The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2)

Produced by Paul Murray, and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
LONDON: G. BELL & SONS, LIMITED, PORTUGAL STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO. BOMBAY: A.H. WHEELER & CO.
Let my son often read and reflect on history: this is the only true philosophy. — Napoleon's last Instructions for the King of Rome .
First Published, December 1901. Second Edition, revised, March 1902. Third Edition, revised, January 1903. Fourth Edition, revised,September 1907. Reprinted, January 1910.
CROWN 8VO EDITION First Published, September 1904. Reprinted, October 1907; July 1910.
BATTLE OF ULM BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ BATTLE OF JENA BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND BATTLE OF WAGRAM CENTRAL EUROPE AFTER 1810 CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA BATTLE OF VITTORIA THE CAMPAIGN OF 1813 BATTLE OF DRESDEN BATTLE OF LEIPZIG THE CAMPAIGN OF 1814 to face PLAN OF THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN BATTLE OF LIGNY BATTLE OF WATERLOO, about 11 o'clock a.m. to face ST. HELENA

Napoleon is the only man in Europe that knows the value of time. —Czartoryski.
Yet war was not to break out for more than a year. This delay was due to several causes. Austria could not be moved from her posture of timid neutrality. In fact, Francis II. and Cobenzl saw in Napoleon's need of a recognition of his new imperial title a means of assuring a corresponding change of title for the Hapsburg Dominions. Francis had long been weary of the hollow dignity of Elective Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The faded pageantry of Ratisbon and Frankfurt was all that remained of the glories of the realm of Charlemagne: the medley of States which owned him as elected lord cared not for the decrees of this ghostly realm; and Goethe might well place in the mouth of his jovial toper, in the cellar scene of Faust, the words:
Dankt Gott mit jedem Morgen Dass Ihr nicht braucht für's Röm'sche Reich zu sorgen!
Prussian complaisance to the French Emperor was at this time to be expected. Frederick William III. reigned over 10,000,000 subjects; he could marshal 248,000 of the best trained troops in Europe, and his revenue was more fruitful than that of the great Frederick. Yet the effective power of Prussia had sadly waned; for her policy was now marked by an enervating indecision. In the autumn of 1804, however, the Prussian King was for a time spurred into action by the news that Sir George Rumbold, British envoy at Hamburg, had been seized on the night of October 24th, by French troops, and carried off to Paris. This aggression upon the Circle of Lower Saxony, of which Frederick William was Director, aroused lively indignation at Berlin; and the King at once wrote to Napoleon a request for the envoy's liberation as a proof of his friendship and high consideration …a seal on the past and a pledge for the future.