Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
Schwarzenberg had in the interim also penetrated into France, and the
crown prince of Wurtemberg had defeated General Rapp at Strasburg and
had surrounded that fortress. The Swiss, under General Bachmann, who
had, although fully equipped for the field, hitherto prudently watched
the turn of events, invaded France immediately after the battle of
Waterloo, pillaged Burgundy, besieged and took the fortress of
Huningen, which, with the permission of the allies, they justly razed
to the ground, the insolent French having thence fired upon the
bridges of Basel which lay close in its vicinity. A fresh Austrian
army under Frimont advanced from Italy as far as Lyons. On the 17th of
July, Napoleon surrendered himself in the bay of Rochefort to the
English, whose ships prevented his escape; he moreover preferred
falling into their hands than into those of the Prussians. The whole
of France submitted to the triumphant allies, and Louis XVIII. was
reinstated on his throne. Murat had also been simultaneously defeated
at Tolentino in Italy by the Austrians under Bianchi, and Ferdinand
IV. had been restored to the throne of Naples. Murat fled to Corsica,
but his retreat to France was prevented by the success of the allies,
and in his despair he, with native rashness, yielded to the advice of
secret intriguants and returned to Italy with a design of raising a
popular insurrection, but was seized on landing and shot on the 13th
of October.[17]
Blucher was greatly inclined to give full vent to his justly roused
rage against Paris. The bridge of Jena, one of the numerous bridges
across the Seine, the principal object of his displeasure, was,
curiously enough, saved from destruction (he had already attempted to
blow it up) by the arrival of the king of Prussia.[18] His proposal to
punish France by partitioning the country and thus placing it on a par
with Germany, was far more practical in its tendency.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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