The History of Napoleon Buonaparte eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The History of Napoleon Buonaparte.

The History of Napoleon Buonaparte eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 679 pages of information about The History of Napoleon Buonaparte.

A definitive treaty was signed at Luneville on the 9th February, 1801; by which the Emperor, not only as the head of the Austrian monarchy, but also in his quality of Chief of the German empire, guaranteed to France the boundary to the Rhine; thereby sacrificing certain possessions of Prussia and other subordinate princes of the empire, as well as his own.  Another article, extremely distasteful to Austria, yielded Tuscany; which Napoleon resolved to transfer to a prince of the House of Parma, in requital of the good offices of Spain during the war.  The Emperor recognised the union of the Batavian Republic with the French;—­and acknowledged the Cisalpine and Ligurian Commonwealths; both virtually provinces of the great empire, over which the authority of the First Consul seemed now to be permanently established.

[Footnote 33:  When he wrote from Clagenfurt to the Archduke Charles.]

[Footnote 34:  Byron’s “Manfred.”]

[Footnote 35:  The worthy Hospitallers of St. Bernard have stationed themselves on that wild eminence, for the purpose of alleviating the misery of travellers lost or bewildered amidst the neighbouring defiles.  They entertain a pack of dogs, of extraordinary sagacity, who roam over the hills night and day, and frequently drag to light and safety pilgrims who have been buried in the snow.]

[Footnote 36:  The following anecdote is given by Dumas:—­“On one of these occasions, when a desperate attack was led on by Soult, there occurred a circumstance as honourable as it was characteristic of the spirit which animated the French.  The soldiers of two regiments or demi-brigades, of the army of Italy, namely, the 25th Light, and the 24th of the Line, had sworn eternal enmity against one another, because that, previous to the opening of the campaign, when desertion and all the evils of insubordination prevailed in that army, disorganised by suffering, the former, in which discipline had been maintained, was employed to disarm the latter.  The utmost care had been taken to keep them separate; but it so happened that these two corps found themselves one day made rivals as it were in valour, the one before the eyes of the other.  The same dangers, the same thirst of glory, the same eagerness to maintain themselves, at once renewed in all hearts generous sentiments; the soldiers became instantly intermingled; they embraced in the midst of the fire, and one half of the one corps passing into the ranks of the other, they renewed the combat, after the exchange, with double ardour.”]

[Footnote 37:  Sept. 5, 1800.]

[Footnote 38:  The man took the noise for that of a salute.]

[Footnote 39:  “Napoleon dropped the u in his surname after his first campaign in Italy.”—­Bourienne.]

[Footnote 40:  The poet Campbell has vividly painted the opening of the great battle which followed.

    “On Linden, when the sun was low,
    All bloodless lay the untrodden snow,
    And dark as winter was the flow
      Of Iser rolling rapidly: 

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The History of Napoleon Buonaparte from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.