Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
length driven back to Lubeck, where he was defeated, and, after a
bloody battle in the very heart of the terror-stricken city, four
thousand of his men were made prisoners. He fled with ten thousand to
Radkan, where, finding no ships to transport him across the Baltic, he
was forced to capitulate.
The luckless duke of Brunswick was carried on a bier from the field of
Jena to his palace at Brunswick, which he found deserted. All
belonging to him had fled. In his distress he exclaimed, "I am now
about to quit all and am abandoned by all!" His earnest petition to
Napoleon for protection for himself and his petty territory was
sternly refused by the implacable victor, who replied that he knew of
no reigning duke of Brunswick, but only of a Prussian general of that
name, who had, in the infamous manifest of 1792, declared his
intention to destroy Paris and was undeserving of mercy. The blind old
man fled to Ottensen, in the Danish territory, where he expired.
Napoleon, after confiscating sixty millions worth of English goods on
his way through Leipzig, entered Berlin on the 17th of October, 1806.
The defence of the city had not been even dreamed of; nay, the great
arsenal, containing five hundred pieces of artillery and immense
stores, the sword of Frederick the Great, and the private
correspondence of the reigning king and queen, were all abandoned to
the victor.[6] Although the citizens were by no means martially
disposed, the authorities deemed it necessary to issue proclamations
to the people, inculcatory of the axiom, "Tranquillity is the first
duty of the citizen." Napoleon, on his entry into Berlin, was
received, not, as at Vienna, with mute rage, but with loud
demonstrations of delight. Individuals belonging to the highest class
stationed themselves behind the crowd and exclaimed, "For God's sake,
give a hearty hurrah! Cry Vive l'empereur! or we are all lost." On a
demand, couched in the politest terms, for the peaceable delivery of
the arms of the civic guard, being made by Hulin, the new French
commandant, to the magistrate, the latter, on his own accord, ordered
the citizens to give up their arms "under pain of death." Numerous
individuals betrayed the public money and stores, that still remained
concealed, to the French. Hulin replied to a person who had discovered
a large store of wood, "Leave the wood untouched; your king will want
a good deal to make gallows for traitorous rogues." Napoleon's
reception struck him with such astonishment that he declared, "I know
not whether to rejoice or to feel ashamed." At the head of his general
staff, in full uniform and with bared head, he visited the apartment
occupied by Frederick the Great at Sans Souci, and his tomb. He took
possession of Frederick's sword and declared in the army bulletin, "I
would not part with this weapon for twenty millions." Frederick's tomb
afforded him an opportunity for giving vent to the most unbecoming
expressions of contempt against his unfortunate descendant. He
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