Germany from the Earliest Period Part 6

[Footnote 3: Gustavus Adolphus IV. of Sweden, who had wedded a princess of Baden, was at Carlsruhe at the very moment that the Duc d'Enghien was seized as it were before his eyes. This circ.u.mstance and the ridicule heaped upon him by Napoleon, who mockingly termed him the Quixote of the North, roused his bitter hatred.]

[Footnote 4: Bulow wrote in his remarkable criticism upon this war: "The hot coalition party--that of the ladies--of the empress and the queen of Naples--removed Prince Charles from the army and called Mack from oblivion to daylight; Mack, whose name in the books of the prophets in the Hebrew tongue signifies defeat."]

[Footnote 5: Napoleon gained almost all his victories either by skilfully separating his opponents and defeating them singly with forces vastly superior in number, or by creeping round the concentrated forces of the enemy and placing them between two fires.]

[Footnote 6: Ney was, for this action, created Duke of Elchingen.]

[Footnote 7: Klein, the French general, also a German, allowed himself to be kept in conversation by Prince, afterward field-marshal Schwarzenberg, who had been sent to negotiate terms with him, until the Austrians had reached a place of safety.--_Prokesch.

Schwarzeriberg's Memorabilia._]

[Footnote 8: "Prussia made use of the offers made by England (and Russia) to stipulate terms with France exactly subversive of the object of the negotiations of England (and Russia)."--_The Manifest of England against Prussia. Attgemeine Zeitung, No. 132._]

[Footnote 9: On the 4th of December, Napoleon met the emperor Francis in the open street in the village of Nahedlowitz. That the impression made by the former upon the latter was far from favorable is proved by the emperor's observation, "Now that I have seen him, I shall never be able to endure him!" On the 5th of December, the Bavarians under Wrede were signally defeated at Iglau by the Archduke Ferdinand.]

[Footnote 10: "After the commission of such numerous mistakes, I must nevertheless praise the minister, Von Haugwitz, for having, in the first place, evaded a war unskilfully managed, and, in the second, for having annexed Hanover to Prussia, although its possession, it must be confessed, is somewhat precarious. Here, however, I hear it said that the commission of a robbery at another's suggestion is, in the first place, the deepest of degradations, and, in the second place, unparalleled in history."--_Von Bulow, The Campaign of 1805._ It has been a.s.serted that Haugwitz had, prior to the battle of Austerlitz, been instructed to declare war against Napoleon in case the intervention of Prussia should be rejected by him. Still, had Haugwitz overstepped instructions of such immense importance, he would not immediately afterward, on the 12th of January, 1806, have received, as was actually the case, fresh instructions, in proof that he had in no degree abused the confidence of his sovereign. Haugwitz, by not declaring war, husbanded the strength of Prussia and gained Hanover; and, by so doing, he fulfilled his instructions, which were to gain Hanover without making any sacrifice. His success gained for him the applause of his sovereign, who intrusted him, on account of his skill as a diplomatist, with the management of other negotiations. Prussia at that time still pursued the system of the treaty of Basel, was unwilling to break with France, and was simply bent upon selling her neutrality to the best advantage. Instead, however, of being able to prescribe terms to Napoleon, she was compelled to accede to his.

Napoleon said to Haugwitz, "Jamais on n'obtiendra de moi ce qui pourrait blesser ma gloire." Haugwitz had been instructed through the duke of Brunswick: "Pour le cas que vos soins pour retablir la paix echouent, pour le cas ou l'apparition de la Prusse sur le theatre de la guerre soit jugee inevitable, mettez tous vos soins pour conserver a la Prusse l'epee dans le fourreau jusqu'au 22 Decembre, et s'il se peut jusqu'a un terme plus recule encore."--_Extract from the Memoirs of the Count von Haugwitz._]

[Footnote 11: He married a Mademoiselle von Geyer. His children had merely the t.i.tle of Counts von Hochberg, but came, in 1830, on the extinction of the Agnati, to the government.]

[Footnote 12: On the 1st of January, 1806; the Bavarian state newspaper announced it at New Year with the words, "Long live Napoleon, the restorer of the kingdom of Bavaria!" Bavarian authors, more particularly Pallhausen, attempted to prove that the Bavarians had originally been a Gallic tribe under the Gallic kings. It was considered a dishonor to belong to Germany.]

