VIII. 1813. CHAP. tion, and the ungrateful return they had made for all the benefits he had heaped upon them; and added that if he acted only by the laws of war he would subject them to the last severities of military execution. He was willing, however, to forget the past, and again restore them to his favour in consideration of the fidelity, age, and virtues of their sovereign. Let them therefore receive him with the respect which was becoming; restore again, but for him alone, the triumphal arches they had so imprudently raised to the Emperor Alexander; and retain in their hearts a profound sense of the clemency with which they had been treated, for but for his interposition they would have undergone all the horrors of a town carried by assault. The least wavering in their duty, the slightest indication of a return to the enemy, would be followed by the most terrible calamities. With these words he dismissed the trembling magistrates and entered the city, in which the French maintained the most 1.Thiers, xv. exact discipline. The Emperor was lodged in the King's Cathcart, palace, while, by a strange anomaly, the King of Prussia still remained in the house he occupied in the new town, on the right bank of the river.1 497-501; 140; Odel. i. 67. 44. the Elbe by The Next morning the Emperor was on horseback by dayPassage of break, and descended the Elbe with a strong body of the French, infantry and the whole artillery of the Guard, to Priesnitz, where he had resolved to force a passage. eighty guns of the Guard having been first established on the heights on the left bank, a severe fire began between them and fifty Russian guns on the opposite bank. But the French fire was superior both in position and weight of pieces, and under cover of it three hundred Voltigeurs were rowed across, and soon succeeded by others who established themselves on the right bank. The superiority of the French fire then enabled them to throw a 79 Lond. bridge across, which, under cover of the discharge from son, ii. 7. Drouot's guns, was completed before night, and the passage began in great force. At the same time, the Allies, 2 Thiers, xv. 501, 502 Odel. i. 78, 29, 30; Wil VIII. 1813. having gained all that they desired-namely, time for CHAP. their immense trains of artillery and baggage to defile on the other side-withdrew at all points from the right bank of the river; and the French, having re-established the broken arches of the great bridge at Dresden, the passage went on there regularly as well as at Priesnitz and Meissen. 45. Saxony is Napoleon was well aware of the secret negotiations which had been going on between the Allied sovereigns The King of and the King of Saxony, which, indeed, the sudden de-reconciled to parture of the latter from Ratisbon for Prague, and his Napoleon. taking refuge there under the protection of the Emperor of Austria, had rendered patent to all the world. But though he never paused in his ambitious projects, yet he could when he chose put an effectual bridle upon his wrath. The great importance of regaining Saxony for an ally, and securing the points of Torgau and Dresden, so likely to prove pivots on which military operations would turn in the campaign, induced him on this occasion to dissemble with the King, and feign ignorance of what he really knew in regard to the proceedings of the Saxon monarch. He pretended, therefore, to be ignorant of the double-dealing of that potentate, and to see in him only a loyal sovereign misled by bad councils, and yielding to the pressure of temporary necessity. He despatched, however, at the same time, one of his aides-de-camp to Prague with a formal summons, under pain of dethronement, to return immediately with all the cavalry and artillery under his immediate orders to Dresden, and instantly to surrender Torgau with the 10,000 Saxons who were within its walls to General Reynier, who was at its gates ready to receive the keys. This summons termi-1 Sir Chas. nated the indecision of the Saxon sovereign. He did all Stewart to that was demanded of him, returned to Dresden with reagh, May his fine cavalry and horse-artillery, and sent orders to MS.; General Thielman, who commanded in Torgau, to deliver 593, 594. it up immediately to the French troops.1 This important success also enabled Napoleon to as Lord Castle 16, 1813, Thiers, xv. CHAP. VIII. 1813. 46. Bolder tone assumed with the Vienna. sume a bolder tone in his diplomatic communications with the Cabinet of Vienna at this period. Immediately after his entry into Dresden, accordingly, he despatched orders to M. de Narbonne there, to insist peremptorily on a categorical explanation from Austria on the conduct her Cabinet of Government meant to pursue in regard to the treaty of alliance with France, of which they were delaying to implement the obligations. Narbonne went with the note to Metternich, in order to enforce verbally the demands contained in it. "Hitherto," said the French minister, "I have feigned to be satisfied with the excuse you made for not going on with your engagements, and to overlook the extent of your armaments, which you would be the first to inform us of, if they were made in our interest. But I am now forced by the events in Galicia to demand from you a categorical explanation, and to insist upon knowing once for all whether you are or are not our ally, and whether you will adhere to your