The alliance with Napoleon was extremely distasteful. Alexander, as usual given to illusions, found his illusions again disappointed. Sweden was able to thwart the proposed annexation of Finland; the naval war with England was ruining commerce; the hope which Napoleon had held out of a partition of Turkey was a bubble. At the "interview at Erfurt" between the two Emperors, Russian pride was pained to see the conscious superiority of the French. Nevertheless the alliance was renewed: Alexander agreed to keep Europe quiet while Napoleon seized the throne of Spain. Napoleon engaged to further the Russian occupation of Finland and the States of the Danube. It was proposed that Napoleon should put away Josephine and marry Alexander's sister. Alexander now had his hands full of war; with England, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, with Persia, and the tribes of the Caucasus. The Russian fleet of the Archipelago was captured by the English in the Tagus, but the second war with Sweden was more successful. Sixty thousand Russians entered Finland, took all the great fortresses, and banished the Swedish fleet from the gulfs. The war with Austria, in which Napoleon involved Alexander, was half-hearted; the Russians and Austrians met only twice; and the loss was three killed and four wounded! Napoleon rewarded his "lukewarm "ally with Eastern Gallicia, with a population of four hundred thousand souls.
ON THE RAFT, TILSIT.
But the French alliance was not to last. The establishment of the Polish Grand Duchy, the failure of the projected marriage, the annexation to France of Oldenburg and the three Hanse towns, the enforcement of the Continental blockade which ruined commerce, and Napoleon's insolence, brought Alexander's anger to the highest pitch. He began to make preparations for war. He suddenly disgraced Speranski, the friend of France, and the great struggle began. Napoleon and "the army of the Twenty Nations" crossed the Niemen. Alexander summoned patriotic Russia: "Oh, that the foe may find in each noble a Pozharski, in each priest a Palitsin, in each citizen a Minin. Rise, all! With cross on breast and arms in hand no human force can prevail against us."
The Invasion of Russia
Every one knows the story of Napoleon's invasion of Russia; how day by day the Grand Army was tempted on to its destruction; how it melted away in the long march through Poland and Lithuania; how its very victories were defeats. It counted one hundred and fifty thousand lost before it reached Mogilef: Thousands fell in the three battles at Smolensk; fifteen thousand were left on the bloody field of Valutina. Then came Borodino. Old Kutuzof was at the head of the Russians. "Kutuzof," they said, "had come to beat the French." They knew it was their last chance to save Holy Mother Moscow. On the morning of the battle the priests sprinkled them with holy water; the wonder-working Virgin of Vladimir was carried in solemn procession to the front. An eagle hovered over the head of their favorite leader. Their religious and patriotic enthusiasm was put then to the test. The outworks of Borodino were lost and won and lost again. Irresistible the onrush of Murat's cavalry, the assault of Caulaincourt's cuirassiers. Here again the French lost thirty thousand men, forty-nine generals, and thirty-seven colonels." The beast was wounded to the death," says the great novelist, Tolstoi.
Kutuzof withdrew beyond Moscow, and the French entered the city singing the "Marseillaise." Napoleon took up his abode in the palace of the Tsars. The legend tells how he made up his mind to go to the rich convent of St. Sergi. He climbed Ivan's Tower to examine the route: "All that wealth is mine," he said, "there is no one to gainsay me." Then, as he looked forth across the city, he saw an old man come out of the monastery with a cross in his hand and behind him swept a mysterious army which covered all the fields. It was the spirits of the dead heroes of Russia coming to defend their beloved land. All at once the old man lifted his cross, and Napoleon in affright covered his eyes, and when again he looked the city was in flames.
RUSSIAN CAVALRY CHARGE.
Napoleon had to flee from the Kreml for his life. Almost perishing he reached the Petrovski Palace. More than a month the "pitiless army" loitered in Moscow; four fifths of the houses were in ashes; at last food began to fail; they had to kill their horses for meat; around them the toils of the Russians drew closer. Kutuzof's army was daily growing; twenty-six regiments of Don Kazaks came to his aid. He shut off the road to Riazan, the road to Kaluga; only the desolated road to Smolensk was left for the French retreat. The October snows had begun to fall when Napoleon ordered the first divisions to quit Moscow. As a last revenge Mortier blew up the Kreml walls; Elizabeth's palace was ruined; the Tower of Ivan the Great was cracked; great gaps were left in the sacred gates.
Napoleon and his army reached Smolensk before the cold grew very severe; here too they suffered severely from hunger. The Russians hung upon their rear. Kutuzof captured twenty-six thousand stragglers, two hundred and eight cannon, and five thousand carriages; his exultation knew no bounds; he threw his cap into the air and cheered lustily "for the brave Russian soldier." Then he told his officers a fable: "Listen, gentlemen, to a pretty fable that Krilof, the good story-teller, sent me. A wolf entered a kennel and tormented the dogs. As to getting in he managed that well enough, but it was another thing to get out! All the dogs were at him, and he was driven into a corner with hair on end, saying, 'What is the matter, friends? What have you against me? I came just to see what you were up to, and now I am going away.' By this time the huntsman had come and replied, 'No, friend Wolf, you cannot fool us; you are an old rascal with gray hair, I know, but so am I gray and no more stupid than you." And with that the old man took off his cap again and shook his gray locks.
NAPOLEON LEAVING THE KREMLIN.
The situation of the French grew desperate. General Jack Frost, as the Russians expressed it, smote them hip and thigh. Then came the awful passage of the Berezina, the still more frightful massacre at Vilno, and the flight across the Niemen. More than half of the "Grand Army" had perished in the wilds of Russia. Napoleon was not crushed by the disaster; he hastened back to France and levied four hundred and fifty thousand men with twelve hundred cannon. Paris, Lyons, Rome, Amsterdam, and Hamburg came to his aid. But once more the allies joined against him; his star was on the decline; neither the victories of Lutzen and Bautzen, nor of Dresden, could save him. The tide turned at Kulm; then came the "Battle of the Nations "at Leipzig, when the French, reduced to one hundred and sixty thousand men, for four days withstood three hundred thousand under the fiercest cannonade of the century. Napoleon, deserted by his German allies, crossed the Rhine. Alexander, not discouraged by the defeat of Blucher and the armies of Silesia and Bohemia, nor by the bloody battles of Craonne and Laon, cried, "No peace while Napoleon is on the throne." He ordered his army to march into France. Napoleon threw himself on the rear of the Russians, but he was lost. After the battle of Paris the allied sovereigns entered the capital. By Alexander's efforts Napoleon was reduced to the throne of Elba; Louis XVIII. once more dwelt in the palace of the Louvre.
Then came the congress of Vienna, the fourth partition of Poland, the sudden return of Napoleon, the new coalition against the "man of destiny," the battle of Waterloo, the second abdication. Alexander again led his army into Paris, where he won the hearts of the people by his protests against Prussian exactions. In Paris he met the mysterious adventuress, Madame de Krudener, who filled his mind with her visions of absolute justice and universal brotherhood. Here he wrote the first draught of the "Holy Alliance," by which all the sovereigns of Europe, except the Pope and the Sultan, should agree to live like brothers of one Christian family, and to protect religion and maintain peace.