Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte — Complete
event of his arms being unsuccessful, the blow was ready to be struck.
The English force in the north of Germany amounted to about 10,000 men:
The Archduke Charles had formed the project of concentrating in the
middle of Germany a large body of troops, consisting of the corps of
General Am Eude, of General Radizwowitz, and of the English, with whom
were to be joined the people who were expected to revolt. The English
would have wished the Austrian troops to advance a little farther. The
English agent made some representations on this subject to Stadion,
the Austrian Minister; but the Archduke preferred making a diversion
to committing the safety of the monarchy by departing from his present
inactivity and risking the passage of the Danube, in the face of an
enemy who never suffered himself to be surprised, and who had calculated
every possible event: In concerting his plan the Archduke expected that
the Czar would either detach a strong force to assist his allies, or
that he would abandon them to their own defence. In the first case the
Archduke would have had a great superiority, and in the second, all was
prepared in Hesse and in Hanover to rise on the approach of the Austrian
and English armies.
At the commencement of July the English advanced upon Cuxhaven with a
dozen small ships of war. They landed 400 or 600 sailors and about 50
marines, and planted a standard on one of the outworks. The day after
this landing at Cuxhaven the English, who were in Denmark evacuated
Copenhagen, after destroying a battery which they had erected there.
All the schemes of England were fruitless on the Continent, for with
the Emperor's new system of war, which consisted in making a push on
the capitals, he soon obtained negotiations for peace. He was master of
Vienna before England had even organised the expedition to which I have
just alluded. He left Paris on the 11th of April, was at Donauwerth on
the 17th, and on the 23d he was master of Ratisbon. In the engagement
which preceded his entrance into that town Napoleon received a slight
wound in the heel. He nevertheless remained on the field of battle.
It was also between Donauwerth and Ratisbon that Davoust, by a bold
manoeuvre, gained and merited the title of Prince of Eckmuhl.
--[The great battle of Eckmuhl, where 100,000 Austrians were driven
from all their positions, was fought on the 22d of April.-Editor of
1836 edition.]--
At this period fortune was not only bent on favouring Napoleon's
arms, but she seemed to take pleasure in realising even his boasting
predictions; for the French troops entered Vienna within a month after
a proclamation issued by Napoleon at Ratisbon, in which he said he would
be master of the Austrian capital in that time.
But while he was thus marching from triumph to triumph the people of
Hamburg and the neighbouring countries had a neighbour who did not leave
them altogether without inquietude. The famous Prussian partisan, Major
Schill, after pursuing his system of plunder in Westphalia, came
and threw himself into Mecklenburg, whence, I understood, it was his
intention to surprise Hamburg. At the head of 600 well-mounted hussars
and between 1500 and 2000 infantry badly armed, he took possession of
the little fort of Domitz, in Mecklenburg, on the 15th of May, from
whence he despatched parties who levied contributions on both banks of
the Elbe. Schill inspired terror wherever he went. On the 19th of May a
detachment of 30 men belonging to Schill's corps entered Wismar. It
was commanded by Count Moleke, who had formerly been in the Prussian
service, and who had retired to his estate in Mecklenburg, where the
Duke had kindly given him an appointment. Forgetting his duty to his
benefactor, he sent to summon the Duke to surrender Stralsund.
Alarmed at the progress of the partisan Schill, the Duke of Mecklenburg
and his Court quitted Ludwigsburg, their regular residence, and retired
to Doberan, on the seacoast. On quitting Mecklenburg Schill advanced to
Bergdorf, four leagues from Hamburg. The alarm then increased in that
city. A few of the inhabitants talked of making a compromise with Schill
and sending him money to get him away. But the firmness of the majority
imposed silence on this timid council. I consulted with the commandant
of the town, and we determined to adopt measures of precaution. The
custom-house chest, in which there was more than a million of gold,
was sent to Holstein under a strong escort. At the same time I sent to
Schill a clever spy, who gave him a most alarming account of the means
of defence which Hamburg possessed. Schill accordingly gave up his
designs on that city, and leaving it on his left, entered Lübeck, which
was undefended.
Meanwhile Lieutenant-General Gratien, who had left Berlin by order
of the Prince de Neufchatel, with 2500 Dutch and 3000 Swedish troops,
actively pursued Schill, and tranquillity was soon restored throughout
all the neighbouring country, which had been greatly agitated by his
bold enterprise. Schill, after wandering for some days on the shores of
the Baltic, was overtaken by General Gratien at Stralsund, whence he was
about to embark for Sweden. He made a desperate defence, and was killed
after a conflict of two hours. His band was destroyed. Three hundred of
his hussars and 200 infantry, who had effected their escape, asked leave
to return to Prussia, and they were conducted to the Prussian general
commanding a neighbouring town. A war of plunder like that carried on by
Schill could not be honourably acknowledged by a power having, any
claim to respect. Yet the English Government sent Schill a colonel's
commission, and the full uniform of his new rank, with the assurance
that all his troops should thenceforth be paid by England.