[Footnote 13: In 1797, the anonymous statesman, in the dedication "to the congress of Rastadt," foretold the formation of the Rhenish alliance as a necessary result of the treaty of Basel. "The electors of Brandenburg, Hanover, Hesse-Ca.s.sel, and all the princes, who defended themselves behind the line of demarcation against their obligations to the empire, and tranquilly awaited the issue of the contest between France and that part of the empire that had taken up arms; all those princes to whom their private interests were dearer than those of the empire, who, devoid of patriotism, formed a separate party against Austria and Southern Germany, from which they severed and isolated themselves, could, none of them, arrogate to themselves a voice in the matter, if Southern Germany, abandoned by them, concluded treaties for herself as her present and future interests demanded."]

[Footnote 14: "Oldenburg affords a glaring proof of the insecurity and meanness characteristic of the Rhenish alliance. The relation even with Bavaria was not always the purest, and I have sometimes caught a near glimpse of the claws."--_Gagern's Share in Politics._]

[Footnote 15: No diet had, since 1770, been held in Wurtemberg, only the committee had continued to treat secretly with the duke. In 1797, Frederick convoked a fresh diet and swore to hold the const.i.tution sacred. Some modern elements appeared in this diet; the old opposition was strengthened by men of the French school. Disputes, consequently, ere long arose between it and the duke, a man of an extremely arbitrary disposition. The Estates discovered little zeal for the war with France, attempted to economize in the preparations, etc., while the duke made great show of patriotism as a prince of the German empire, nor gave the slightest symptom of his one day becoming an enemy to his country, a member of the Rhenish alliance, and the most zealous partisan of France. Moreau, however, no sooner crossed the Rhine than the duke fled, abandoned his states, and afterward not only refused to bear the smallest share of the contributions levied upon the country by the French, but also seized the subsidies furnished by England. The duke, shortly after this, quarrelling with his eldest son, William, the Estates sided with the latter and supplied him with funds, at the same time refusing to grant any of the sums demanded by the duke, who, on his part, omitted the confirmation of the new committee and ordered Grosz, the councillor, Stockmaier, the secretary of the diet, and several others, besides Batz, the agent of the diet at Vienna, to be placed under arrest, their papers to be seized, and a sum of money to be raised from the church property, 1805. Not long after this, rendered insolent by the protection of the great despot of France, he utterly annihilated the ancient const.i.tution of Wurtemberg.]

CCLIV. Prussia's Declaration of War and Defeat

Prussia, by a timely declaration of war against France before the battle of Austerlitz, might have turned the tide against Napoleon, and earned for herself the glory and the gain, instead of being, by a false policy, compelled, at a later period, to make that declaration under circ.u.mstances of extreme disadvantage. Her maritime commerce suffered extreme injury from the attacks of the English and Swedes.

War was unavoidable, either for or against France. The decision was replete with difficulty. Prussia, by continuing to side with France, was exposed to the attacks of England, Sweden, and probably Russia; it was, moreover, to be feared that Napoleon, who had more in view the diminution of the power of Prussia than that of Austria, might delay his aid. During the late campaign, the Prussian territory had been violated and the fortress of Wesel seized by Napoleon, who had also promised the restoration of Hanover to England as a condition of peace. He had invited Prussia to found, besides the Rhenish, a northern confederation, and had, at the same time, bribed Saxony with a promise of the royal dignity, and Hesse with that of the annexation of Fulda, not to enter into alliance with Prussia. Prussia saw herself scorned and betrayed by France. A declaration of war with France was, however, surrounded with tenfold danger. The power of France, unweakened by opposition, had reached an almost irresistible height.

Austria, abandoned in every former campaign and hurried to ruin by Prussia, could no longer be reckoned on for aid. The whole of Germany, once in favor of Prussia, now sided with the foe. Honor at length decided. Prussia could no longer endure the scorn of the insolent Frenchman, his desecration of the memory of the great Frederick, or, with an army impatient for action, tamely submit to the insults of both friend and foe. The presence of the Russian czar, Alexander, at Berlin, his visit to the tomb of Frederick the Great, rendered still more popular by an engraving, had a powerful effect upon public opinion. Louisa, the beautiful queen of Prussia and princess of Mecklenburg, animated the people with her words and roused a spirit of chivalry in the army, which still deemed itself invincible. The younger officers were not sparing of their vaunts, and Prince Louis vented his pa.s.sion by breaking the windows of the minister Haugwitz.

John Muller, who, on the overthrow of Austria, had quitted Vienna and had been appointed Prussian historiographer at Berlin, called upon the people, in the preface to the "Trumpet of the Holy War," to take up arms against France.

