and then to have concentrated her troops so as to resist, by their momentum, the onset of the confident and battle-practised French. But, so far from taking these precautions, the duke of Brunswick rushed forward at once into Franconia, into the very face of Buonaparte, and long before he could have the assistance of Russia. Instead of concentrating his forces, Brunswick had stretched them out over a line of ninety miles in length. He and the king had their headquarters at Weimar; their left, under prince Hohenlohe, was at Schleitz, and their right extended as far as Mühlhausen. The Prussians, in fact, appeared rather to be occupying cantonments than drawn into military position for a great contest. Besides this, they had roused the ill-will of their

the language of the Prussian ministry was still of the most selfish and impolitic character, and Lucchesini told lord Morpeth that the fate of Hanover must depend on the event of the coming war. With such a power no union could take place, and in this isolated and pitiable condition Prussia was left to try her strength with Napoleon. As for that ambitious soldier, he desired nothing so much as this encounter with Prussia; he saw in it the only obstacle to his complete dominion over Germany, and he was confident that he should scatter her armies at the first shock. He issued an address to his troops full of this confidence:"They have dared," he said, "to demand that we should retreat at the first sight of their army. Fools! could they not reflect how impossible they found it to approach Paris-Saxon allies by the insolent and oppressive manner in which a task incomparably more easy than to tarnish the honour they had behaved in Saxony. of the Great Nation! Let the Prussian army expect the same fate which they encountered fourteen years ago, since experience has not taught them that, while it is easy to acquire additional dominions and increase of power by the friendship of France her enmity, on the contrary, which will only be provoked by those who are wholly destitute of sense and reason, is more terrible than the tempests of the

ocean."

The Prussian people, however, on their part, were clamorous for war; they still prided themselves on the victories of Frederick, called the Great, and the students and young nobles were full of bravado. They expressed their contempt of the French and their desire to fight them by going and sharpening their swords on the door-steps of La Foret, the French ambassador, and they broke the windows of such ministers as they believed to be in the French interest. But, unfortunately, they had not generals like Frederick to place at the head of their armies. The duke of Brunswick, who, in his youth, had shown much bravery in the Seven Years' War, but who had been most unfortunate in his invasion of France, in 1792, was now, in his seventy-second year, placed in chief command, to compete with Napoleon. In his best days the duke would, probably, not have been able to compete with Buonaparte in strategy, but now he was grown close and sullen, admitted none of the other generals to his confidence except Möllendorf, and this excited a disgust amongst the officers, who ought to have been inspired with zeal by him.

Nothing could exceed the folly of his plan of the campaign. The whole force of Prussia, including its auxiliaries, amounted only to about one hundred and fifty thousand men. Of these the Saxons, who had reluctantly united with Prussia, and had only been forced into co-operation by the Prussians marching into their country, and, in a manner, compelling them, were worse than lukewarm in the cause; they were ready at any moment to join the French. Besides these, and the troops of Hesse-Cassel, they had not an ally except the distant Russians. On the other hand, Napoleon had a considerably superior army of his own in advance, and he had immense forces behind the Rhine, for he had anticipated a whole year's conscription. He had, moreover, his flanks protected by his friendly confederates of the Rhine, ready to come forward, if necessary. Under such circumstances, Prussia's policy ought to have been to delay action, by Legotiation or otherwise, till the Russians could come up,

The Prussians, in truth, were in a condition of corrupt imbecility, that could no more stand against the genius and energy of Buonaparte than an old, rotten wall against a hurricane. If our English statesmen had known the condition of Germany at that time, as they ought to have known it before subsidising it as they had done to such an extent, they would have saved their money, and have awaited the regeneration which must come out of suffering and humiliation. The moral condition of Prussia at this moment is thus described by Wolfgang Menzel, one of the ablest historians of Germany, and the description would apply to Germany generally :-"All the higher officers of the army were old men, promotion depending not upon merit but upon length of service. The younger officers were radically bad, owing to their airs of nobility and licentious garrison life. Their manners and principles were equally vulgar. Women, horses, dogs, and gambling formed the staple of their conversation. They despised all solid learning, and when decorated on parade, in their enormous cocked hats and plumes, powdered wigs and queus, tight breeches and great boots, they swore at and cudgelled the men, and strutted about with conscious heroism. The arms used by the soldiery were heavy, and apt to hang fire; their tight uniform was inconvenient for action, and useless as a protection against the weather; and their food, bad of its kind, was stinted by the avarice of the colonels, which was carried to such an extent, that soldiers were to be seen, who, instead of a waistcoat, had a small bit of cloth sewn on the lower part of the uniform, where the waistcoat was usually visible. Worst of all, however, was the bad spirit that pervaded the army-the enervation consequent upon immorality. Even before the opening of the war, lieutenant Henry von Bulow, a retired officer of the greatest military genius, at that period, in Germany, and, on that account, misunderstood, foretold the inevitable defeat of Prussia, and, although far from being a devotee, declared that the cause of the national ignorance lay chiefly in the atheism and demoralisation produced by the government of Frederick II., the enlightenment so highly praised in the Prussian states consisting simply in a loss of energy and power."

