Spain as “unjust,” “cynical,” “villainous”); the campaign of Wagram, which finally humbled his persistent enemy Austria.

NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO JOSEPHINE

For reasons of state Napoleon divorced the Empress Josephine to marry Marie Louise, the daughter of the emperor of Austria. His last words to the woman who loved him were: “My destiny and France demand it!”

At the end of these four years Napoleon was himself the practical master of Europe; the only nation not recognizing his power being England, which was at least temporarily quiet. He had created an empire; but what was he to do with it? He had no heir. To provide for one he carried out a plan long considered,—he divorced Empress Josephine and married again. The new empress was the daughter of the old and now humbled enemy of France, the emperor of Austria. Napoleon apparently believed that on the birth of an heir France would accept him fully, and that Europe would cease to fear and resent his power. He was wrong. He had stripped too many of wealth and position, outraged too many social and religious conventions, set in motion too many ideas hostile to those that Europe as a whole lived by. His demands on subjects and allies were too heavy, and particularly the one that he had most at heart,—that no continental nation should allow a dollar’s worth of England’s goods to cross its borders. His punishment of those who displeased him and disobeyed his orders was too severe. A revolt against his monstrous assumption was inevitable.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

From a portrait of the Emperor painted by Paul Delaroche.

THE SETTING STAR

THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO

It was with his ally, Russia, that the first break came. That Napoleon was startled by the idea of war with Alexander and sought to prevent it, is certain; but Alexander refused to yield to his demand that the embargo against English goods be enforced. The embargo he had set down as the “fundamental law of the Empire.” There was nothing to do but settle it by arms, and in the summer of 1812, with an army of over half a million men, he began a reluctant and hesitating march against Russia. It was a campaign of terrible disasters. The Russians retreated before him, letting cold and hunger do the work of battles. So effectively did they work that the French army was practically destroyed. The Russian campaign is one of the most appalling in history. It was but the beginning of his overthrow. Alexander raised the cry “Deliver Europe!” Stein and other liberal minds rallied the youth of the German states into a league, pledged to fight for national freedom. His allies and dependences began to demand the return of lost territories as a price of loyalty. France revolted at the prospects of continued bloodshed. The campaigns thrust upon him by all these forces were fought; but frequently without his old genius.

It was June of 1812 when Napoleon began the Russian campaign. Twenty-one months later Paris capitulated to his allied enemies, and a few weeks later he had lost the greatest empire modern Europe had seen gathered under one man, and was an exile in the little island of Elba.