War was indeed declared, but with too great precipitation. Instead of awaiting the arrival of the troops promised by Russia or until Austria had been gained, instead of manning the fortresses and taking precautionary measures, the Prussian army, in conjunction with that of Saxony, which lent but compulsory aid, and with those of Mecklenburg and Brunswick, its voluntary allies, took the field without any settled plan, and suddenly remained stationary in the Thuringian forest, like Mack two years earlier at Ulm, waiting for the appearance of Napoleon, 1806. The king and the queen accompanied the army, which was commanded by Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, a veteran of seventy- two, and by his subordinate in command, Frederick Louis, prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, who constantly opposed his measures. In the general staff the chief part was enacted by Colonel Ma.s.senbach, a second Mack, whose counsels were rarely followed. All the higher officers in the army were old men, promotion depending not upon merit but upon length of service. The younger officers were radically bad, owing to their airs of n.o.bility and licentious garrison life; their manners and principles were equally vulgar. Women, horses, dogs, and gambling formed the staple of their conversation; they despised all solid learning, and, when decorated on parade, in their enormous c.o.c.ked hats and plumes, powdered wigs and queues, tight leather breeches and great boots, they swore at and cudgelled the men, and strutted about with conscious heroism. The arms used by the soldiery were heavy and apt to hang fire, their tight uniform was inconvenient for action and useless as a protection against the weather, and their food, bad of its kind, was stinted by the avarice of the colonels, which was carried to such an extent that soldiers were to be seen, who, instead of a waistcoat, had a small bit of cloth sewn on to the lower part of the uniform where the waistcoat was usually visible.

Worst of all, however, was the bad spirit that pervaded the army, the enervation consequent upon immorality. Even before the opening of the war, Lieutenant Henry von Bulow, a retired officer, the greatest military genius at that period in Germany, and, on that account, misunderstood, foretold the inevitable defeat of Prussia, and, although far from being a devotee, declared, "The cause of the national ignorance lies chiefly in the atheism and demoralization produced by the government of Frederick II. The enlightenment, so highly praised in the Prussian states, simply consists in a loss of energy and power."

The main body of the Prussian army was stationed around Weimar and Jena, a small corps under General Tauenzien was pushed forward to cover the rich magazines at Hof, and a reserve of seventeen thousand men under Eugene, duke of Wurtemberg, lay to the rear at Halle. It was remarked that this position, in case of an attack being made by Napoleon, was extremely dangerous, the only alternatives left for the Prussian army being either to advance, form a junction with the gallant Hessians and render the Rhine the seat of war, or to fall back upon the reserve and hazard a decisive battle on the plains of Leipzig. That intriguing impostor, Lucchesini, the oracle of the camp, however, purposely declared that _he_ knew Napoleon, that Napoleon would most certainly not attempt to make an attack. A few days afterward Napoleon, nevertheless, appeared, found the pa.s.s at Kosen open, cut off the Prussian army from the right bank of the Saal, from its magazines at Hof and Naumburg, which he also seized, from the reserve corps stationed at Halle, and from Prussia. Utterly astounded at the negligence of the duke of Brunswick, he exclaimed, while comparing him with Mack, "Les Prussiens sont encore plus stupides que les Autrichiens!" On being informed by some prisoners that the Prussians expected him from Erfurt when he was already at Naumburg, he said, "Ils se tromperont furieus.e.m.e.nt, ces perruques." He would, nevertheless, have been on his part exposed to great peril had the Prussians suddenly attacked him with their whole force from Weimar, Jena, and Halle, or had they instantly retired into Franconia and fallen upon his rear; but the idea never entered the heads of the Prussian generals, who tranquilly waited to be beaten by him one after the other.

After Tauenzien's repulse, a second corps under Prince Louis of Prussia, which had been pushed forward to Saalfeld, imprudently attempting to maintain its position in the narrow valley, was surrounded and cut to pieces. The prince refused to yield, and, after a furious defence, was killed by a French horse-soldier. The news of this disaster speedily reached the main body of the Prussians. The duke of Brunswick, at that time holding a military council in the castle of Weimar, so entirely lost his presence of mind as to ask in the hearing of several young officers, and with embarra.s.sment depicted on his countenance, "What are we to do?" This veteran duke would with painful slowness write down in the neatest hand the names of the villages in which the various regiments were to be quartered, notwithstanding which, it sometimes happened that, owing to his topographical ignorance, several regiments belonging to different corps d'armee were billeted in the same village and had to dispute its possession. He would hesitate for an hour whether he ought to write the name of a village Munchenholzen or Munchholzen.

