CHAP. the military habit, and bade him go forth, the chamXLIV. pion of Christendom, to present glory or future para1806. dise; there the peasant, inured from infancy to hardy exercise, ignorant alike of the enjoyments and the corruptions of urban society, long accustomed to rural labour, and habituated equally to the glow of a Russian bath or the severity of a Scythian winter ; there the Cossack, whose steed, nourished on the steppes of the Don, had never yet felt the curb, while his master, following his beloved Attaman to the theatre of action, bore his formidable lance in his hand, his pistols and sword by his side, and his whole effects, the fruit of years of warfare, in the folds of his saddle. Careless of the future, the children of the desert joyfully took their way to the animating fields of plunder and triumph; mounted on small but swift and indefatigable horses, they were peculiarly adapted for a country where provisions were scanty, forage exhausted, and hardships universal; the heat of summer, the frost of winter, were alike unable to check the vigour of their desultory operations; but when the hosts on either side were arrayed in battle, and the charge of regular forces was requisite, they often appeared with decisive effect at the critical moment, and urging their blood horses 1 Wilson, to full speed, bore down, by the length of their spears and the vehemence of their onset, the most powerful cavalry of Western Europe.1* viii. 28. Personal observation. "Mounted," says Sir Robert Wilson, " on a little, ill-conditioned, but well-bred horse, which can walk with ease at the rate of five miles an hour, or dispute in his speed the race with the swiftest, with a short whip on his wrist, as he wears no spur, armed with the lance, a pistol in his girdle, and a sword, the Cossack never fears a competitor in single combat; but in the Polish war he irresistibly attacked every opposing squadron in the field. Terror preceded his charge; and in vain discipline endeavoured to present an impediment to the protruding pikes. The cuirassiers alone preserved some confidence, and appeared to baffle XLIV. sion of by the If the whole disposable Russian forces had been CHAP. united upon the Vistula, they would have presented an imposing mass of a hundred and fifty thousand 1806. warriors, against which all the efforts of Napoleon Improviwould, in all probability, have been exerted in vain, dent diviBut by a strange and unaccountable infatuation, at their force the very moment when this formidable contest await-invasion of ed them on the Polish plains, a large portion of their Moldavia, disposable force was drawn off to the shores of the Danube, and a Turkish superadded to the already overwhelming weight of the French war. Of the causes which led to this unhappy diversion, and the grounds which the Cabinet of St Petersburg set forth in vindication of their aggression on the Ottoman dominions, a full account will be given in the sequel of this work ;* but, in the mean time, its effect in causing a most calamitous division of the Russian force is too obvious to require illustration. At Eylau the hostile forces on either side were nearly equal, and both retired without any decisive advantage from that scene of blood; ten thousand additional troops would there have overthrown Napoleon, and driven him to a disastrous retreat, while fifty thousand of the best troops of the Muscovite empire were uselessly employed on the banks of the Danube. At the same the arms and skill of the Cossack; but in the battle of Preuss-Eylau, XLIV. Nov. 23. CHAP. time it is evident that the war in Moldavia was resolved on, and the necessary orders transmitted, be1806. fore the disasters in Prussia were known, or the pressing necessity for succour on the Vistula could have been anticipated; the battle of Jena was fought on the 14th October, and on the 23d November General Michelson entered Moldavia, and commenced the Turkish campaign. But though the Russian Cabinet is thus not answerable for having given orders to commence an additional war unnecessarily in the midst of the desperate struggle in the north of Germany, yet it cannot be relieved of the responsibility of having, without any adequate cause, provoked hostilities in the southern provinces of its empire, at a time when the contest in Saxony, if not commenced, might at least have been easily foreseen, when the resolution to annul the treaty, signed by D'Oubril at Paris, had been already taken, and all 1806, 209, the strength of Europe was required to meet the encounter with the Conqueror of Austerlitz on the banks of the Elbe.1* 