Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III.Scott, Walter
History
Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, Volume III.
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
There were other reasons, tending to paralyse any effort at popular
resistance, which affected the hereditary states of Prussia, as well as
her new acquisitions. The power of Prussia had appeared to depend almost
entirely upon her standing army, established by Frederick, and modelled
according to his rules. When, therefore, this army was at once
annihilated, no hope of safety was entertained by those who had so long
regarded it as invincible. The Prussian peasant, who would gladly have
joined the ranks of his country while they continued to keep the field,
knew, or thought he knew, too much of the art of war, to have any hope
in the efforts which might be made in a desultory guerilla warfare;
which, however, the courage, devotion, and pertinacity of an invaded
people have rendered the most formidable means of opposition even to a
victorious army.
The ruin of Prussia, to whatever causes it was to be attributed, seemed,
in the eyes of astonished Europe, not only universal, but irremediable.
The King, driven to the extremity of his dominions, could only be
considered as a fugitive, whose precarious chance of restoration to the
crown depended on the doubtful success of his ally of Russia, who now,
as after the capture of Vienna, had upon his hands, strong as those
hands were, not the task of aiding an ally, who was in the act of
resistance to the common enemy, but the far more difficult one of
raising from the ground a prince who was totally powerless and
prostrate. The French crossed the Oder--Glogau and Breslau were
invested. Their defence was respectable; but it seemed not the less
certain that their fall involved almost the last hopes of Prussia, and
that a name raised so high by the reign of one wise monarch, was like to
be blotted from the map of Europe by the events of a single day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account