The life of Napoleon Buonaparte, emperor of the French. By Sir Walter Scott.

t LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 531
gained in others. Wildernesses and pathless forests ancient form, all were anxious to meet Napoleon's
were necessarily to be traversed in the utmost haste, wishes; but an unfortunate hint which the emperor
as they afforded nothing for the marauders, on had thrown out concerning the length of the discourse
whose success the army depended for support. with which the Diet was to be opened, induced the
To make amends for this, it was necessary to,halt worthy Count Mathechewitz, whose duty it was to
the troops for one day, or even more, in the richest draw up the peroration, to extend it to fifty pages of
districts, or in the neighbourhood of large towns, to very close writing.,
give leisure and opportunity to recruit their supplies As all the assembly exclaimed against the proat the expense of the country. Thus the time gain- lixity of this mortal harangue, the French ambased by the forced marches was lost in inevitable sador, the Abb6 de Pradt, was required to substitute
delays; and the advance, though attended with such something more suitable for the occasion. Accordtragic consequences to the soldier, did not secure ingly he framed a discourse more brief, more in the
the advantage which the general proposed to attain. taste of his own country, and, we doubt not, more
Upon arrir ing at Wilna, Napoleon had the morti- spirited and able than that of Count Mathechewits.
fication to find, that although the Emperor Alexander It was hailed by the warm and enthusiastic applause
had not left the place until two days after he had of the Diet. Notwithstanding which, lwhen sent to
himself crossed the Niemen, yet the Russian retreat Napoleon, then at Wilna, he disapproved of it, as
had been made with the utmost regularity; all too obviously written in the French style of compomagazines and provisions, which could yield any sition, and intimated in plain terms, that language
advantage to the invaders, having been previously like that of an ancient Pole, speaking his national
destroyed to a very large amount. While Bona- sentiments in the oriental tropes of his national lanparte's generals had orders to press forward on their guage, would better have suited the occasion.
traces, the French Emperor himself remained at The intimation of this dissatisfaction tore the veil
Wilna, to conduct some political measures, which from the Abb6 de Pradt's eyes, as Ihe himself asseemed of the last importance to the events of the sures us. He foresaw that the infatuated want of
carnpaign. judgment which the emperor displayed, in disliking
The Abb6 de Pradt had executed with ability the his discourse, was that of a doomed and falling man;
task entrusted to him, of exciting the Poles of the he dated fiom that epoch the overthrow of NapoGrand Duchy of Warsaw, with the hope of a general leon's power, and was so much moved with the
restoration of Polish freedom. This brave but un- spirit of prophecy, that he could not wvithhold his
happy country, destined, it would seem, to spend its predictions even before the young persons connected
blond in every cause but its own, had, in that por- with his embassy.
tion of it which formerly belonged to Prussia, and But a more fatal sign of Napoleon's prospects than
now formed the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, gained could be inferred by any except the author, firom his
bet little by its nominal independence. This state disapprobation of tile Abbe de Pradt's discourse,
had only a population of about five millions of inha- occurred in his answer to the address of the Diet of
bitants, yet maintained for the service of France, the Grand Duchy.
rather than for its own, an armed force of eighty-five The Diet of Warsaw, anticipating, as they supthousand men. Eighteen regiments of these were posed, Napoleon's wishes, had declared the whole
embodied with the emperor's army, and paid by kingdom, in all its parts, fiee and independent, as if
France; but the formation and expense of the rest the partition treaties had never existed; and no justfar exceeded the revenues of the duchy. The last thinking person will doubt their right to do so. They
amounted only to forty millions of francs, while the entered into a general confederation, declared the
expenses more than doubfled that sam. Tile Grand kingdom of Poland restored, summonled all Poles to
Duchy had also suffered its full share of distress quit the service of Russia, and, finally, sent deputafrom the continental system of Napoleon. The re- tions to tile Grand Duke and the King of Saxony,
venue of Poland depends on the sale of the grain and another to Napoleon, announcing their desire to
which her fertile soil produces; and that grain, in accelerate the political regeneration of Poland, and
the. years previous to the present, had lain rotting their hope to be recogmized by the entire Polish nain the warehouses. The misery of the poor was tion as the centre of a general union. The expresextreme; the opulence of the rich classes had disap- sions addressed to Napoleon were in a tone of
peared, and they could not relieve them. The year idolatry. They applied for the countenance of the
1811 had been a year of scarcity here as well as " Hero who dictated his history to the age, in whom
elsewhere; and, as in former years the Poles had resided the force of Providence," language whlich
grain which they could not send to market, so at is usually reserved to the Deity alone. " Let tilhe
present they had neither corn, nor means to pullrchase Great Napoleon," they said, "only pronounce his
it. To all these disadvantages must be added, the fiat that the kingdom of Poland should exist, and it
plunder and misery sustained by the duchy during will exist accordingly. The natives of Poland wvill
the march of Bonaparte's numerous forces from the unite themselves at once and unanimously to the
Vistula to the Niemen. service of him to whom ages are as a moment, and
Yet so highly toned is the national patriotism of space no more than a point." In another case, this
the Poles, that it kindled at the name of independ- exaggerated eloquence would have induced some
ence, notwithstanding the various accumulated cir- suspicion of sincerity on the part of those who used
cumstances which tended to damp the flame. When it; but the Poles, like tile Gascons, to whom they
therefore a diet-of the Duchy of Warsaw was con- have been compared, are fond of superlatives, and
vened, where the nobles assembled according to of an exalted and enthusiastic tone of language,