The Prussian army was compared to a s.h.i.+p with all sail spread lying at anchor. The duke was posted with the main body not far from Weimar, the Saxons at the Schnecke on the road between Weimar and Jena, the prince of Hohenlohe at Jena. Mack had isolated and exposed his different corps d'armee in an exactly similar manner at Ulm. Hohenlohe again subdivided his corps and scattered them in front of the concentrated forces of the enemy. Still, all was not yet lost, the Prussians being advantageously posted in the upper valley, while the French were advancing along the deep valleys of the Saal and its tributaries. But, on the 13th of October, Tauenzien retired from the vale, leaving the steeps of Jena, which a hundred students had been able to defend simply by rolling down the stones there piled in heaps, open, and, during the same night, Napoleon sent his artillery up and posted himself on the Landgrafenberg. There, nevertheless, still remained a chance; the Dornberg, by which the Landgrafenberg was commanded, was still occupied by Tauenzien, and the Windknollen, a still steeper ascent, whence Hohenlohe, had he not spent the night in undisturbed slumbers at Capellendorf, might utterly have annihilated the French army, remained unoccupied. The thunder of the French artillery first roused Hohenlohe from his couch, and, while he was still under the hands of his barber, Tauenzien was driven from the Dornberg. The duties of the toilet at length concluded, Hohenlohe led his troops up the hillside with a view of retaking the position he had so foolishly lost; but his serried columns were exposed to the destructive fire of a body of French tirailleurs posted above, and were repulsed with immense loss. General Ruchel arrived, with his corps that had been uselessly detached, too late to prevent the flight of the Hohenlohe corps, and, making a brave but senseless attack, was wounded and defeated. A similar fate befell the unfortunate Saxons at the Schnecke and the duke of Brunswick at Auerstadt. The latter, although at the head of the strongest division of the Prussian army, succ.u.mbed to the weakest division of the French army, that commanded by Davoust, who henceforward bore the t.i.tle of duke of Auerstadt, and was so suddenly put to the rout that a body of twenty thousand Prussians under Kalkreuth never came into action. The duke was shot in both eyes. This incident was, by his enemies, termed fortune's revenge, "as he never would see when he had his eyes open."[1]

Napoleon followed up his victory with consummate skill. The junction of the retreating corps d'armee and their flight by the shortest route into Prussia were equally prevented. The defeated Prussian army was in a state of indescribable confusion. An immensely circuitous march lay before it ere Prussia could be re-entered. A number of the regiments disbanded, particularly those whose officers had been the first to take to flight or had crept for shelter behind hedges and walls. An immense number of officers' equipages, provided with mistresses, articles belonging to the toilet, and epicurean delicacies, fell into Napoleon's hands. Wagons laden with poultry, complete kitchens on wheels, wine casks, etc., had followed this luxurious army. The scene presented by the battlefield of Jena widely contrasted with that of Rossbach, whose monument was sent by Napoleon to Paris as the most glorious part of the booty gained by his present easy victory.[2]

The fortified city of Erfurt was garrisoned with fourteen thousand Prussians under Mollendorf, who, on the first summons, capitulated to Murat, the general of the French cavalry. The hereditary Prince of Orange was also taken prisoner on this occasion. Von h.e.l.lwig, a lieutenant of the Prussian hussars, boldly charged the French guard escorting the fourteen thousand Prussian prisoners of war from Erfurt, at the head of his squadron, at Eichenrodt in the vicinity of Eisenach, and succeeded in restoring them to liberty. The liberated soldiers, however, instead of joining the main body, dispersed.

Eugene, duke of Wurtemberg, was also defeated at Halle, and, throwing up his command, withdrew to his states. History has, nevertheless, recorded one trait of magnanimity, that of a Prussian ensign fifteen years of age, who, being pursued by some French cavalry not far from Halle, sprang with the colors into the Saal and was crushed to death by a mill-wheel.

Kalkreuth's corps, that had not been brought into action and was the only one that remained entire, being placed under the command of the prince of Hohenlohe, its gallant commander, enraged at the indignity, quitted the army. Hohenlohe's demand, on reaching Magdeburg, for a supply of ammunition and forage, was refused by the commandant, Von Kleist, and he hastened helplessly forward in the hope of reaching Berlin, but the route was already blocked by the enemy, and he was compelled to make a fatiguing and circuitous march to the west through the sandy March. Magdeburg, although garrisoned with twenty-two thousand Prussians, defended by eight hundred pieces of artillery and almost impregnable fortifications, capitulated on the 11th of November to Ney, on his appearance beneath the walls with merely ten thousand men and a light field-battery. Kleist, in exculpation of his conduct, alleged his expectation of an insurrection of the citizens in case of a bombardment. Magdeburg contained at that time three thousand unarmed citizens. It is not known whether Kleist had been bribed, or whether he was simply infected with the cowardice and stupidity by which the elder generals of that period were distinguished; it is, however, certain that among the numerous younger officers serving under his command not one raised the slightest opposition to this disgraceful capitulation.[3]