Buonaparte, confident of his triumph over an army at once so demoralised and ignorantly proud, commenced his campaign by addressing a letter to the king on the 8th of October, in which he insulted him on his letter to himself, which he compared to a wretched pamphlet, such as the

A.D. 1806.]

DEFEAT OF THE DUKE OF BRUNSWICK.

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government of England hired wretched scribes at five hun- march, his advanced line suddenly came upon that of Davoust dred a-year to write; and he vented much disgraceful in the midst of a thick fog, near the village of Hassenabuse of the queen in it, and much on prince Louis. Perceiving the fatal separation of the Prussians from each other, and from their supplies at Naumburg, he determined to cut their army in two, and then to cut off and seize their magazines at this place. He therefore ordered the French right wing, under Soult and Ney, to march upon Hof, while the centre, under Bernadotte and Davoust, with the guard commanded by Murat, advanced on Saalburg and Schleitz. The left wing, under Augereau, proceeded towards Saalfield and Coburg. The first of the French generals who came into action was Lannes, who marched from Graffenthal and assaulted prince Louis, who was in charge of the bridge over the Saal. Louis, with an inconceivable folly, quitted that post, which, well defended, must have covered the magazines at Naumburg from the French, and advanced to Saalfield, where he was defeated and killed. He had shown as much courage as he had showed little strategy, and, contending hand to hand with a French subaltern, that officer called on him to surrender; instead of which, he gave the officer a cut with his sword, who, in return, ran him through the body. The way to Naumburg was now open, and the French marched upon it. Buonaparte, more certain now than ever of victory, could not help writing another letter to the king of Prussia, at once taunting him, and offering to make peace with him, on condition that he abandoned his evil counsellors, and allied himself to France.

Buonaparte's amazement at the want of military talent in the Prussians was unbounded. He compared the duke of Brunswick to another Mack, and exclaimed :-"The Prussians are more stupid than the Austrians!" On some of the prisoners informing him that he had been expected by way of Erfurt when he was already near Naumburg, he said :— "How egregiously they deceive themselves, those pigtails!" Ilad they united their forces properly, and fallen on him simultaneously from Weimar, Jena, and Halle, or had they retired into Franconia, and fallen upon his rear, his position must have been perilous; but, says Menzel, such a thing never entered the heads of the Prussian generals, who waited to be beaten by him one after another. Naumburg was seized, and its magazines committed to the flames, and this, at the same moment that it ruined their resources, apprised them that the French were in their rear; and, still worse, were betwixt them and Magdeburg, which should have been their rallying point.

To endeavour to make some reparation of their error, and to recover Naumburg, the duke of Brunswick marched in that direction, but too late. Davoust was in possession of the place, and had given the magazine to the flames, and he then marched out against Brunswick, who was coming with sixty thousand men, though he had only about half that number. Brunswick, by activity, might have seized the strong defile of Koesen; but he was so slow, that Davoust forced it open, and occupied it. On the evening of the 13th of October the duke was posted on the heights of Auerstadt, and might have retained that strong position, but he did not know that Davoust was so near; for the scout department seemed as much neglected as other precautions. Accordingly, the next morning, descen ling from the heights to pursue his

Haussen. The French and Prussian cavalry came into instant collision. The Prussian was much the more numerous, and behaved with great gallantry. They not only repulsed the French cavalry, but made several vigorous charges on the infantry, but without being able to break its squares. Then the French horse rallied again, and repulsed the Prussian cavalry in turn, and drove them from the woods and the village of Spilberg. The battle continued from eight in the morning till eleven, when the duke of Brunswick was struck in the face by a grape-shot, and blinded of both eyes. His enemies said this was Fortune's revenge, as he never would see when he had his eyes open. The loss of the duke was followed by that of general Schmettau and other officers of distinction. This, and the severe slaughter suffered by the Prussians, now made them give way. The king of Prussia, obliged to assume the command himself, at this moment received the discouraging news that general Hohenlohe was engaged at Jena, with the main army, against Buonaparte himself. He resolved to make one great effort to retrieve the fortune of the day he ordered a general and determined charge to be made along the whole French line. It failed; the Prussians were beaten off, and there was a general route. The flying Prussians took the way towards Weimar, where were the head-quarters of their army.

