Napoleon and Prussia

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter six of the Story of Napoleon the Henrietta Elizabeth Marshall.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by
Patrick Seville. Chapter six Napoleon and Prussia. All this time Prussia,
the greatest of the German states, had held aloof The

(00:22):
king was very unwilling to plunge his people into war,
so he tried to be neutral and keep the peace.
Prussia had a large, and it was thought a well
drilled army, and as long as Napoleon had the Russians
and the Austrians to fight, he was not sorry, perhaps
that Prussia should keep peace. He even tried to bribe

(00:44):
the king not to fight by offering to give him
the electorate of Hanover. The electorate of Hanover was, of
course not his to give. It belonged to the King
of Britain. But now having got rid of the Russians
and the Austriansullian was very insulting to the King of Prussia.
Whether he really meant to insult him and so drive

(01:06):
him to war, or whether he was only bent on
having his own way without caring how he hurt others,
does not matter. A new war, this time between France
and Prussia soon began. Britain, Russia, and Austria would all
have helped Prussia. But King Frederic William, after having held
back for so long, now rushed into war before his

(01:28):
own plans or those of his allies were ready. Although
Prussia had a great army, many of the officers were old,
and the country had been so long at peace that
they had forgotten the best ways of fighting. Napoleon, on
the other hand, was always fighting, always watchful, always ready.
So just as he had quickly marched against the Austrians

(01:50):
before the Russians had time to come help them, now
he marched against the Prussians. It was near Yenna that
the great battle of the campaign was fought. Like the
dawn of Austerlitz, the dawn of Jenna was shrouded and missed.
Not until ten o'clock did the thick clouds roll away
and the warm October sun shine out. Then, And not

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till then did the Prussian leader see that he had
to fight not a small part of the French army,
as he had thought, but more than eighty three thousand
men under the Great Emperor himself. He himself had scarcely
more than half that number. Once more the battle raged,
and once more it ended in a great victory for Napoleon,

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and the Prussians were scattered in fearful route. On the
same day, and at the same time, another battle was fought.
This was at Auerstett, about fifteen miles away. It was
fought by the other half of the Prussian army against
the French under General d'avoust. King Frederick William was with

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his army, and at Auerschet the Prussiaians far outnumbered the French,
but still the result was the same, and the French won.
The day, the fleeing remnants of both armies met and
mingled and fled to the nearest fortress for safety. Thus,
in one day the great army of Prussia was crushed.
Masses of French soldiers now poured into Prussia, and the

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Prussian fortresses fell one after the other into their hands.
Whether the garrisons were overcome with fear at Napoleon's great name,
or whether some of them betrayed their country for one
reason or another, the fortresses made little resistance, but gave
in quickly, and the conqueror marched in great triumph to Berlin.
Crushed and dispirited, the king of Prussia tried to make peace,

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but Napoleon asked too much, His terms were too hard.
He demanded the whole of Prussia as far as the Vistula. Crushed.
Though he was, the king was not ready to yield
as much as that. The Russians, too, were now marching
to help him. So the war went on, and it
was now carried into Poland. The march through Poland was terrible.

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As a general rule, it had been the custom to
stop fighting during winter and begin again in the spring,
but Napoleon bound himself by no such rules. So through rain,
sleet and snow, over roads knee deep in mud, the
army moved on. The sufferings of the soldiers were great.

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Their boots and clothes were worn out and not nearly
warm enough for the winter. So far north, as much
colder than in France, food was hard to get. No
bread was to be had. The water was muddy and bad.
The houses were mere hovels, where men, cows and pigs
all lived together. And this is what the Poles had

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the impotence to call a country, said the French soldiers
in disgust. In Poland, we have found a fifth element,
said Napoleon, it is mud. Thus, fighting and marching and cold,
wet and hunger, the army passed the Vistula. Now at last,
seeing that his men were utterly worn out, Napoleon consented

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to rest. He took up his headquarters at Warshaw, the
capital of the province, while the army founded quarters in
the little villages along the banks of the Vistula. Napoleon's
weary soldiers were, however, only allowed about a month's rest.
For the Russians, more used to the bitter cold than
the French, began to make ready for battle as soon

