[Footnote 23: The secret history of those days is still not sufficiently brought to light. Bagnon speaks of fresh treaties between Hardenberg and Napoleon, in which he is corroborated by Fain. These two Frenchmen, the former of whom was a diplomatist, the other one of Napoleon's private secretaries, admit that Prussia's object at that time was to take advantage of Napoleon's embarrassment and to offer him aid on certain important considerations. Prussian historians are silent in this matter. In Von Rauschnik's biographical account of Blücher, the great internal schism at that time caused in Prussia by the Hardenberg party and that of the Tugendbund is merely slightly hinted at; the former still managed diplomatic affairs, while York, a member of the latter, had already acted on his own responsibility. Shortly afterward affairs took a different aspect, as if Hardenberg's diplomacy had merely been a mask, and he placed himself at the head of the movement against France. In a memorial of 1811, given by Hormayr in the Sketches from the War of Liberation, Hardenberg declared decisively in favor of the alliance with Russia against France.]
[Footnote 24: Hans Louis David von York, a native of Pomerania, having ventured, when a lieutenant in the Prussian service, indignantly to blame the base conduct of one of his superiors in command, became implicated in a duel, was confined in a fortress, abandoned his country, entered the Dutch service, visited the Cape and Ceylon, fought against the Mahrattas, was wounded, returned home and re-entered the Prussian service in 1794.]
CCLX. The Spring of 1813
The king of Prussia had suddenly abandoned Berlin, which was still in the hands of the French, for Breslau, whence he declared war against France. A conference also took place between him and the emperor Alexander at Calisch, and, on the 28th of February, 1813, an offensive and defensive alliance was concluded between them. The hour for vengeance had at length arrived. The whole Prussian nation, eager to throw off the hated yoke of the foreigner, to obliterate their disgrace in 1806, to regain their ancient name, cheerfully hastened to place their lives and property at the service of the impoverished government. The whole of the able-bodied population was put under arms. The standing army was increased: to each regiment were appended troops of volunteers, Joegers, composed of young men belonging to the higher classes, who furnished their own equipments: a numerous Landwehr, a sort of militia, was, as in Austria, raised besides the standing army, and measures were even taken to call out, in case of necessity, the heads of families and elderly men remaining at home, under the name of the Landsturm.[1] The enthusiastic people, besides furnishing the customary supplies and paying the taxes, contributed to the full extent of their means toward defraying the immense expense of this general arming. Every heart throbbed high with pride and hope. Who would not wish to have lived at such a period, when man's noblest and highest energies were thus called forth! More loudly than even in 1809 in Austria was the German cause now discussed, the great name of the German empire now invoked in Prussia, for in that name alone could all the races of Germany be united against their hereditary foe. The following celebrated proclamation, promising external and internal liberty to Germany, was, with this view, published at Calisch, by Prussia and Russia, on the 25th of March, 1813. It was signed by Prince Kutusow and drawn up by Baron Rehdiger of Silesia.