engagements under the treaty of 14th March 1812. If you still adhere to it, it is absolutely necessary that you should put the Austrian contingent under the orders of the Emperor Napoleon, and obey his orders by giving up all thoughts of disarming the Polish corps." "We are still your friends," replied M. de Metternich, "but we are also mediators and as long as our part as mediators is not played out, it would be inconsistent to appear on the theatre as armed belligerents. I pray you, therefore, do not in the mean time put us in a false position, and throw away our influence by asking us at present to abandon the character of mediators. If I refuse you 30,000 men just now, it is because I wish to put at your disposal 150,000 when we are at one about the terms of the peace which may be acceptable to Europe." Finding himself thus eluded by the artful Minister, M. de Narbonne demanded and obtained an audience of the Emperor, but he adhered to the statement of his able Premier. Narbonne upon this demanded a second in VIII. 1813. terview with Metternich, and he at last drove the latter CHAP. into an admission "that the armaments going forward were intended only to give full effect to the mediation; that the alliance, though subsisting as a principle, could not come into operation as a rule of action, as long as the rôle of mediation was not exhausted." Though this answer was far from being satisfactory to the French minister, he could get nothing more from the Austrian ; 1 Sir Chas. and to soften the refusal of any further explanation, the Stewart to latter agreed that the Polish corps should not be dis- reagh, May armed in its progress through Bohemia on its way to Ms.; Saxony, on condition that the passage should be as expe- 509, 510. ditious as possible.1 Lord Castle 14, 1813, Thiers, xv. hearing of Lützen. The impression produced by the battle of Lützen at 47. Vienna, however, soon became such, that it all but stopped Metternich's these angry recriminations, by giving an entirely differ- proposals on ent turn to the negotiations. The Allied party at the the battle of Austrian capital at first loudly proclaimed the battle as a victory, and the Russian general did the same, with some countenance from the Emperor Alexander, though the King of Prussia, Lord Cathcart, and Sir Charles Stewart, described it in its true colours. Metternich at once saw how the fact stood; but he was skilful enough not only to allow the French diplomatist to gain nothing by that circumstance, but to turn it to his own advantage. He immediately repaired to M. de Narbonne, and assured him that the victory of Napoleon in no degree surprised him, for he fully expected it, and it was the basis of all his calculations; that it was now evident the English, Russians, and Prussians must abate two-thirds of their demands, but that the remaining third contained proposals so reasonable and essential to the peace of Europe, that it was indispensable that the French Emperor in his turn should accede to them; that it became the mediating power to enter upon its functions immediately, for else it would be too late; and that with this view he proposed to send immediately two envoys to the head VIII. 1813. CHAP. quarters of the belligerents, with such proposals as seemed reasonable; and for this purpose he proposed to send the Comte de Bubna, who he knew would prove agreeable, to the headquarters of Napoleon, and Count Stadion, so well known for his anti-Gallican principles, to those of the Allies. He added, that, so far from the known prepossessions of that negotiator being prejudicial to the interests of Napoleon, they would prove eminently beneficial, because they would enable him to state, and dispose the Allied 614, 515. sovereigns to hear from him, many rude and disagreeable truths, which could in no other way reach their ears.1 1 Thiers, XV. 48. M. de Narbonne having requested to know what were Metternich's the conditions which Austria intended to propose to the proposals belligerents, M. de Metternich at once complied, adding ral peace. that he did not desire to impose them as conditions on for a gene the French Emperor, but only to submit them for his consideration. They were as follows: The suppression of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and its restoration to Prussia, under the exception of certain cessions to Austria and Russia; the abandonment of the Confederation of the Rhine; and the renunciation by France of the Hanse towns-that is, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen. Nothing was to be said of Holland, Italy, or Spain, for fear of raising up insurmountable difficulties, nor of a maritime peace, in order to remove all obstacles to the conclusion of a Continental one, which was the most urgent matter. Such were Austria's proposals to France after the Moscow disaster had been slightly effaced by the Saxon victory! They left France still Westphalia, Lombardy, Naples, as 515; Sir vassal kingdoms; Holland, Belgium, the Rhenish Proart to Lord vinces, Piedmont, Tuscany, the Roman States, as French Castlereagh, departments! With truth did Metternich say, that Louis 1813, Ms. XIV., in his wildest dreams, never conceived such a dominion.2 2 Thiers, xv. Chas. Stew June 10, M. de Narbonne replied, that Napoleon vanquished would never for a moment listen to such terms; victorious, it was in vain to propose them to him. He agreed |