Schill soon had an imitator of exalted rank. In August 1809 the Duke
of Brunswick-OEls sought the dangerous honour of succeeding that famous
partisan. At the head of at most 2000 men he for some days disturbed the
left bank of the Elbe, and on the 5th entered Bremen. On his approach
the French Vice-Consul retired to Osterhulz. One of the Duke's officers
presented himself at the hones of the Vice-Consul and demanded 200
Louis. The agent of the Vice-Consul, alarmed at the threat of the
place being given up to pillage, capitulated with the officer, and with
considerable difficulty got rid of him at the sacrifice of 80 Louis, for
which a receipt was presented to him in the name of the Duke. The Duke,
who now went by the name of "the new Schill," did not remain long in
Bremen.
Wishing to repair with all possible speed to Holland he left Bremen on
the evening of the 6th, and proceeded to Dehnenhorst, where his advanced
guard had already arrived. The Westphalian troops, commanded by Rewbell,
entered Bremen on the 7th, and not finding the Duke of Brunswick,
immediately marched in pursuit of him. The Danish troops, who occupied
Cuxhaven, received orders to proceed to Bremerlehe, to favour the
operations of the Westphalians and the Dutch. Meanwhile the English
approached Cuxhaven, where they landed 3000 or 4000 men. The persons in
charge of the custom-house establishment, and the few sailors who
were in Cuxhaven, fell back upon Hamburg. The Duke of Brunswick, still
pursued crossed Germany from the frontiers of Bohemia to Elsfleth, a
little port on the left bank of the Weser, where he arrived on the 7th,
being one day in advance of his pursuers. He immediately took possession
of all the transports at Elsfleth, and embarked for Heligoland.
The landing which the English effected at Cuxhaven while the Danes, who
garrisoned that port, were occupied in pursuing the Duke of Brunswick,
was attended by no result. After the escape of the Duke the Danes
returned to their post which the English immediately evacuated.
CHAPTER XIX.
1809.
The castle of Diernstein--Richard Coeur de Lion and Marshal Lannes,
--The Emperor at the gates of Vienna--The Archduchess Maria Louisa--
Facility of correspondence with England--Smuggling in Hamburg--Brown
sugar and sand--Hearses filled with sugar and coffee--Embargo on the
publication of news--Supervision of the 'Hamburg Correspondant'--
Festival of Saint Napoleon--Ecclesiastical adulation--The King of
Westphalia's journey through his States--Attempt to raise a loan--
Jerome's present to me--The present returned--Bonaparte's unfounded
suspicions.
Rapp, who during the campaign of Vienna had resumed his duties as aide
de camp, related to me one of those observations of Napoleon which,
when his words are compared with the events that followed them, seem
to indicate a foresight into his future destiny. When within some days'
march of Vienna the Emperor procured a guide to explain to him every
village and ruin which he observed on the road. The guide pointed to
an eminence on which were a few decayed vestiges of an old fortified
castle. "Those," said the guide, "are the ruins of the castle of
Diernstein." Napoleon suddenly stopped, and stood for some time silently
contemplating the ruins, then turning to Lannes, who was with him, he
raid, "See! yonder is the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion. He, like us,
went to Syria and Palestine. But, my brave Lannes, the Coeur de Lion was
not braver than you. He was more fortunate than I at St. Jean d'Acre. A
Duke of Austria sold him to an Emperor of Germany, who imprisoned him
in that castle. Those were the days of barbarism. How different from the
civilisation of modern times! Europe has seen how I treated the Emperor
of Austria, whom I might have made prisoner--and I would treat him so
again. I claim no credit for this. In the present age crowned heads must
be respected. A conqueror imprisoned!"
A few days after the Emperor was at the gates of Vienna, but on this
occasion his access to the Austrian capital was not so easy as it had
been rendered in 1805 by the ingenuity and courage of Lannes and Murat.
The Archduke Maximilian, who was shut up in the capital, wished to
defend it, although the French army already occupied the principal
suburbs. In vain were flags of truce sent one after the other to
the Archduke. They were not only dismissed unheard, but were even
ill-treated, and one of them was almost killed by the populace. The city
was then bombarded, and would speedily have been destroyed but that the
Emperor, being informed that one of the Archduchesses remained in Vienna
on account of ill-health, ordered the firing to cease. By a singular
caprice of Napoleon's destiny this Archduchess was no other than Maria
Louisa. Vienna at length opened her gates to Napoleon, who for some days
took up his residence at Schoenbrunn.
The Emperor was engaged in so many projects at once that they could not
all succeed. Thus, while he was triumphant in the Hereditary States
his Continental system was experiencing severe checks. The trade with
England on the coast of Oldenburg was carped on as uninterruptedly as
if in time of peace. English letters and newspapers arrived on the
Continent, and those of the Continent found their way into Great
Britain, as if France and England had been united by ties of the firmest
friendship. In short, things were just in the same state as if the
decree for the blockade of the British Isles had not existed. When the
custom-house officers succeeded in seizing contraband goods they were
again taken from them by main force. On the 2d of July a serious contest
took place at Brinskham between the custom-house officers and a party of
peasantry, in which the latter remained masters of eighteen wagons laden
with English goods: many were wounded on both sides.
If, however, trade with England was carried on freely along a vast
extent of coast, it was different in the city of Hamburg, where English