"The victorious troops of Russia, together with those of his Majesty the king of Prussia, having set foot on German soil, the emperor of Russia and his Majesty the king of Prussia announce simultaneously the return of liberty and independence to the princes and nations of Germany. They come with the sole and sacred purpose of aiding them to regain the hereditary and inalienable national rights of which they have been deprived, to afford potent protection and to secure durability to a newly-restored empire. This great object, free from every interested motive and therefore alone worthy of their Majesties, has solely induced the advance and solely guides the movements of their armies.—These armies, led by generals under the eyes of both monarchs, trust in an omnipotent, just God, and hope to free the whole world and Germany irrevocably from the disgraceful yoke they have so gloriously thrown off. They press forward animated by enthusiasm. Their watchword is 'Honor and Liberty.' May every German, desirous of proving himself worthy of the name, speedily and spiritedly join their ranks. May every individual, whether prince, noble, or citizen, aid the plans of liberation, formed by Russia and Prussia, with heart and soul, with person and property, to the last drop of his blood!—The expectation cherished by their Majesties of meeting with these sentiments, this zeal, in every German heart, they deem warranted by the spirit so clearly betokened by the victories gained by Russia over the enslaver of the world.—They therefore demand faithful cooperation, more especially from every German prince, and willingly presuppose that none among them will be found, who, by being and remaining apostate to the German cause, will prove himself deserving of annihilation by the power of public opinion and of just arms. The Rhenish alliance, that deceitful chain lately cast by the breeder of universal discord around ruined Germany to the destruction of her ancient name, can, as the effect of foreign tyranny and the tool of foreign influence, be no longer tolerated. Their Majesties believe that the declaration of the dissolution of this alliance being their fixed intention will meet the long-harbored and universal desire with difficulty retained within the sorrowing hearts of the people.—The relation in which it is the intention of his Majesty, the emperor of all the Russias, to stand toward Germany and toward her constitution is, at the same time, here declared. From his desire to see the influence of the foreigner destroyed, it can be no other than that of placing a protecting hand on a work whose form is committed to the free, unbiased will of the princes and people of Germany. The more closely this work, in principle, features and outline, coincides with the once distinct character of the German nation, the more surely will united Germany retake her place with renovated and redoubled vigor among the empires of Europe.—His Majesty and his ally, between whom there reigns a perfect accordance in the sentiments and views hereby explained, are at all times ready to exert their utmost power in pursuance of their sacred aim, the liberation of Germany from a foreign yoke.—May France, strong and beauteous in herself, henceforward seek to consolidate her internal prosperity! No external power will disturb her internal peace, no enemy will encroach upon her rightful frontiers.—But may France also learn that the other powers of Europe aspire to the attainment of durable repose for their subjects, and will not lay down their arms until the independence of every state in Europe shall have been firmly secured."
Nor was the appeal vain. It found an echo in every German heart, and such plain demonstrations of the state of the popular feeling on this side the Rhine were made that Davoust sent serious warning to Napoleon, who contemptuously replied, "Pah! Germans never can become Spaniards!" With his customary rapidity, he levied in France a fresh army three hundred thousand strong, with which he so completely awed the Rhenish confederation as to compel it once more to take the field with thousands of Germans against their brother Germans. The troops, however, reluctantly obeyed, and even the traitors were but lukewarm, for they doubted of success. Mecklenburg alone sided with Prussia. Austria remained neutral.
A Russian corps under General Tettenborn had preceded the rest of the troops and reached the coasts of the Baltic. As early as the 24th of March, 1813, it appeared in Hamburg and expelled the French authorities from the city. The heavily oppressed people of Hamburg,[2] whose commerce had been totally annihilated by the continental system, gave way to the utmost demonstrations of delight, received their deliverers with open arms, revived their ancient rights, and immediately raised a Hanseatic corps, destined to take the field against Napoleon. Dornberg, the ancient foe to France, with another flying squadron took the French division under Morand prisoner, and the Prussian, Major Hellwig (the same who, in 1806, liberated the garrison of Erfurt), dispersed, with merely one hundred and twenty hussars, a Bavarian regiment one thousand three hundred strong and captured five pieces of artillery. In January, the peasantry of the upper country had already revolted against the conscription,[3] and, in February, patriotic proclamations had been disseminated throughout Westphalia under the signature of the Baron von Stein. In this month, also, Captain Maas and two other patriots, who had attempted to raise a rebellion, were executed. As the army advanced, Stein was nominated chief of the provisional government of the still unconquered provinces of Western Germany.
