The Napoleon Gallery: or, Illustrations of the life and times of the emperor of FranceRéveil, Etienne Achille
History
The Napoleon Gallery: or, Illustrations of the life and times of the emperor of France
Réveil, Etienne Achille
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Portraits, caricatures, etc.
The Austro-Bavarians had taken up their position in the woods near
Hainau before the Emperor approached the Maine. He came up with them on
the morning of the 30th, and his troops charged on the instant with the
fury of despair. Buonaparte cut his way through ere nightfall; and
Marmont, with the rear, had equal success on the 31st. In these actions
there fell 6000 of the French; while the enemy had 10,000 killed or
wounded, and lost 4000 prisoners; and these losses would have been far
greater, but for the ready wit of a patriotic miller, who, watching the
tide of battle, suddenly let the water into a mill-stream, and thus
interposed a seasonable obstacle between the French cavalry and some
German infantry, whom they had been driving before them; a service which
was munificently rewarded by the King of Prussia later.
The pursuit had been entrusted to the Austrians, who urged it with far
less vigor than the Prussians, under the fiery guidance of Blucher,
would probably have exerted. No considerable advantage, therefore,
followed the battle of Hainau. The remains of the French host at length
passed the Rhine; and the Emperor having quitted them at Mentz, arrived
in Paris on the 9th of November.
Thus terminated the campaign in Saxony.
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF HAINAU.]
NAPOLEON AT ARCIS-SUR-AUBE.
During the night between the 16th and 17th of February, 1814, Napoleon,
accompanied by a small escort of Polish lancers, reconnoitred the
enemy’s line, when, on leaving Arcis, he was attacked by a corps of
Russian cuirassiers and Cossacks. The Poles, commanded by Skrzinecki,
their captain, rapidly formed in a square about the Emperor; and though
the enemy in their front were supposed to be six times their number,
they succeeded in repulsing them, and rescued Napoleon from his imminent
danger.
[Illustration: NAPOLEON AT ARCIS-SUR-AUBE.]
FILIAL ANXIETY OF A CONSCRIPT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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