Travels in France during the years 1814-15: Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes.Alison, Archibald, Sir
History
Travels in France during the years 1814-15: Comprising a residence at Paris, during the stay of the allied armies, and at Aix, at the period of the landing of Bonaparte, in two volumes.
Alison, Archibald, Sir
Alison, Archibald, Sir, 1792-1867; France -- Description and travel; France -- History -- 1789-1815; Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821 -- Elba and the Hundred Days, 1814-1815; Paris (France) -- History -- Capitulation, 1814 -- Personal narratives
We visited with deep interest the projecting part of the heights of
Belleville, immediately overlooking the Fauxbourg St Martin, which the
Emperor Alexander reached, with the king of Prussia, the Prince
Schwartzenburg, and the whole general staff, on the evening of the 30th
of March. It was here that he received the deputation from Marshals
Marmont and Mortier, who had fought all day against a vast superiority
of force, and been fairly overpowered, recommending Paris to the
generosity of the allies. Thirty howitzers were placed on this height,
and a few shells were thrown into the town, one or two of which, we were
assured, reached as far as the Eglise de St Eustace; it is allowed on
all hands that they fell within the Boulevards. The heights of
Montmartre were at the same time stormed by the Silesian army, and
cannon were placed on it likewise,--Paris was then at his mercy. After a
year and a half of arduous contest, it was at length in his power to
take a bloody revenge for the miseries which his subjects had suffered
during the unprovoked invasion of Russia.--He ordered the firing to
cease; assured the French deputation of his intention to protect the
city; and issued orders to his army to prepare to march in, the next
morning, in parade order. He put himself at their head, in company with
the King of Prussia, and all the generals of high rank. After passing
along the Boulevards to the Champs Elysees, the sovereigns placed
themselves under a tree, in front of the palace of the Thuilleries,
within a few yards of the spot where Louis XVI. and many other victims
of the revolution had perished; and they saw the last man of their
armies defile past the town, and proceed to take a position beyond it,
before they entered it themselves.
At this time, the recollection of the fate of Moscow was so strong in
the Russian army, and the desire of revenge was so generally diffused,
not merely among the soldiers, but even among the superior, officers,
that they themselves said, nothing could have restrained them but the
presence and positive commands of their Czar; nor could any other
influence have maintained that admirable discipline in the Russian army,
during its stay in France, which we have so often heard the theme of
panegyric even among their most inveterate enemies.
It is not in the columns of newspapers, nor in the perishable pages of
such a Journal as this, that the invincible determination, the splendid
achievements, and the generous forbearance of the Emperor of Russia and
his brave army, during the last war, can be duly recorded; but when they
shall have passed into history, we think we shall but anticipate the
sober judgment of posterity by saying, that the foreign annals of no
other nation, ancient or modern, will present, in an equal period of
time, a spectacle of equal moral grandeur.
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