The first Russian army, seventeen thousand strong, under Wittgenstein, pushed forward to Magdeburg, and, at Mokern, repulsed forty thousand French, who were advancing upon Berlin. The Prussians, under their veteran general, Blucher, entered Saxony and garrisoned Dresden, on the 27th of March, 1813; an arch of the fine bridge across the Elbe having been uselessly blown up by the French. Blucher, whose gallantry in the former wars had gained for him the general esteem, and whose kind and generous disposition had won the affection of the soldiery, was nominated generalissimo of the Prussian forces, but subordinate in command to Wittgenstein, who replaced Kutusow[4] as generalissimo of the united forces of Russia and Prussia. The emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia accompanied the army and were received with loud acclamations by the people of Dresden and Leipzig. The allied army was merely seventy thousand strong, and Blucher had not formed a junction with Wittgenstein when Napoleon invaded the country by Erfurt and Merseburg at the head of one hundred and sixty thousand men. Ney attacked, with forty thousand men, the Russian vanguard under Winzingerode, which, after gallantly defending a defile near Weissenfels, made an orderly retreat before forces far their superior in number. The French, on this occasion, lost Marshal Bessieres. Napoleon, incredulous of attack, marched in long columns upon Leipzig, and Wittgenstein, falling upon his right flank, committed great havoc among the forty thousand men under Ney, which he had first of all encountered, at Gross-Gorschen. This place was alternately lost and regained owing to his ill-judged plan of attack by single brigades, instead of breaking Napoleon's lines by charging them at once with the whole of his forces. The young Prussian volunteers here measured their strength in a murderous conflict, hand to hand, with the young French conscripts, and excited by their martial spirit the astonishment of the veterans. Wittgenstein's delay and Blucher's too late arrival on the field[5] gave Napoleon time to wheel his long lines round and to encircle the allied forces, which immediately retired. On the eve of the bloody engagement of the 2d of May, the allied cavalry attempted a general attack in the dark, which was also unsuccessful on account of the superiority of the enemy's forces. The allies had, nevertheless, captured some cannons, the French, none. The most painful loss was that of the noble Scharnhorst, who was mortally wounded. Bulow had, on the same day, stormed Halle with a Prussian corps, but was now compelled to resolve upon a retreat, which was conducted in the most orderly manner by the allies. At Koldiz, the Prussian rearguard repulsed the French van in a bloody engagement on the 5th of May. The allies marched through Dresden[6] and took up a firm position in and about Bautzen, after being joined by a reinforcement of eighty thousand Bavarians. Napoleon was also reinforced by a number of French, Bavarian, Wurtemberg, and Saxon troops,[7] and despatched Lauriston and Ney toward Berlin; but the former encountering the Russians under Barclay de Tolly at Konigswartha, and the latter the Prussians under York at Weissig, both were constrained to retreat. Napoleon attacked the position at Bautzen from the 19th to the 21st of May, but was gloriously repulsed by the Prussians under Kleist, while Blücher, who was in danger of being completely surrounded, undauntedly defended himself on three sides. The allies lost not a cannon, not a single prisoner, although again compelled to retire before the superior forces of the enemy. The French had suffered an immense loss; eighteen thousand of their wounded were sent to Dresden. Napoleon's favorite, Marshal Duroc, and General Kirchner, a native of Alsace, were killed, close to his side, by a cannon ball. The allied troops, forced to retire after an obstinate encounter, neither fled nor dispersed, but withdrew in close column and repelling each successive attack.[8] The French avant-garde under Maison was, when in close pursuit of the allied force, almost entirely cut to pieces by the Prussian cavalry, which unexpectedly fell upon it at Heinau. The main body of the Russo-Prussian army, on entering Silesia, took a slanting direction toward the Riesengebirge and retired behind the fortress of Schweidnitz. In this strong position they were at once partially secure from attack, and, by their vicinity to the Bohemian frontier, enabled to keep up a communication, and, if necessary, to form a junction with the Austrian forces. The whole of the lowlands of Silesia lay open to the French, who entered Breslau on the 1st of June.[9] Berlin was also merely covered by a comparatively weak army under General Bulow,[10] who, notwithstanding the check given by him to Marshal Oudinot in the battles of Hoyerswerda and Luckau, was not in sufficient force to offer assistance to the main body of the French in case Napoleon chose to pass through Berlin on his way to Poland. Napoleon, however, did not as yet venture to make use of his advantage. By the seizure of Prussia and Poland, both of which lay open to him, the main body of the allied army and the Austrians, who had not yet declared themselves, would have been left to the rear of his right flank and could easily have cut off his retreat. His troops, principally young conscripts, were moreover worn out with fatigue, nor had the whole of his reinforcements arrived. To his rear was a multitude of bold partisans, Tettenborn, the Hanseatic legion, Czernitscheff, who, at Halberstadt, captured General Ochs together with the whole of the Westphalian corps and fourteen pieces of artillery, Colomb, the Herculean captain of horse, who took a convoy and twenty-four guns at Zwickau, and the Black Prussian squadron under Lutzow. Napoleon consequently remained stationary, and, with a view of completing his preparations and of awaiting the decision of Austria, demanded an armistice, to which the allies, whose force was still incomplete and to whom the decision of Austria was of equal importance, gladly assented.