But, as the king had learned, that division of the army was also in action, and against the French emperor. Napoleon arrived in Jena on the 13th of October. He had sent the orders to Davoust to attack Brunswick at Auerstadt, and he, at the same time, prepared to attack the Prussians, under Hohenlohe. They possessed the most commanding situation on the heights of Jena, whilst his forces were in the deep valleys of the Saal. General Tauenzien occupied the defile by which was the only ascent to the upper plain, and which a few hundred students of Jena might have effectually defended by simply rolling stones down it on the heads of the enemy. With one of those pieces of unaccountable folly which astonish us continually in the Austrian and Prussian campaigns, Tauenzien retired from the head of the defile, as prince Louis had done from the Saal bridge, and Buonaparte ordered his troops immediately to ascend and take post on the high ground of the Landgrafenberg. Going himself at night to observe the fulfilment of his orders, he found the whole of marshal Lannes' artillery sticking in the ravine. He immediately seized a lantern, ordered others to do the same, and set the pioneers to clear away rocks and stones, and he soon had the cannon all on the upper ground. He then advanced to observe the bivouacs of the Prussians, and returning in the dark, and on foot, towards his own lines, was mistaken by a sentinel for an enemy, and fired at. The firing immediately was followed by others in the advanced post, and he had a very narrow escape for his life. He only saved it by flinging himself at once on his face, and continuing so till the mistake was made known.

Though Napoleon was now on the Landgrafenberg, there was still the Dornberg commanding his whole position, and the Windknollen, a yet higher ground, whence an active general could have annihilated the French troops, had he

eventually reached the heights of Prenzlow, but there and at Passewalk he surrendered with twenty thousand men. Such was this Prussian campaign, in which the boasted army of Frederick II. was completely dispersed in a mere struggle of three weeks. When Henry von Bulow, who had predicted all this, heard of it in his fortress, he exclaimed:— "That is the consequence of throwing generals into prison, and putting idiots at the head of the army!" This unfortunate man, as if to take vengeance on him for his prophecies, was delivered to the Russians, on the plea that he had condemned their conduct at Austerlitz, and was so barbarously treated by them that he died of his injuries at Riga.

The only individuals who really showed courage and talent were lieutenant Von Hellwig, who attacked the French guard which was escorting the fourteen thousand Prussian prisoners from Erfurt, and set them at liberty; a Prussian ensign, only fifteen years of age, who, pursued by the French cavalry, rather than surrender his colours, sprang with them into the Saal, and was crushed to death by a mill-wheel; and general Blucher, who, disgusted at the continued retreating of Hohenlohe, in spite of his remon strances, separated from him, intending to join him again at Prenzlow, and fight his way, through many adventures, to Radkan, in the hope of finding ships to carry him across the Baltic; but, finding none, he was compelled to surrender, with ten thousand men.