1 Jom. ii. 336, 337. Ann. Reg. Bign. vi. 57. Embar rassment of on the Polish While Russia, distracted by the varied interests of her mighty dominions, was thus running the hazard Napoleon of destruction by the imprudent division of her forces in presence of the enemy, Napoleon was exquestion. tremely perplexed at Posen by the consideration of the Polish question. The destiny of this people, which enters so deeply into the solution of every political combination of the nineteenth century, here stood in the very foremost rank, and called for imme *The determination to refuse the ratification of the treaty, signed at Paris by D'Oubril, was taken at St Petersburg on the 25th Augustthe Dneister was passed on the 23d November. The resolution to provoke a Turkish war, therefore, was taken after it was known that a continued struggle with the enemy, whose strength they had felt at Austerlitz, had become inevitable.—Ante, v. 698. XLIV. diate decision. The advance of the French armies CHAP. through Prussian Poland towards Warsaw, the ambiguous, but still encouraging words of the Emperor 1806. to the numerous deputations which had approached him, had awakened to the highest degree the hopes and expectations of that unfortunate, but impassioned race. A solemn deputation from Great Poland, headed by Count Dzadiniki, waited upon Napoleon, and announced an immediate insurrection of the Polish nation, headed by their nobles, palatines, and chiefs; a great ferment prevailed in Lithuania, and symptoms of alarming effervescence were visible even in Gallicia. The crisis was of the most violent kind; an immediate decision was called for by imperious 1 Jom. i. necessity; Napoleon was much at a loss how to act, ski, ii. 335. and the question was warmly debated by the Coun- 336, 338. cil assembled at his headquarters.1 1 328. Ogin ments in the resto On the one hand, it was urged by the friends of Poland, "that the only ally in the east of Europe, on Arguwhom France could really and permanently depend, favour of was now prepared to range itself by her side, and ration of enter into a contest of life or death for her support. Poland. The alliances of Cabinets may be dissolved, the friendships of kings may be extinguished, but the union of nations, founded on identity of interest, and community of feeling, may be calculated upon as of more lasting endurance. But what people was ever impelled towards another by such powerful motives, or animated in the alliance by such vehement passions, as Poland now is towards France? Alone of all great nations, in ancient or modern times, she has been partitioned by her powerful and ambitious neighbours, struck down to the earth by hostile armies, and swept, by repeated spoliations, from the book of existence. Her nationality is destroyed, her people XLIV. CHAP. Scattered, her glories at an end. Is it possible that these injuries can be forgotten, that such unparalleled 1806. calamities leave no traces behind them, in the breasts of the descendants of the Sarmatian race? Is it not certain, on the contrary, that they have left there profound impressions, ineradicable passions, which are ready, on the first favourable opportunity, to raise throughout the whole scattered provinces of the old Republic an inextinguishable flame? Where has the Emperor found such faithful followers, such devoted fidelity, as in the Polish legions of the Italian army, whom Muscovite barbarity drove to seek an asylum in foreign lands? Is it expedient to refuse the proffered aid of a hundred thousand such warriors, who are ready to fly to his standards from the whole wide-spread fields of Sarmatia? True, they are undisciplined-without arms, fortresses, magazines, or resources-but what does all that signify? Napoleon is in the midst of them; his invincible legions will precede them in the fight; from their enemies and their spoilers his victorious sword will wrest the implements of war; in their example, they will see the model of military discipline. The Poles are by nature warriors; little discipline or organization is requisite to bring them into the field. When the regular forces of Germany had sunk in the conflict, their tumultuary array chased the infidels from the heart of Austria, and delivered Vienna from Mussulman bondage. Nor is it merely a temporary succour which may be anticipated from their exertions; lasting aid, a durable alliance, may with confidence be expected from their necessities. Surrounded by the partitioning powers, they have no chance of independence but in the French alliance; the moment they desert it, they will be again crushed by |