The Emperor, enraged at the first positive disgraces which had ever befallen his arms, and foreseeing that unless the Spanish insurrection were crushed ere the Patriots had time to form a regular government and to organise their armies, the succours of England, and the growing discontents of Germany, might invest the task with insurmountable difficulties, determined to cross the Pyrenees in person, at the head of a force capable of sweeping the whole Peninsula clear before him “at one fell swoop.”  Hitherto no mention of the unfortunate occurrences in Spain had been made in any public act of his government, or suffered to transpire in any of the French journals.  It was now necessary to break this haughty silence.  The Emperor announced accordingly that the peasants of Spain had rebelled against their King; that treachery had caused the ruin of one corps of his army; and that another had been forced, by the English, to evacuate Portugal:  demanding two new conscriptions, each of 80,000 men—­which were of course granted without hesitation.  Recruiting his camps on the German side, and in Italy, with these new levies, he now ordered his veteran troops, to the amount of 200,000, including a vast and brilliant cavalry, and a large body of the Imperial Guards, to be drafted from those frontiers, and marched through France towards Spain.  As these warlike columns passed through Paris, Napoleon addressed to them one of those orations which never failed to swell the resolution and pride of his soldiery on the eve of some great enterprise.  “Comrades,” said he, “after triumphing on the banks of the Danube and the Vistula, with rapid steps you have passed through Germany.  This day, without a moment of repose, I command you to traverse France.  Soldiers, I have need of you.  The hideous presence of the leopard contaminates the peninsula of Spain and Portugal.  In terror he must fly before you.  Let us bear our triumphant eagles to the Pillars of Hercules:  there also we have injuries to avenge.  Soldiers! you have surpassed the renown of modern armies; but have you yet equalled the glory of those Romans, who, in one and the same campaign, were victorious on the Rhine, and the Euphrates, in Illyria and on the Tagus?  A long peace, a lasting prosperity, shall be the reward of your labours.  A real Frenchman could not, should not rest, until the seas are free and open to all.  Soldiers, what you have done, and what you are about to do, for the happiness of the French people and for my glory, shall be eternal in my heart!”

Having thus dismissed his troops on their way, Buonaparte himself travelled rapidly to Erfurt, where he had invited the Emperor Alexander to confer with him.  It was most needful that before he went to Spain himself, he should ascertain the safety of his empire on the other side; and there was much in the state of Germany that might well give rise to serious apprehensions.  Austria was strengthening her military establishment