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as the swamps and marshes hardened by the frost made
it once more possible for horses and cannon to pass.
At a little place called prius Ilo, not far from Konigsburg,
a terrible battle took place. The day was dark and
lowering heavy clouds covered the gray sky. A bitter wind
drove the frozen snow, stinging the faces of the hungry,

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ill fed men, who had night before had supped on
nothing but potatoes. Yet, in the midst of all this misery,
in discomfort, both sides fought with a terrible brutal courage.
The Russians fought like bulls, said the French, their famous
Cossack horsemen charged and wheeled and charged again. Cannon roared,

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muskets cracked and rattled, and amid the screams of horward
clangor of battle, the silent white snow whirled and fell
to be trampled and reddened with the blood of fifty
thousand men. At last, the short winter's day was over,
and darkness covered the dreadful field, which in the morning
had laid so white and unstained. Both sides claimed the victory,

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but indeed it was only a useless slaughter. What a massacre,
cried a French officer, as next day he rode across
the field. What a massacre and without result. After the
Battle of prius Ilo, both armies were so shattered that
until the winter passed there was little more fighting. Napoleon

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even tried to make peace with King Frederick William, offering
him this time much better terms than before, but the
king answered that he could only make peace which would
include the Tsar of Russia, so no peace was made.
With the coming of summer, the struggle began once more.
After some fierce fighting, the war came to an end

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with a battle fought near the little town of Friedland.
From dawn to dark the battle lasted. The Russians fought
fiercely and well, but Napoleon, as he rode about among
his cheering, saluting men, cried again and again. To day
is a lucky day. It is the anniversary of Marengo.

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So roused by the memory of that great fight, the
French fought with double courage. At last, the Russian army,
broken and dismayed, fled across the Prigal, followed closely by
the pursuing French, then drivens still at the sword's point.
Day by day they fled an utter rout until they
had passed the Niemen. Behind this broad valley they found

(08:08):
shelter from their foes. Upon the one bank lay the
remnants of the Russian army, upon the other the French.
And now that his army was shattered, the Tsar sought
for peace, and Napoleon, for many reasons, was ready to listen.
In the middle of the Niemen, opposite the town of Tilsit,
a gaily decorated and curtain's raft was moored over it

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floated the Eagle of France and the Eagle of Russia.
Here the two emperors met and embraced like brothers rather
than enemies. They then went within the curtains and talked
for a long time, no one being near to hear
what was said. But when they came out again they
seemed more friendly than before. After this meeting, the town

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of Tilsit, which is in Prussia but only a few
miles from the Russian frontier, was declared neutral, and emperors
went to live there and held their courts, each in
a different part of the town. Now, instead of the
horror of war, the town was full of gaiety. There
were writing parties, dinners, and balls, and the emperors, who

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a few days before had been bitter enemies, seemed to
have become the best of friends. The Emperor of Russia
was young and handsome. He was full of splendid dreams
and eager to be great. Napoleon, too was young. He
was only thirty seven, and already he was the greatest conqueror, soldier,
and statesman in the world. Napoleon was often fierce, hard

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and cruel, but when he chose he could seem friendly
and lovable. He conquered men and women as he conquered peoples.
Now he won the heart of the young Czar. I
had never had more prejudices against any one than against him,
he said. But after three quarters of an hour of talk,

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they all vanished, as a dream would that I had
seen him sooner. The poor beaten King of Prussia was
asked also to come to Tilsit, but Napoleon, who treated
Thessar so kindly, treated the king very coldly. He and
his queen, who came with him were not allowed to
live in Tilsit. They had to put up with a

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small mill house outside the town. Napoleon tried in many
ways to make the Prussian king and queen feel that
they were crushed and beaten enemies. It was only out
of friendship to the Tsar. He said that the king
had been asked to Tilsit at all, and in the
drawing up of the treaty no pity for him was
shown by it. Frederic William lost half estates. End of

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Chapter six