On this celebrated armistice, concluded on the 4th of June, 1813, at the village of Pleisswitz, the fate of Europe was to depend. To the side that could raise the most powerful force, that on which Austria ranged herself, numerical superiority insured success. Napoleon's power was still terrible; fresh victory had obliterated the disgrace of his flight from Russia; he stood once more an invincible leader on German soil. The French were animated by success and blindly devoted to their emperor. Italy and Denmark were prostrate at his feet. The Rhenish confederation was also faithful to his standard. Councillor Crome published at Giessen, in obedience to Napoleon's mandate and with the knowledge of the government at Darmstadt, a pamphlet entitled "Germany's Crisis and Salvation," in which he declared that Germany was saved by the fresh victories of Napoleon, and promised mountains of gold to the Germans if they remained true to him.[11] Crome was at that time graciously thanked in autograph letters by the sovereigns of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Lutzow's volunteer corps was, during the armistice, surprised at Kitzen by a superior corps of Wurtembergers under Normann and cut to pieces. Germans at that period opposed Germans without any feeling for their common fatherland.[12] The king of Saxony, who had already repaired to Prague under the protection of Austria, also returned thence, was received at Dresden with extreme magnificence by Napoleon, and, in fresh token of amity, ceded the fortress of Torgau to the French.[13] These occurrences caused the Saxon minister, Senfft von Pilsach, and the Saxon general, Thielmann, who had already devoted themselves to the German cause, to resign office. The Polish army under Prince Poniatowsky (vassal to the king of Saxony, who was also grandduke of Warsaw) received permission (it had at an earlier period fallen back upon Schwarzenberg) to march, unarmed, through the Austrian territory to Dresden, in order to join the main body of the French under Napoleon. The declaration of the emperor of Austria in favor of his son-in-law, who, moreover, was lavish of his promises, and, among other things, offered to restore Silesia, was, consequently, at the opening of the armistice, deemed certain.
The armistice was, meanwhile, still more beneficial to the allies. The Russians had time to concentrate their scattered troops, the Prussians completed the equipment of their numerous Landwehren, and the Swedes also took the field. Bernadotte landed on the 18th of May in Pomerania, and advanced with his troops into Brandenburg for the purpose, in conjunction with Bulow, of covering Berlin. A German auxiliary corps, in the pay of England, was also formed, under Wallmoden, on the Baltic. The defence of Hamburg was extremely easy; but the base intrigues of foreigners, who, as during the time of the thirty years' war, paid themselves for their aid by the seizure of German provinces and towns, delivered that splendid city into the hands of the French. Bernadotte had sold himself to Russia for the price of Norway, which Denmark refused to cede unless Hamburg and Lubeck were given in exchange. This agreement had already been made by Prince Dolgorucki in the name of the emperor Alexander, and Tettenborn yielded Hamburg to the Danes, who marched in under pretext of protecting the city and were received with delight by the unsuspecting citizens. The non-advance of the Swedes proceeded from the same cause. The increase of the Danish marine by means of the Hanse towns, however, proved displeasing to England; the whole of the commerce was broken up, and the Danes, hastily resolving to maintain faith with Napoleon, delivered luckless Hamburg to the French, who instantly took a most terrible revenge. Davoust, as he himself boasted, merely sent twelve German patriots to execution,[14] but expelled twenty-five thousand of the inhabitants from the city, while he pulled down their houses and converted them into fortifications, at which the principal citizens were compelled to work in person. Dissatisfied, moreover, with a contribution of eighteen millions, he robbed the great Hamburg bank, treading underfoot every private and national right, all, as he, miserable slave as he was,[15] declared, in obedience to the mandate of his lord.