World's Best Histories — Volume 7: France

by François Guizot; Madame de Witt

Napoleon disposed at his will of crowns and appanages, elevating or dethroning kings, magnificently dowering the companions of his military life and the servants of his policy. He had at the same time conceived the idea of forming beyond his States a barrier which should separate them from the great German powers, always secretly hostile. The dukes and the electors whom he had made kings, the princes whose domains he had aggrandized, were to unite in a confederation for the protection of the new State of Germany. The seat of government was established at Frankfort. The town of Ratisbon, formerly honored by the assemblies of the Diet, had been ceded to Bavaria. The Diet was officially informed that Prussia received a decisive authorization to form in its turn a confederation of the North. Most of the German States having been forcibly taken from him, Francis II voluntarily resigned the vain title he still bore; he ceased to be Emperor of Germany, and became Emperor of Austria.

Meanwhile the overtures of Fox towards France had until now remained without result. England refused to treat without Russia, whom the Emperor would not admit to a common negotiation. "Regrets are useless," wrote Fox to Talleyrand on the 10th April, 1806; "but if the great man whom you serve, could see with the same eye with which I behold it, the true glory which would accrue to him from a moderate and just peace, what good fortune would not result from it for France and for all Europe?"

In the depth of his soul and in his secret thoughts Napoleon now desired peace. Amongst the English prisoners detained in France after the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, a few had been exchanged since the advent of Fox to the ministry; one of them, Lord Yarmouth (afterwards Lord Hertford), elegant and dissipated, had been commissioned by his government to talk over familiarly with Talleyrand the chances of peace that existed between the two nations. Napoleon had conceded Hanover to Prussia as the price of peace; he was ready to retrocede it to England, free to indemnify Prussia at the expense of Germany. The negotiation was carried on secretly, the negotiators meeting as men of the world rather than diplomats. Oubril, an envoy from the Emperor Alexander, had just arrived in Paris, charged with reassuring France on the subject of a circumstance which had recently taken place in Dalmatia. The Russian admiral, Sinavin, animated with unseasonable zeal, with the aid of the Montenegrins had seized the mouths of the Cattaro. The Austrian officers, appointed to hand over the territory to the French, had not opposed any resistance to the Russians. The two Emperors of Austria and Russia hastened to disavow their agents; on 20th July Oubril signed with France a separate peace.

This was failing in loyalty towards England, who had refused to treat without its ally. The Emperor of Russia perceived it; he had thought the cabinet of London more inclined to conclude peace at any cost. The health of Fox was giving way, and his successors were likely to be less favorable to the demands of Napoleon. Alexander declared that he would not ratify the treaty negotiated by Oubril. This news arrived at Paris on the 3rd of September, 1806. On the 13th of the same month Fox expired in London, amiable and beloved to the last day of his life; ardently devoted to his friends, to freedom, to all noble and generous causes; a great orator and a great debater; feeble in his political conduct even in opposition, incapable of governing and of sustaining the great struggle which for so long agitated Europe. At his death the party of resistance resumed power in England. In Germany the secret of the negotiations with regard to Hanover had transpired; the disregard of sworn faith which Prussia had more than once practised during the war fell back upon herself with crushing weight. Napoleon thought nothing of his engagements; he had detached King Frederick William from his natural allies, and showed himself disposed to snatch from him the price of his compliance. The nation and the king had with great difficulty accepted the treaty negotiated by Haugwitz; indignation broke forth on every side. It had already betrayed itself for a few weeks past by numerous and violent pamphlets against the Emperor of the French and against the armies of occupation. Napoleon responded to them by a despotic and cruel act which was to bear bitter fruits. On the 5th August he wrote to Marshal Berthier:—

"My cousin,—I imagine that you have had the booksellers of Augsburg and Nuremberg arrested. My intention is that they should be indicted before a military tribunal, and shot within twenty-four hours. It is no ordinary crime to spread libels in places where the French army is stationed, in order to excite the inhabitants against it. It is a crime of high treason. The sentence shall set forth that wherever there is an army, the duty of the commander being to watch over its safety, such and such individuals convicted of having attempted to stir up the inhabitants of Suabia against the French army are condemned to death. You will place the criminals in the midst of a division, and you will appoint seven colonels to try them. You will have the sentence published throughout Germany." Only one bookseller of Nuremberg, named Palm, was arrested, and suffered the terrible sentence. Berthier never forgot the cruel necessity to which he had been subjected in ordering this odious procedure. "He makes us condemn under the penalty of being condemned ourselves," said General Hullin, in reporting the murder of the Duc d'Enghien.

