In October 1813 came out an etching of ‘Tom Thumb and the Giant, or a forced March to Franckfort. Kings are his Centinels, vide Sheridan’s speech. A letter from Stralsund states that Buonaparte, on his journey to Paris, sent a Courier to the King of Wi——g[29] with orders for him to proceed to Franckfort on the Maine, and the latter would meet him there accordingly.’ Tom Thumb, Napoleon, on horseback, prods on the King with his sword, telling him at the same time: ‘On, Sir, to Franckfort, and there await my coming.’ The poor fat King, with perspiring brows, piteously exclaims: ‘Well, I am going as fast as I can—— Pretty work this for a Man of my Importance!! Was it for this you put a Crown upon my head!’
Napoleon’s power was rapidly drawing to an end, and the crushing defeat he received at Leipsic on October 16, 17, 18, 19, gave it its death-blow. The news was promulgated throughout England by a ‘London Gazette Extraordinary’ of November 3. The ‘Times’ of the same date had hinted of reverses sustained by Napoleon, and on November 4 broke into jubilation thus: ‘“Justice demands the sacrifice of the Tyrant,”[30] such was the sentiment which concluded our last article,—a sentiment not dictated by any feeling of transient growth, but adopted after long and serious reflection on what is due to the moral interests, which are the best and surest interests of nations. The French people will now determine between the sacrifice of their Tyrant, and sacrifices of a very different description, sacrifices of their lives, their children, their treasure, their honour.
‘We had already communicated to our readers the private information which we had received, stating that he had sustained “dreadful reverses” in a “series of actions,” which had caused him “not only a great diminution in the numbers of his men, but also a serious loss of artillery”; and that he had himself “escaped with the utmost difficulty to a place of comparative, and but comparative, safety.” Such were the accounts which we believed “would be found to contain a very moderate statement of the Tyrant’s losses”; but we own our most sanguine hopes have been exceeded by the Official Statements received yesterday by Government, and made public; first, in a brief form, by a letter from Lord Castlereagh to the Lord Mayor, and a Bulletin from the Foreign Office; and, afterwards, in most gratifying detail, by an Extraordinary Gazette.’
The ‘Morning Post’ of the same date heads the intelligence as ‘The most Glorious and Important News ever received;’ and the Prince Regent, who opened Parliament on November 4, alluded to it in his speech in these terms: ‘The annals of Europe afford no examples of victories more splendid, and decisive, than those which have been recently achieved in Saxony.’ London was brilliantly illuminated, and joy reigned throughout the kingdom.
One of the first caricatures on the subject is the ‘Execution of two celebrated Enemies of Old England, and their Dying Speeches, 5 Nov. 1813,’ which was by Rowlandson (published November 27, 1813), and is stated to be a representation of a ‘Bonfire at Thorpe Hall near Louth, Lincolnshire, on 5 Nov. 1813, given by the Rev. W. C. to the boys belonging to the Seminary at Louth, in consequence of the arrival of news of the Decisive Defeat of Napoleon Buonaparte, by the Allies, at 11 o’clock on ye 4th, & Louth Bells ringing all night.’
Guy Faux, who is got up like one of the old watchmen, is swinging on one gallows, and Napoleon, in traditional costume, on another, with a roaring bonfire under him. Men, women, and boys are rejoicing around. ‘Guy Faux’s Dying Speech. I, Guy Faux, meditating my Country’s ruin, by the clandestine, and diabolical, means of the Gunpowder plot, was most fortunately discovered, and brought to condign punishment, by Old England, and here I bewail my fate.’ ‘Napoleon Buonaparte’s Dying Speech. I, Napoleon Buonaparte, flattered by all the French Nation that I was invincible, have most cruelly, and most childishly, attempted the subjugation of the world. I have lost my fleets, I have lost the largest, and the finest, armies ever heard of, and I am now become the indignation of the world, and the scorn, and sport, of boys. Had I not spurned the firm wisdom of the Right Hon. Wm Pitt, I might have secured an honourable Peace, I might have governed the greatest Nation; but, alas, my ambition has deceived me, and Pitt’s plans have ruined me.’
Rowlandson drew a ‘Copy of the Transparency exhibited at Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, During the Illuminations of the 5th and 6th of November 1813, in honour of the splendid victories obtained by the Allies over the Armies of France, at Leipsig and its Environs.
‘The Two Kings of Terror.
‘This Subject, representing the two Tyrants, viz. the Tyrant Bonaparte, and the Tyrant Death, sitting together on the Field of Battle, in a manner which promises a more perfect intimacy immediately to ensue, is very entertaining. It is also very instructing to observe, that the former is now placed in a situation, in which all Europe may see through him. The emblem, too, of the circle of light from mere vapour, which is so soon extinguished, has a good moral effect; and as the Gas represents the dying flame, so does the Drum, on which he is seated, typify the hollow, and noisy nature of the falling Usurper.
‘The above description of the subject, appeared in the Sun of Saturday, the 6th of November. These pointed comments arose from the picture being transparent, and from a circle, indicative of the strength, and brotherly union, of the Allies, which surmounted the same, composed of gas[31] of brilliant brightness.’
‘Cossack Sports—or the Platoff Hunt in full cry after French Game’ (November 9, 1813), shows Leipsic in the background, and the river Elster, into which the Cossacks, plunge, in full cry, after the ‘Corsican Fox.’ The Hetman, Platoff, cries, ‘Hark forward! my boys, get along! he runs in view—Yoics, Yoics—There he goes—Tally ho!’ His daughter, about whom the story is told (see footnote p. 148), is in mid stream, lashing her horse, and calling out, ‘Hi! ho! Tally ho! For a husband!’ An army of French frogs in vain attempt to stop the Cossacks—they are routed, and fleeing.