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CHAPTER XII

The Prussians fled at full speed; but the more rapidly they retreated, the more eagerly we maintained the pursuit. Being overtaken within sight of Magdeburg, they took refuge behind the entrenchments, where they were soon forced to lay down their arms. The garrison was invested; and William, who was there, thought himself happy in escaping. All around him had crouched beneath the storm. Prussia was no longer the valiant nation which entertained the idea of driving us back upon the Rhine. A reverse of fortune had overthrown her; a single blow had levelled her with the dust. She flew to meet defeat: she yielded, and delivered herself up. Never was a nation laid so low. Her fall was about to be completed: all our corps were preparing to march on Berlin, and to take possession of the city. Napoleon, however, reserved that honour for the corps which had most contributed to the victory; namely, that commanded by Davoust. The following are the instructions which he addressed to the Marshal:

"ORDER TO MARSHAL DAVOUST

"Wittenberg, Oct. 23d, 1806.

"If the parties of light troops, which you have of course despatched on the roads leading to Dresden and the Spree, inform you that you have no enemies on your flanks, you will direct your march so as to be able to make your entry into Berlin on the 25th of the present month, at noon. You will cause the General of Brigade, Hullin, to be acknowledged as commander of the garrison of Berlin. You may leave whatever regiment you think fit to do duty in the city. You will despatch parties of light cavalry on the roads to Kustrin, Langsberg, and Frankfort on the Oder. You will station your army corps at the distance of a league or a league and a half from Berlin; the right supported on the Spree, and the left on the road to Langsberg. Fix your head-quarters on the road to Kustrin, at some country residence in the rear of your force. It is the Emperor's intention to afford his troops a few days' repose; and therefore you will construct for them huts of straw and wood. Generals, staff-officers, colonels, and others, must be lodged in the villages in the rear of their divisions, and no one in Berlin. The artillery must be stationed in positions which cover the camp; the artillery-horses at the piquets, and all in the best military order.

"You will cut, that is to say, intercept, as early as possible, the navigation of the Spree by a strong party, so as to stop all the boats that may attempt to proceed from Berlin to the Oder.

"To-morrow our head-quarters will be at Potsdam. Send one of your aides-de-camp to inform me where you may be on the nights of the 23d and 24th.

"If Prince Ferdinand should be in Berlin, present your compliments to him, and give him a guard, with entire freedom from quartering.

"Publish immediately the order for disarming the troops in Berlin, leaving only 600 militia for the police-duty of the city. The arms of the citizens must be conveyed to some place that may be determined on, to be at the disposal of our army.

"Make known to your corps that the Emperor, in directing it to be the first to enter Berlin, gives a proof of his satisfaction of the excellent conduct of the troops at the battle of Jena.

"Be careful to direct that all the baggage, and particularly that which is in bad condition, shall halt at the distance of two leagues from Berlin, and rejoin the camp, without passing through the capital, but by proceeding along another road on the right. Finally, make your entrance into Berlin in the best possible order, and by divisions, each division having its artillery, and marching at the interval of an hour after each other.

"The camp being formed, give orders that the troops proceed to the city only by thirds, so that there may be always two-thirds at the camp. As his Majesty expects to make his entrance into Berlin, you may provisionally receive the keys of the city, informing the magistrates that they must nevertheless deliver them up to the Emperor on his arrival. You must require the magistrates and persons of distinction to receive you at the gates of the city, in all due form; and direct your officers to make the best appearance that circumstances will permit. The Emperor proposes that you shall make your entrance by the high road of Dresden.

"The Emperor will probably take up his abode in the palace of Charlottemburgh. Give orders that every thing may be prepared for his reception.

"There is a little rivulet which falls into the Spree, at the distance of a league and a half or two leagues from Berlin, and which intersects the road leading to En."

CHAPTER XIII

We set out for Potsdam; and we were overtaken by a storm: it was so violent and the rain fell in such torrents, that we took refuge in a neighbouring house. Napoleon was wrapped in his grey military great coat, and, on entering the house, he was much astonished to see a young female, who seemed to be much agitated by his presence. She proved to be a native of Egypt, and she evinced for Napoleon all the religious veneration which he had been accustomed to receive from the Arabs. She was the widow of an officer of the army of the East; and fate had conducted her to Saxony, and to the very house in which the Emperor was now received. Napoleon granted her a pension of 1200 francs, and undertook to provide for the education of her son, who was the only dowry her husband had left her. "This," said Napoleon, "is the first time I ever took shelter against a storm. I felt a presentiment that a good action awaited me."