The growing irritation of Germany only awaited an excuse for bursting forth. A despatch of the Marquis of Lucchesini, then minister of Prussia at Paris, gave the protracted irritation of the court of Berlin its opportunity. According to the information received from this diplomatist, the French government was putting pressure upon the German Princes of the North, to prevent them from entering the Confederation projected by Prussia. A letter from King Frederick William and a diplomatic note demanded peremptorily the evacuation of Germany by the French troops, and liberty of action for the German Princes. At the same time the armaments of Prussia, for a long time prepared in secret, became public. Already the Emperor Napoleon had quitted Paris, without Laforest, his minister at Berlin, having been authorized to reply to the demands of the Prussians. "We have been deceived three times," said Napoleon. "We must have facts; let Prussia disarm, and France will re-cross the Rhine, and not before." It was to the Senate and to the soldiers alone that Napoleon now addressed the explanation of his aggressive movements against Prussia.

"Soldiers, the order for your re-entry into France was issued; you had already approached it by several marches. Triumphant fêtes awaited you, and the preparations to receive you had already commenced in the capital.

"But whilst we abandon ourselves to this too confident security, new plots are hatched under the mask of friendship and alliance. War cries have made themselves heard from Berlin. For two months we have been provoked more and more every day.

"The same faction, the same spirit of giddiness which, under favor of our internal dissensions, conducted the Prussians fourteen years ago into the midst of the plains of Champagne, rules in their councils; if it is no longer Paris that they wish to burn and overthrow to its foundations, it is to-day their flag that they wish to plant in the capitals of our allies; it is Saxony that they wish to compel by a shameful transaction to renounce its independence by ranging it in the number of their provinces; it is, in fine, your laurels that they wish to snatch from your foreheads. They wish us to evacuate Germany at the sight of their arms. Fools! What? Shall we then have braved the seasons, the seas, the deserts, conquered Europe several times allied against us, carried our glory from the east to the west, in order to return to-day into our country like fugitives who have abandoned their allies; to hear it said that the French eagle fled in fear at the mere sight of the Prussian armies?"

It was, in fact, a fourth continental coalition which was beginning to be formed against France. Prussia alone was then on the scene: long prudent and circumspect in its conduct, it had been drawn in this time, in spite of its weakness, by irresistible anger and indignation. Napoleon did not dread the war. "I have nearly 150,000 men in Germany," wrote he to King Joseph; "with them I can subdue Vienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg." The reply that he at last deigned to address to the King of Prussia from the camp of Gera breathed the most haughty confidence. A few engagements had already taken place. "Monsieur my brother," wrote Napoleon to Frederick William, "I only received on the 7th the letter of your Majesty of the 25th September. I am vexed that you have been induced to sign this sort of thing. You appoint a meeting with me on the 8th. Like a good knight, I keep faith with you, I am in the middle of Saxony; believe me I have such forces with me that all your forces cannot long prevent my victory. But why spill so much blood? To what end? Sire, I have been your friend for six years past. I do not wish to profit by that species of giddiness which animates your council, and has caused you to commit political errors, at which Europe is still astonished, and military errors of such an enormity that Europe will soon ring with them. If in your note you had asked possible things from me, I would have granted them to you; you have asked for my dishonor: you ought to have been certain of my reply. War is then made between us, the alliance broken forever; but why make our subjects kill each other? Sire, your Majesty will be conquered; you will have compromised the peace of your days and the existence of your subjects without the shadow of a pretext. I have nothing to gain against your Majesty. I want nothing, and I have wanted nothing from you. The present war is an impolitic war."