The Hohenlohe corps, which consisted almost exclusively of infantry, was accompanied in its flight by Blucher, the gallant general of the hussars, with the elite of the remaining cavalry. Blucher had, however, long borne a grudge against his pedantic companion, and, mistrusting his guidance, soon quitted him. Being surrounded by a greatly superior French force under Klein,[4] he contrived to escape by a.s.serting with great earnestness to that general that an armistice had just been concluded. When afterward urgently entreated by Hohenlohe to join him with his troops, he procrastinated too long, it may be owing to his desire to bring Hohenlohe, who, by eternally retreating, completely disheartened his troops, to a stand, or owing to the impossibility of coming up with greater celerity.[5] He had, indubitably, the intention to join Hohenlohe at Prenzlow, but unfortunately arrived a day too late, the prince, whose ammunition and provisions were completely spent, and who, owing to the stupidity of Ma.s.senbach, who rode up and down the Ucker without being able to discover whether he was on the right or left bank, had missed the only route by which he could retreat, having already fallen, with twelve thousand men, into the enemy's hands. This disaster was shortly afterward followed by the capture of General Hagen with six thousand men at Pasewalk and that of Bila with another small Prussian corps not far from Stettin. Blucher, strengthened by the corps of the duke of Weimar and by numerous fugitives, still kept the field, but was at length driven back to Lubeck, where he was defeated, and, after a b.l.o.o.d.y battle in the very heart of the terror-stricken city, four thousand of his men were made prisoners. He fled with ten thousand to Radkan, where, finding no s.h.i.+ps to transport him across the Baltic, he was forced to capitulate.

The luckless duke of Brunswick was carried on a bier from the field of Jena to his palace at Brunswick, which he found deserted. All belonging to him had fled. In his distress he exclaimed, "I am now about to quit all and am abandoned by all!" His earnest pet.i.tion to Napoleon for protection for himself and his petty territory was sternly refused by the implacable victor, who replied that he knew of no reigning duke of Brunswick, but only of a Prussian general of that name, who had, in the infamous manifest of 1792, declared his intention to destroy Paris and was undeserving of mercy. The blind old man fled to Ottensen, in the Danish territory, where he expired.

Napoleon, after confiscating sixty millions worth of English goods on his way through Leipzig, entered Berlin on the 17th of October, 1806.

The defence of the city had not been even dreamed of; nay, the great a.r.s.enal, containing five hundred pieces of artillery and immense stores, the sword of Frederick the Great, and the private correspondence of the reigning king and queen, were all abandoned to the victor.[6] Although the citizens were by no means martially disposed, the authorities deemed it necessary to issue proclamations to the people, inculcatory of the axiom, "Tranquillity is the first duty of the citizen." Napoleon, on his entry into Berlin, was received, not, as at Vienna, with mute rage, but with loud demonstrations of delight. Individuals belonging to the highest cla.s.s stationed themselves behind the crowd and exclaimed, "For G.o.d's sake, give a hearty hurrah! Cry Vive l'empereur! or we are all lost." On a demand, couched in the politest terms, for the peaceable delivery of the arms of the civic guard, being made by Hulin, the new French commandant, to the magistrate, the latter, on his own accord, ordered the citizens to give up their arms "under pain of death." Numerous individuals betrayed the public money and stores, that still remained concealed, to the French. Hulin replied to a person who had discovered a large store of wood, "Leave the wood untouched; your king will want a good deal to make gallows for traitorous rogues." Napoleon's reception struck him with such astonishment that he declared, "I know not whether to rejoice or to feel ashamed." At the head of his general staff, in full uniform and with bared head, he visited the apartment occupied by Frederick the Great at Sans Souci, and his tomb. He took possession of Frederick's sword and declared in the army bulletin, "I would not part with this weapon for twenty millions." Frederick's tomb afforded him an opportunity for giving vent to the most unbecoming expressions of contempt against his unfortunate descendant. He publicly aspersed the fame of the beautiful and n.o.ble-hearted Prussian queen, in order to deaden the enthusiasm she sought to raise. But he deceived himself. Calumny but increased the esteem and exalted the enthusiasm with which the people beheld their queen and kindled a feeling of revenge in their bosoms. Napoleon behaved, nevertheless, with generosity to another lady of rank. Prince Hatzfeld, the civil governor of Berlin, not having quitted that city on the entry of Napoleon, had been discovered by the spies and been condemned to death by a court-martial. His wife, who was at that time enceinte, threw herself at Napoleon's feet. With a smile, he handed to her the paper containing the proof of her husband's guilt, which she instantly burned, and her husband was restored to liberty. John Muller was among the more remarkable of the servants of the state who had remained at Berlin. This sentimental parasite, the most despicable of them all, whose pathos sublimely glossed over each fresh treason, was sent for by Napoleon, who placed him about his person. Among other things, he asked him, "Is it not true the Germans are somewhat thick-brained?" to which the fawning professor replied with a smile. In return for the benefits he had received from the royal family of Prussia, he delivered, before quitting Berlin, an academical lecture upon Frederick the Great, in the presence of the French general officers, in which he artfully (the lecture was of course delivered in the French language) contrived to flatter Napoleon at the expense of that monarch.[7] Prince Charles of Isenberg raised, in the very heart of Berlin, a regiment, composed of Prussian deserters, for the service of France.[8]