We found Potsdam uninjured. The Court had even fled so precipitately that nothing had been removed. Frederick the Great's sword and belt, and the cordon of his orders, all were left. Napoleon took possession of them. "I prefer these trophies," said he with enthusiasm, "to all the King of Prussia's treasures. I will send them to my veterans who served in the campaign of Hanover. I will present them to the governor of the Hospital of Invalids, by whom they will be preserved as a testimony of the victories of the great army, and the revenge it has taken for the disasters of Rosbach."

No sooner had we entered Potsdam than we were besieged by deputations; they came from Saxony, from Weimar, and from all quarters. Napoleon received them with the utmost affability. The envoy of the Duke of Brunswick, who recommended his subjects to the generosity of the French, was, however, received less courteously than the rest. "If," said Napoleon to the person who presented the deputation, "I were to demolish the city of Brunswick, if I were to leave not a stone of the walls standing, what would your Prince think of me? And yet would not the law of retaliation authorize me to do in Brunswick what the Duke would have done in my capital? To announce the design of destroying cities may be the act of a madman; but to attempt to sully the honour of a whole army of brave troops, to wish to mark out a course for us to quit Germany merely on the summons of the Prussian army, is a fact which posterity will with difficulty credit. The Duke ought not to have attempted such an outrage. When a general has grown grey in the career of arms, he should know how to respect military honour. It was not, certainly, in the plains of Champagne that the Duke acquired the right of insulting the French standard. Such a proposition can reflect dishonour only on him who made it. The disgrace does not attach itself to the King of Prussia; but to the general to whom, in the present difficult circumstances, he resigned the care of his affairs; in short, to the Duke of Brunswick, whom France and Prussia will blame for the calamities of the war. The violent example set by the old General served as an authority for impetuous youth, and led the King to act in opposition to his own opinion and positive conviction. However, Sir, you may assure the inhabitants of Brunswick, that the French will prove themselves generous enemies; that it is my desire, as far as regards them, to alleviate the miseries of war; and that the evils which may arise from the passage of the troops through their territory, is contrary to my wish. Tell the Duke of Brunswick that he shall be treated with all the consideration due to an enemy's officer; but that I cannot acknowledge one of the King of Prussia's generals as a sovereign. If the House of Brunswick should forfeit the sovereignty of its ancestors, the blame must rest with the author of the two wars; who, in the one, wished to sap the very foundation of the great French capital; and, in the other, attempted to cast disgrace on 200,000 brave troops, who, though they may perhaps be defeated, will never be found to depart from the path of glory and honour. Much blood has been shed within a few days. Prussia is the victim of great disasters; and she may justly blame the man who, with a word, might have averted them, if, like Nestor, raising his voice in the Council, he had said:—

"Inconsiderate youths, be silent! Women, return to your domestic duties. And you, Sire, listen to the companion of the most illustrious of your predecessors. Since the Emperor Napoleon does not wish to maintain hostilities, do not oblige him to chose between war and dishonour. Do not engage in a dangerous conflict with an army, which prides itself in fifteen years of glorious achievements, and whom victory has accustomed to subdue every thing.

"Instead of holding this language, which would have been so well suited to the prudence of his age and the experience of his long career, he was the first to raise the cry of war. He had even violated the ties of blood, by arming a son (Prince Eugène of Wirtemberg) against his father. He threatened to plant his standard on the palace of Stuttgard; and accompanying all these acts by imprecations against France, he declared himself the author of that wild manifesto, the production of which he had disavowed for the space of fourteen years, though it was out of his power to deny having affixed his signature to it."

Spandau had been surrendered to Marshal Lannes. Napoleon visited the fortress, and inspected it minutely. He sent me to Berlin, which had been entered by Davoust, and directed me to present his compliments to old Ferdinand and his wife. I found the Prince very melancholy and dejected: he had just lost his son. The Princess appeared more calm and resigned. I also went to pay compliments to the Prince Henry and the Princess of Hesse, sister to the King of Prussia. The former appeared very sensible to the attention evinced by Napoleon; the latter had retired to a wing of the castle, where she lived tranquilly in the society of her grand-children. The situation of this Princess inspired me with interest and veneration. She appeared to take courage, and she begged me to recommend her to Napoleon, who paid her a visit immediately on his arrival. She inspired him with the same favourable sentiments which I had conceived for her.

The Emperor fixed his head-quarters at Charlottemburgh. On the following day, he made his entrance into the capital, and addressed the following proclamation to the army:—

"Soldiers!

