The Story of Mankind [136]
and when the last relic of ancient Roman glory was destroyed
by the grandson of an Italian peasant. But when the Napoleonic
armies had invaded Spain, had forced the Spaniards to
recognise a king whom they detested, had massacred the poor
Madrilenes who remained faithful to their old rulers, then
public opinion turned against the former hero of Marengo and
Austerlitz and a hundred other revolutionary battles. Then
and only then, when Napoleon was no longer the hero of the
revolution but the personification of all the bad traits of the
Old Regime, was it possible for England to give direction to
the fast-spreading sentiment of hatred which was turning all
honest men into enemies of the French Emperor.
The English people from the very beginning had felt
deeply disgusted when their newspapers told them the gruesome
details of the Terror. They had staged their own great
revolution (during the reign of Charles I) a century before.
It had been a very simple affair compared to the upheaval of
Paris. In the eyes of the average Englishman a Jacobin was
a monster to be shot at sight and Napoleon was the Chief Devil.
The British fleet had blockaded France ever since the year
1798. It had spoiled Napoleon's plan to invade India by way
of Egypt and had forced him to beat an ignominious retreat,
after his victories along the banks of the Nile. And finally,
in the year 1805, England got the chance it had waited for so
long.
Near Cape Trafalgar on the southwestern coast of Spain,
Nelson annihilated the Napoleonic fleet, beyond a possible
chance of recovery. From that moment on, the Emperor was
landlocked. Even so, he would have been able to maintain
himself as the recognised ruler of the continent had he understood
the signs of the times and accepted the honourable peace
which the powers offered him. But Napoleon had been blinded
by the blaze of his own glory. He would recognise no equals.
He could tolerate no rivals. And his hatred turned against
Russia, the mysterious land of the endless plains with its
inexhaustible supply of cannon-fodder.
As long as Russia was ruled by Paul I, the half-witted son
of Catherine the Great, Napoleon had known how to deal with
the situation. But Paul grew more and more irresponsible
until his exasperated subjects were obliged to murder him
(lest they all be sent to the Siberian lead-mines) and the son of
Paul, the Emperor Alexander, did not share his father's affection
for the usurper whom he regarded as the enemy of mankind,
the eternal disturber of the peace. He was a pious man
who believed that he had been chosen by God to deliver the
world from the Corsican curse. He joined Prussia and England
and Austria and he was defeated. He tried five times
and five times he failed. In the year 1812 he once more taunted
Napoleon until the French Emperor, in a blind rage, vowed
that he would dictate peace in Moscow. Then, from far and
wide, from Spain and Germany and Holland and Italy and
Portugal, unwilling regiments were driven northward, that the
wounded pride of the great Emperor might be duly avenged.
The rest of the story is common knowledge. After a march
of two months, Napoleon reached the Russian capital and
established his headquarters in the holy Kremlin. On the night
of September 15 of the year 1812, Moscow caught fire. The
town burned four days. When the evening of the fifth day
came, Napoleon gave the order for the retreat. Two weeks
later it began to snow. The army trudged through mud and
sleet until November the 26th when the river Berezina was
reached. Then the Russian attacks began in all seriousness.
The Cossacks swarmed around the ``Grande Armee'' which
was no longer an army but a mob. In the middle of December
the first of the survivors began to be seen in the German cities
of the East.
Then there were many rumours of an impending revolt.
``The time has come,'' the people of Europe