The Prussian fortresses fell, meanwhile, one after the other, during the end of autumn and during the winter, some from utter inability, on account of their neglected state, to maintain themselves, but the greater part owing to their being commanded by old villains, treacherous and cowardly as the commandant of Magdeburg. The strong fortress of Hameln was in this manner yielded by a Baron von Scholer, Pla.s.senburg by a Baron von Becker, Nimburg on the Weser by a Baron von Dresser, Spandau by a Count von Benkendorf. The citadel of Berlin capitulated without a blow, and Stettin, although well provided with all the _materiel_ of war, was delivered up by a Baron von Romberg.

Custrin, one of the strongest fortified places, was commanded by a Count von Ingersleben. The king visited the place during his flight and earnestly recommended him to defend it to the last. This place, sooner than yield, had, during the seven years' war, allowed itself to be reduced to a heap of ruins. When standing on one of the bastions, the king inquired its name. The commandant was ignorant of it.

Scarcely had the king quitted the place, than a body of French huzzars appeared before the gates, and Ingersleben instantly capitulated.

Silesia, although less demoralized than Berlin, viewed these political changes with even greater apathy. This fine province had, during the reign of Frederick the Great, been placed under the government of the minister, Count Hoym, whose easy disposition had, like insidious poison, utterly enervated the people. The government officers, as if persuaded of the reality of the antiquarian whim which deduced the name of Silesia from Elysium, dwelt in placid self-content, unmoved by the catastrophes of Austerlitz or Jena. No measures were, consequently, taken for the defence of the country, and a flying corps of Bavarians, Wurtembergers, and some French under Vandamme, speedily overran the whole province, notwithstanding the number of its fortresses. At Glogau, the commandant, Von Reinhardt, unhesitatingly declared his readiness to capitulate and excluded the gallant Major von Putlitz, who insisted upon making an obstinate defence, "as a revolutionist," from the military council. Being advised by one of the citizens to fire upon the enemy, he rudely replied, "Sir, you do not know what one shot costs the king." In Breslau, the Counts von Thiele and Lindner made a terrible fracas, burned down the fine faubourgs, and blew up the powder-magazine, merely in order to veil the disgrace of a hasty capitulation, which enraged the soldiery to such a pitch that, shattering their muskets, they heaped imprecations on their dastard commanders, and, in revenge, plundered the royal stores. Brieg was ceded after a two days' siege, by the Baron von Cornerut. The defence of the strong fortress of Schweidnitz, of such celebrated importance during the seven years' war, had been intrusted to Count von Haath, a man whose countenance even betokened imbecility. He yielded the fortress without a blow, and, on the windows of the apartment in which he lodged in the neighboring town of Jauer being broken by the patriotic citizens, he went down to the landlord, to whom he said, "My good sir, you must have some enemies!" The remaining fortresses made a better defence. Glatz was taken by surprise, the city by storm. The fortress was defended by the commandant, Count Gotzen, until ammunition sufficient for twelve days longer alone remained. Neisse capitulated from famine; Kosel was gallantly defended by the commandant, Neumann; and Silberberg, situated on an impregnable rock, refused to surrender.

