napoleon announced that he intended to crown his brother King of Spain at Madrid, and to plant the eagles of France on the towers of Lisbon. The Spaniards nevertheless tenaciously, if not skilfully, resisted; and Napoleon, leaving the pursuit of the English army under Sir John Moore to Marshal Soult, returned to Paris. Encouraged by the occupation of a large French army in Spain, Austria ventured a third time to declare war against France; on which Napoleon quitted Paris, and, heading his army, fought the battles of Landshut, Eckmuhl, Ratisbonne, and Neumark, and once more entered Vienna. The decisive victory of Wagram was gained on the 5th and 6th of July, 1809; on the 12th a suspension of arms was agreed upon, and, on the 14th of the ensuing October, a definitive treaty of peace was concluded, one of the secret conditions of which soon became apparent by preparations commencing for the dissolution of the marriage of the conqueror with Josephine. On the 2d of April, 1810, Napoleon espoused the Archduchess Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor Francis II. Soon after this marriage, he united to France the provinces situated on the left bank of the Rhine, and, by a decree of the 13th of December in the same year, Holland, the three Hanseatic cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubec, and a part of Westphalia, were added to the empire; as also, by another decree, the Valais. In March, 1811, a son was born to him, whom he called King of Rome. Aware of the discontent of Russia, and of her intention to resist on the first favourable opportunity, towards the end of the year 1811 he began those mighty preparations for the invasion of that empire, which formed the nucleus of the greatest array of disciplined and able soldiery which ever moved under one command and in one direction. In May, 1812, he left Paris to review the grand army, made up of all his auxiliaries and confederates, willing and unwilling, assembled on the Vistula, and, arriving at Dresden, spent fifteen days in that capital, attended by the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and nearly the whole of the princes of the continent, among whom he moved the primum mobile and the centre. On the 10th of September the famous battle of Borodino was fought, so fatal to both parties, and in which 60,000 men are supposed to have perished. Napoleon, nevertheless, pressed on to Moscow, from