"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.

The proclamation which Napoleon had addressed to the troops inspired them with new ardour. They rushed forward to pursue the wrecks of the forces, which had been engaged at Halle and Jena. The Prince of Hohenlohe had rallied a considerable mass, with which he might have escaped us; but he was not sufficiently speedy, he lost time, and these delays afforded us the hope of seeing him cut off. Napoleon impatiently looked for this event. "Bernadotte," said he to me, as we were entering the palace, "must by this time be at Bremen. He will surely have come up with the Prussians; Murat will attack them with his usual impetuosity; both together must have a greater force than is necessary to beat them. In a few days hence the Prince of Hohenlohe, with all his corps, will be in my hands; and I shall soon after have all their artillery and baggage. But we must act together; for it is not probable that they will suffer themselves to be taken without coming to an engagement."

Every thing happened as Napoleon had foretold. The Prussians, who were thrown into disorder by the attack of our cavalry, and the showers of grape shot, were summoned to surrender by General Belliard, and they laid down their arms. Twenty-five thousand picked troops, forty-five standards, seventy-four pieces of artillery, defiled before us: it was another conquest of Ulm. The Emperor was transported with his success: "This is well," said he; "but we have not yet got Blucher, who is so clever at making extempore armistices. We must have him also." He immediately addressed the following lines to Murat: "Nothing is done, so long as any thing remains undone. You have turned General Blucher's cavalry; let me soon hear that his force has experienced the fate of Hohenlohe's." Berthier also wrote to him as follows, to call his attention to the Duke of Weimar: "Independently of the little detached columns, there are three principal ones: 1st. That commanded by Prince Hohenlohe, which you have taken at Prentzlow; 2d. Blucher's column, which at daybreak on the 28th quitted Wissemberg, and which you must certainly have fallen in with to-day at Passelwalch; and 3d. The Duke of Weimar's column, which escaped Marshal Soult, and effected the passage of the Elbe, as it would appear, near Saudon and Havelsberg, on the 26th, whence it proceeded in the direction of Wursterhausen, Newrupin, Grausee, or Furstemberg. From Havelsberg to Furstemberg is a distance of twenty-five leagues; consequently the Duke of Weimar cannot reach Furstemberg on the 28th. But from Furstemberg to Passelwalch is only twenty leagues distance; and if the enemy's column should take that route, you will certainly fall in with it at Passelwalch on the 30th or 31st. Thus it may be presumed that nothing can escape between you and Marshals Lannes and Bernadotte. Such is the information which I am enabled to communicate to you from the accounts that have reached the Emperor."

But the Duke was tired of sharing the disasters of the Prussian army. He negotiated and transferred the command of his troops to Blucher, who, intent on his retreat, fled without caring or even knowing where he went. His route disconcerted Napoleon. "What does he intend?" said he; "whither is he going? I cannot imagine that he will throw himself into Holstein; for when once there, he will find no means of retreat. He cannot recross the Elbe; he will be driven up, and his troops will be drowned. He will never think of making such an attempt. We shall soon have him here." Blucher laid down arms some days after. He had passed through the whole of Prussia, and had violated the Danish territory, with no other object than to defer for a few days the surrender of between 20 and 25,000 men, the standards, and last artillery of the Prussians. With a little more skill, Blucher might have turned his obstinacy to better account. "Well," said Napoleon, on learning this news, "they are now advancing with the Austrians. They will be more reserved in future; they will say nothing more about Ulm. In three weeks they have four times renewed it. Blucher must be sent to France, to Dijon; there he may amuse himself in forging armistices. Write to General Belliard." The following despatch was sent off:

"Berlin, Oct. 13, 1806.

"To General Belliard, Chief of the General Staff of the Reserve of Cavalry.

"It is the Emperor's intention that the greatest care be taken that all the prisoners belonging to the column of General Blucher and the Duke of Weimar, should be sent to France. His Majesty wishes that all the generals and officers should also proceed to France. General Blucher will be conducted by an officer to Dijon. The young Prince of Brunswick must also be escorted by an officer to Chalons-sur-Marne. All the other officers must be conveyed to the different quarters of France fixed upon by the minister Dejean for the prisoners of war."

We did not venture to interrupt the Emperor until he had finished dictating the despatch; but when he had concluded it we interceded in favour of General Blucher. We represented that he had laid down arms, that he was no longer dangerous, and that it was necessary to make some allowance for his hussar habits. Napoleon acknowledged the justice of our suggestions, and Blucher retired to Hamburgh.