The troops of the Rhenish confederation, encouraged by the bad example set by Vandamme and by several of the superior officers, committed dreadful havoc, plundered the country, robbed and barbarously treated the inhabitants. It was quite a common custom among the officers, on the conclusion of a meal, to carry away with them the whole of their host's table-service. The filthy habits of the French officers were notorious. Their conduct is said to have been not only countenanced but commanded by Napoleon, as a sure means of striking the enervated population with the profoundest terror; and the panic in fact almost amounted to absurdity, the inhabitants of this thickly-populated province nowhere venturing to rise against the handful of robbers by whom they were so cruelly persecuted. A Baron von Puckler offered an individual exception: his endeavors to rouse the inert ma.s.ses met with no success, and, rendered desperate by his failure, he blew out his brains. When too late a prince of Anhalt-Pless a.s.sembled an armed force in Upper Silesia and attempted to relieve Breslau, but Thiele neglecting to make a sally at the decisive moment, the Poles in Prince of Pless's small army took to flight, and the whole plan miscarried. A small Prussian corps, amounting to about five hundred men, commanded by Losthin, afterward infested Silesia, surprised the French under Lefebvre at Kanth and put them to the rout, but were a few days after this exploit taken prisoners by a superior French force.

Attempts at reforms suited to the spirit of the age had, even before the outbreak of war, been made in Prussia by men of higher intelligence; Menken, for instance, had labored to effect the emanc.i.p.ation of the peasantry, but had been removed from office by the aristocratic party. During the war, the corruption pervading every department of the government, whether civil or military, was fully exposed, and Frederick William III. was taught by bitter experience to pursue a better system, to act with decision and patient determination. The Baron von Stein, a man of undoubted talent, a native of Na.s.sau, was placed at the head of the government; two of the most able commanders of the day, Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, undertook the reorganization of the army. On the 1st of December, 1806, the king cas.h.i.+ered every commandant who had neglected to defend the fortress intrusted to his care and every officer guilty of desertion or cowardly flight, and the long list of names gave disgraceful proof of the extent to which the n.o.bility were compromised. One of the first measures taken by the king was, consequently, to throw open every post of distinction in the army to the citizens. The old inconvenient uniform and firearms were at the same time improved, the queue was cut off, the cane abandoned. The royal army was indeed scanty in number, but it contained within itself germs of honor and patriotism that gave promise of future glory.

The reform, however, but slowly progressed. Ferdinand von Schill, a Prussian lieutenant, who had been wounded at Jena, formed, in Pomerania, a guerilla troop of disbanded soldiery and young men, who, although indifferently provided with arms, stopped the French convoys and couriers. His success was so extraordinary that he was sometimes enabled to send sums of money, taken from the enemy, to the king.

Among other exploits, he took prisoner Marshal Victor, who was exchanged for Blucher. Blucher a.s.sembled a fresh body of troops on the island of Rugen. Schill, being afterward compelled to take refuge from the pursuit of the French in the fortress of Colberg, the commandant, Loucadou, placed him under arrest for venturing to criticise the bad defence of the place.

The king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV., might with perfect justice have bitterly reproached Prussia and Austria for the folly with which they had, by their disunion, contributed to the aggrandizement of the power of France. He acted n.o.bly by affording a place of refuge to the Prussians at Stralsund and Rugen.

Colberg was, on Loucadou's dismissal, gloriously defended by Gneisenau and by the resolute citizens, among whom Nettelbek, a man seventy years of age, chiefly distinguished himself. Courbiere acted with equal gallantry at Graudena. On being told by the French that Prussia was in their hands and that no king of Prussia was any longer in existence, he replied, "Well, be it so! but I am king at Graudenz."

Pillau was also successfully defended by Herrmann.[9] Polish Prussia naturally fell off on the advance of the French. Calisch rose in open insurrection; the Prussian authorities were everywhere compelled to save themselves by flight from the vengeance of the people. Poland had been termed the Botany Bay of Prussia, government officers in disgrace for bad conduct being generally sent there by way of punishment. No one voluntarily accepted an appointment condemning him to dwell amid a population inspired by the most ineradicable national hatred, glowing with revenge, and unable to appreciate the benefits bestowed upon them in their ignorance and poverty by the wealthier and more civilized Prussians.