duly planted them with batteries. But prince Hohenlohe soldiers. Hohenlohe continued his flight for the Oder. He had done nothing of the kind, and was comfortably sleeping at Capellendorf, as though no enemy, let alone such an enemy, were at hand. He was only aroused the next morning by the roar of the French artillery. He was still under the hands of his barber when Tauenzien was driven from the Dornberg. Hohenlohe led his troops up the hill-side, to endeavour to cover this position, but the French, now on the summit, showed the pre-eminent advantage of the post by mowing down his men as fast as they ascended the steep. General Rüchel advanced to support Hohenlohe, but was also compelled to fall back. Meantime, Buonaparte had encouraged his army on the plain by telling them that the Prussians had allowed themselves to be cut off from all their provisions and ammunition, just as Mack had done at Ulm. The Prussians, however, fought bravely, but without effect. Their strongest position was now on their left, where they were covered by a village and some woods. Augereau, supported by Lannes, threw all his force on that quarter, and drove the Prussians from it. Then the route became general, and, to render it complete, Napoleon flung one mass of troops after another upon them, and Murat, at the head of the cavalry, galloped after them, and committed havoc amongst them. The whole chaotic route rolled towards Weimar, where they came in contact with the equally disorganised army fleeing from the defeat of Auerstadt. The scene of horror and confusion was indescribable. They were anxious to retreat direct into Prussia, and to make for the fortified city of Magdeburg, but the French cut off that chance, and they could only hope to reach that city by a very circuitous route. Numbers of regiments disbanded, and fled for their homes, especially those who had lost their officers; others strove to reach the strong town of Erfurt, into which Möllendorf escaped with fourteen thou-ordered his soldiers to destroy the small column that comsand men. Nearly all the artillery fell into the hands of memorated that event. He took up his residence in the Buonaparte, with other spoil, which excited the merriment palace of the king of Prussia at Berlin, and it is difficult to of the French; amongst these were a vast number of officers' determine whether his conduct or that of the Berliners was equipage, provided with mistresses, articles belonging to the the more contemptible on this occasion. Instead of receiving toilette, and epicurean delicacies. These effeminate officers him in mute sorrow, as the Austrians had received him at were the first, says their own historian, Menzel, to hide Vienna, they cried, "Vive l'Empereur!" and called on one behind hedges and walls. Möllendorf surrendered the another to shout heartily, lest he should take vengeance on strongly-fortified city of Erfurt at the first summons of them for their apathy. The citizens, says Menzel, were in Murat. The hereditary prince of Orange was taken pri- a hurry to betray the public money and stores, which were soner there. Other bands were stopped as they attempted concealed, to the French. Hulin, the new French comto cross the Hartz Mountains. Frince Eugene of Wür- mandant, desired the chief magistrate, politely, to order the temberg, with sixteen thousand men who had never been civic guard to give up their arms; but this official immebrought into the action, foolishly advanced towards Halle diately commanded them to give them up on pain of death. against a much superior force, under Bernadotte, who To a man who discovered a great store of wood to Hulin, utterly defeated him. Kalkreuth and twenty thousand he replied:-"Leave the wood; your king will want plenty men joined the prince of Hohenlohe,and then indignantly of gallows to hang traitorous rogues, like you." Buonaresigned his command, having been left without any share parte said he did not know whether to rejoice or feel in the battle. Hohenlohe, on reaching Magdeburg, was ashamed when he saw the dastardly conduct of the Prusrefused entrance by the commandant Von Kleist, and even sians; and yet his own conduct was little better. The forage and ammunition, and was compelled to make a wounded and blind duke of Brunswick had himself to fatiguing march through the sandy Mark towards Berlin. entreat of the conqueror that his hereditary state of BrunsKleist, on the first summons of Ney, surrendered Mag-wick might be left him, but Buonaparte refused in harsh deburg, either through cowardice or treachery. His officers, and insulting terms. He upbraided him with his celesays the German historian, were as ready as himself to sur-brated proclamation on entering France in 1792; with his render, that they might return home to their pleasures. miserable campaign in France; and with his recent demand They only thought of themselves, and took no care for their that the French should recross the Rhine. He declared that

Napoleon marched triumphantly forwards towards Berlin. In Leipzic he confiscated English merchandise, to the value of about three millions sterling. He entered Berlin on the 25th of October. As he had traversed the field of Rosbach, where Frederick II. had annihilated a French army, he

A.D. 1806.]

SURRENDER OF THE PRUSSIAN FORTRESSES.

he was the instigator of the whole war, and that he should deprive him for ever of Brunswick. He accordingly ordered his troops to march on that territory and town, and the dying duke was compelled to be carried away on a litter by men hired for the purpose, for all his officers and domestics had deserted him. He found no rest till he reached the Danish territory, where, at Ottensen, near Altona, he expired. Buonaparte had a particular pleasure in persecuting this unhappy man, because he was brother-in-law to George III. and father-in-law to the heir to the British crown; but he, moreover, wanted his dukedom to add to the kingdom of Westphalia, which he was planning for his brother Jerome. The duke's son requested of Buonaparte leave to lay his body in the tomb of his ancestors, but the ruthless tyrant refused this petition with the same savage bluntness, and the young duke vowed eternal vengeance, and, if he did not quite live to discharge his oath, his black Brunswickers did it at Waterloo.

