[Illustration:  The Emperor Napoleon in 1814]

Bonaparte at last made a fatal mistake.  With an army of half a million men, he invaded Russia, and established his headquarters in Moscow.  The Russian people, however, set fire themselves to their beautiful city, and the French had to retreat a thousand miles through snow and ice, while bands of Russian Cossacks swooped down on them from the rear and took a hundred thousand prisoners.  Encouraged by this terrible blow dealt the French, the allied kings of Europe again united in one last effort to drive the little Corsican from the throne of France.

For two years Napoleon held them at bay, making up for his lack of soldiers by his marvelous military skill, and by the enthusiasm which he never failed to arouse in his troops.  In 1814, however, surrounded by the troops of Austria, Prussia, Russia, and England, he had to confess himself beaten.  Even Bernadotte, his former general, led the Swedish troops against him.  The allied kings brought back in triumph to Paris the brother of the king who had been executed there twenty-two years before, and set him on the throne of France.  Napoleon was banished to the little island of Elba to the west of Italy, and the monarchs flattered themselves that their troubles were ended.

[Illustration:  The Retreat from Moscow]

In the spring of the following year, however, Napoleon escaped from his island prison and landed on the southern coast of France.  The king ordered his soldiers to capture their former emperor.  But the magic of his presence was too much for them, and the men who had been sent to put him into chains shed tears of joy at the sight of him, and threw themselves at his feet.  One week later, the king of France had fled a second time from his country, and the man chosen by the people was once more at the head of the government.

All the kingdoms of Europe declared war against France, and four large armies were headed toward her borders.  Napoleon did not wait for them to come.  Gathering a big force, he marched rapidly north into the low countries, where he met and defeated an army of Prussians.  Another army of English was advancing from Brussels.  On the field of Waterloo, the French were defeated in one of the great battles of the world’s history.  The defeated Prussians had made a wide circuit and returned to the field to the aid of their English allies, while the general whom Napoleon had sent to follow the Germans arrived too late to prevent the emperor from being crushed.  A second time, Napoleon had to give up his crown, and a second time King Louis XVIII was brought back into Paris and put upon the French throne by the bayonets of foreign troops.  The people had been crushed, apparently, and the old feudal lords were once more in control.

[Illustration:  Napoleon at Waterloo]

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