"You have fulfilled my expectations, and fully justified the confidence of the French people. You have endured privation and fatigue with courage, equal to the intrepidity and presence of mind which you evinced on the field of battle. You are the worthy defenders of the honour of my crown, and the glory of the great French people. So long as you continue to be animated by the spirit which you now display, nothing can oppose you. I know not how to distinguish any particular corps.... You have all proved yourselves good soldiers. The following is the result of our exertions in this campaign.
"One of the first powers in Europe, which lately proposed to us a dishonourable capitulation, has been overthrown. The forests and defiles of Franconia, the Saale, and the Elbe, which our fathers would not have crossed in seven years, we have traversed in seven days; and in that short interval we have had four engagements, and one great battle. Our entrance into Potsdam and Berlin has preceded the fame of our victories. We have made 60,000 prisoners, taken sixty-five standards, (among which are the colours of the King of Prussia's guards), six hundred pieces of cannon, and three fortresses. Among the prisoners, there are upwards of twenty generals. But notwithstanding all this, more than half our troops regret not having fired a single musket. All the provinces of the Prussian monarchy, as far as the Oder, are in our power.
"Soldiers! the Russians boast of coming to meet us, but we will advance to meet them; we will save them half their march: they will meet with another Austerlitz in the midst of Prussia. A nation which can so soon forget our generous treatment of her, after that battle, in which the Emperor, his court, and the wrecks of his army, owed their safety only to the capitulation we granted them, is a nation that cannot successfully contend with us.
"While we march to meet the Russians, new corps, formed in the interior of our empire, will repair hither, to occupy our present stations, and protect our conquests. My people all rose indignantly on hearing the disgraceful capitulation which the Prussian ministers, in their madness, proposed to us. Our frontier roads and towns are filled with conscripts, who are burning with eagerness to march in your footsteps. We will not again be the dupes of a treacherous peace. We will not lay down our arms until we compel the English, those eternal enemies of France, to renounce their plan of disturbing the Continent, and to relinquish the tyranny which they maintain on the seas.
"Soldiers! I cannot better express the sentiments I entertain for you, than by assuring you that I bear in my heart the love which you daily evince for me."
CHAPTER XIV.
Napoleon next proceeded to the camp, and reviewed the third corps; and every individual who had particularly distinguished himself was rewarded, either by promotion or by a decoration. The generals, officers, and subalterns, were assembled round the Emperor. "I wished to call you together," said he "in order to express my satisfaction of your brilliant conduct in the battle of the 14th. I lost many brave men, whom I looked upon as my sons; I deeply regret them; but, after all, they fell on the field of glory—they perished like true soldiers! You have rendered me a signal service on this memorable occasion. We are, in particular, indebted to the excellent conduct of the third corps, for the great results we have obtained. Tell your men that I am satisfied with the courage they have displayed. Generals, officers, subaltern officers, and privates, you possess eternal claims on my gratitude and kindness." The Marshal replied, that the third corps would always prove itself worthy of the Emperor's confidence; that it would constantly be to him what the 10th legion was to Cæsar.
M. Denon was present at this interesting scene, which his pencil will, perhaps, commemorate: but, whatever be the talent of the artist, he can never convey an idea of the satisfaction and kindness which beamed in the features of the sovereign; or the devotedness and gratitude expressed in the countenances of all present, from the Marshal down to the meanest soldier.