king.  But the Spaniards would not submit, and called in the English to their aid.  The Peninsular War resulted in a series of victories on the part of the English under Wellington, while Austria, beginning another war, was again so crushed that the Emperor durst not refuse to give his daughter in marriage to Napoleon.  However, in 1812, the conquest of Russia proved an exploit beyond Napoleon’s powers.  He reached Moscow with his Grand Army, but the city was burnt down immediately after his arrival, and he had no shelter or means of support.  He was forced to retreat, through a fearful winter, without provisions and harassed by the Cossacks, who hung on the rear and cut off the stragglers, so that his whole splendid army had become a mere miserable, broken, straggling remnant by the time the survivors reached the Prussian frontier.  He himself had hurried back to Paris as soon as he found their case hopeless, to arrange his resistance to all Europe—­for every country rose against him on his first disaster—­and the next year was spent in a series of desperate battles in Germany between him and the Allied Powers.  Luetzen and Bautzen were doubtful, but the two days’ battle of Leipzic was a terrible defeat.  In the year 1814, four armies—­those of Austria, Russia, England, and Prussia—­entered France at once; and though Napoleon resisted, stood bravely and skilfully, and gained single battles against Austria and Prussia, he could not stand against all Europe.  In April the Allies entered Paris, and he was forced to abdicate, being sent under a strong guard to the little Mediterranean isle of Elba.  He had drained France of men by his constant call for soldiers, who were drawn by conscription from the whole country, till there were not enough to do the work in the fields, and foreign prisoners had to be employed; but he had conferred on her one great benefit in the great code of laws called the “Code Napoleon,” which has ever since continued in force.

9.  France under Napoleon.—­The old laws and customs, varying in different provinces, had been swept away, so that the field was clear; and the system of government which Napoleon devised has remained practically unchanged from that time to this.  Everything was made to depend upon the central government.  The Ministers of Religion, of Justice, of Police, of Education, etc., have the regulation of all interior affairs, and appoint all who work under them, so that nobody learns how to act alone; and as the Government has been in fact ever since dependent on the will of the people of Paris, the whole country is helplessly in their hands.  The army, as in almost all foreign nations, is raised by conscription—­that is, by drawing lots among the young men liable to serve, and who can only escape by paying a substitute to serve in their stead; and this is generally the first object of the savings of a family.  All feudal claims had been done away with, and with them the right of primogeniture;