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imbecile or cowardly old villains; nay, there is every reason to believe that, in many instances, they sold the places to the French, aud were paid their traitor-fees out of the military chests of the respective fortresses. In many cases the soldiers and inhabitants were so enraged at them, that they only escaped alive through the protection of the French. The strong fortress of Hameln was yielded by baron von Schöler; Plassenburg, by a baron von Becker; Nimburg, on the Weser, by a baron von Dresser; Spandau, by a count von Benkendorf. The citadel of Berlin capitulated without a blow, and Stettin, though well provided with the material of war, was surrendered by a baron von Romberg. Custrin, one of the strongest fortified places, was opened to the French when the king had scarcely quitted it. In Silesia the same disgraceful scenes took place. The French, under Vandamme, accompanied by a body of Bavarians and Würtembergers, quickly overran the whole country. Glogau, Breslau, Burg, Schweidnitz, all were yielded up in the same manner. In Glogau, when the commandant, von Reinhardt, was urged to fire on the besiegers, he replied, "Ah! you do not know what one shot costs the king!" When old count von Haath had the windows of his hotel broken by the enraged people, he said to the landlord, "Sir, you must have some enemies." A few fortresses, as Glatz, Neisse, Kosel, and Silberberg, only made a firm stand. The last, situated on an impregnable rock, refused all terms of surrender.

Whilst these events were so rapidly progressing, Louis Buonaparte, the new king of Holland, with an army of French and Dutch, had overrun, with scarcely any opposition, Westphalia, Hanover, Emden, and East Friesland. The unfortunate king of Prussia, who had seen his kingdom vanish like a dream, had fled to Köningsberg, where he was defended by the gallant L'Estoc, and awaited the hoped-for junction of the Russians marching to his aid. Gustavus

he had offered to Prussia to unite with Austria, opened Stralsund and Riga to the fugitive Prussians.

At both Berlin and Potsdam Napoleon continued to display the same petty spirit of insult and rapacity. He seized the sword, hat, and belt of Frederick II. at his tomb at Potsdam and from Sans-Souci, and sent them to Paris, declaring that he would not part with that sword for twenty millions of livres; he seized and sent to Paris, also, the finest paintings and other works of art that he could find in Prussia; he issued bulletins and proclamations charged with the most insulting language to the king, and still more to the queen of Prussia, whom he regarded as the head of the war party; he used equally offensive terms towards the Prussian nobility, threatening to make them beg their bread. His conduct and language inspired the French generally with insolence towards the Prussians, and their language and behaviour filled them with a spirit of bitterness that did not die out till it had avenged itself in the invasion of France. There was, however, one occasion | Adolphus, of Sweden, forgetting the slighted advice which in which Napoleon seemed to recollect the magnanimity which should distinguish a conqueror. The prince Hatzfeld, the late Prussian governor of Berlin, was arrested and tried by a military commission, for having written some letters to prince Hohenlohe, whilst still at the head of the army, informing him of the motions of the French. This he thought fit to treat as treason against him, although Hatzfeld was merely serving his own prince, whom France had conquered. The military tribunal sentenced him to death. His wife threw herself at the feet of Napoleon, and demanded justice for the wrong of his arrest, not knowing what was the charge against him. Napoleon handed her the intercepted letter of her husband. She read it, and remained as if paralysed, expecting no forgiveness from such an enemy. “Well, madame,” asked Buonaparte, "is this an unjust charge?" The princess could only answer by her tears. He took the letter from her hand, saying, “Madame were it not for this letter, there would be no proof against your husband;" and he threw it into the fire. The act was just, but we cannot call it generous; for to have shot the prince on such a charge would have been only adding one more murder to the many he had already committed.

The strong towns and fortresses of Prussia were all surrendered with as much rapidity as the army had been dispersed. They were, for the most part, commanded by

Having put Prussia under his feet, Buonaparte proceeded to settle the fate of her allies, Saxony and Hesse-Cassel. Saxony, which had been forced into hostilities against France by Prussia, was at once admitted by Buonaparte to his alliance. He raised the prince to the dignity of king, and introduced him as a member of the confederacy of the Rhine. The small states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Gotha were admitted to his alliance on the same terms of vassalage; but Hesse-Cassel was wanted to make part of the new kingdom of Westphalia, and, though it had not taken up arms at all, Buonaparte declared that it had been secretly hostile to France, and that the house of Hesse-Cassel had ceased to reign. Louis Buonaparte had seized it, made it over to the keeping of general Mortier, and then marched back to Holland. Mortier then proceeded to reoccupy Hanover, which he did in the middle of November, and then marched to Hamburg. He was in hopes of seizing a large quantity of British goods, as he had done at Leipzic, but in this he was disappointed, for the Hamburg merchants, being warned by the fate of Leipzic, had made haste, disposed of all their British articles, and ordered no fresh ones. Buonaparte, in his vexation, ordered Mortier to seize the money in the banks; but Bourrienne wrote to