The king had withdrawn with the remainder of his troops, which were commanded by the gallant L'Estoc, to Koenigsberg, where he formed a junction with the Russian army, which was led by a Hanoverian, the cautious Bennigsen, and accompanied by the emperor Alexander in person. Napoleon expected that an opportunity would be afforded for the repet.i.tion of his old manoeuvre of separating and falling singly upon his opponents, but Bennigsen kept his forces together and offered him battle at Eylau, in the neighborhood of Koenigsberg; victory still wavered, when the Prussian troops under L'Estoc fell furiously upon Marshal Ney's flank, while that general was endeavoring to surround the Russians, and decided the day. It was the 8th of February, and the snow-clad ground was stained with gore. Napoleon, after this catastrophe, remained inactive, awaiting the opening of spring and the arrival of reinforcements. Dantzig, exposed by the desertion of the Poles, fell, although defended by Kalkreuth, into his hands, and, on the 14th of June, 1807, the anniversary, so pregnant with important events, of the battle of Marengo, he gained a brilliant victory at Friedland, which was followed by General Ruchel's abandonment of Koenigsberg with all its stores.

The road to Lithuania now lay open to the French, and the emperor Alexander deemed it advisable to conclude peace. A conference was held at Tilsit on the Riemen between the sovereigns of France, Russia, and Prussia, and a peace, highly detrimental to Germany, was concluded on the 9th of July, 1807. Prussia lost half of her territory, was restricted to the maintenance of an army merely amounting to forty-two thousand men, was compelled to pay a contribution of one hundred and forty millions of francs to France, and to leave her most important fortresses as security for payment in the hands of the French. These grievous terms were merely acceded to by Napoleon "out of esteem for his Majesty the emperor of Russia," who, on his part, deprived his late ally of a piece of Prussian-Poland (Bialystock) and divided the spoil of Prussia with Napoleon.[10] Nay, he went, some months later, so far in his generosity, as, on an understanding with Napoleon and without deigning any explanation to Prussia, arbitrarily to cancel an article of the peace of Tilsit, by which Prussia was indemnified for the loss of Hanover with a territory containing four hundred thousand souls.

The Prussian possessions on the left bank of the Elbe, Hanover, Brunswick, and Hesse-Ca.s.sel,[11] were converted by Napoleon into the new kingdom of Westphalia, which he bestowed upon his brother Jerome and included in the Rhenish confederation. East Friesland was annexed to Holland. Poland was not restored, but a petty grandduchy of Warsaw was erected, which Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, received, together with the royal dignity. Prussia, already greatly diminished in extent, was to be still further encroached upon and watched by these new states. The example of electoral Saxony was imitated by the petty Saxon princes, and Anhalt, Lippe, Schwarzburg, Reuss, Mecklenburg and Aldenburg joined the Rhenish confederation. Dantzig became a nominal free town with a French garrison.[12]

The brave Hessians resisted this fresh act of despotism. The Hessian troops revolted, but were put down by force, and their leader, a sergeant, rushed frantically into the enemy's fire. The Hessian peasantry also rose in several places. The Hanse towns, on the contrary, meekly allowed themselves to be pillaged and to be robbed of their stores of English goods.

Gustavus Adolphus IV. of Sweden, who had neglected to send troops at an earlier period to the aid of Prussia, now offered the st.u.r.diest resistance and steadily refused to negotiate terms of peace or to recognize Napoleon as emperor. His generals, Armfeldt[13] and Essen, made some successful inroads from Stralsund, and, in unison with the English, might have effected a strong diversion to Napoleon's rear, had their movements been more rapid and combined. On the conclusion of the peace of Tilsit, a French force under Mortier appeared, drove the Swedes back upon Stralsund, and compelled the king, in the August of 1807, to abandon that city, which the new system of warfare rendered no longer tenable.

[Footnote 1: On the 14th of October. On this unlucky day, Frederick the Great had, in 1758, been surprised at Hochkirch, and Mack, in 1805, at Ulm. On this day, the peace of Westphalia was, A.D. 1648, concluded at Osnabruck, and, in 1809, that of Vienna. It was, however, on this day that the siege of Vienna was, in 1529, raised, and that, in 1813, Napoleon was shut up at Leipzig.]

[Footnote 2: The whole of these disasters had been predicted by Henry von Bulow, whose prophecies had brought him into a prison. On learning the catastrophe of Jena, he exclaimed, "That is the consequence of throwing generals into prison and of placing idiots at the head of the army!"]

[Footnote 3: The young "vons," on the contrary, capitulated with extreme readiness, in order to return to their pleasurable habits.

Several of them set a great s.h.i.+eld over their doors, with the inscription, "Herr von N. or M., prisoner of war on parole." In all the capitulations, the commandants and officers merely took care of their own persons and equipages and sacrificed the soldiery. Napoleon, who was well aware of this little weakness, always offered them the most flattering personal terms.]

[Footnote 4: The same man who had been imposed upon by a similar ruse at Ulm by the Archduke Ferdinand. Napoleon dismissed him the service.]