of the camp would be
happiness when shared with one who was all the world to her. Napoleon
was deeply moved by this exhibition of her love, but, aware of the
incessant activity with which it would be necessary for him to drive by
night and by day, he firmly but kindly denied her request. Josephine
wept bitterly as they parted.

One morning, early in November, 1808, the glittering cavalcade of the
emperor, at the full gallop, drove into the encampment of the retreating
French at Vittoria. The arrival of an angel, commissioned from heaven to
their aid, could not have inspired the soldiers with more enthusiasm.
The heavens rang with the shouts of the mighty host, as they greeted
their monarch with cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" Not one moment was lost.
Napoleon placed himself at the head of his concentrated army, and
turning them, now inspirited with the utmost confidence, against the
foes before whom they had been retreating, with the resistlessness of
an avalanche overwhelmed the Spanish forces. Wherever he appeared,
resistance melted away before him. In the pride of achievements almost
miraculous, he marched into Madrid, and there, in the capital of Spain,
re-established his fallen throne. But he tarried not there an hour for
indulgence or repose. The solid columns of the English army, under Sir
John Moore, were still in Spain. Napoleon urged his collected forces,
with all the energy which hatred could inspire, upon his English foes,
and the Britons, mangled and bleeding, were driven into their ships. The
conqueror, feeling that he was indeed the man of destiny, looked for a
moment complacently upon Spain, again in subjection at his feet, and
then, with the speed of the whirlwind, returned to Josephine at St.
Cloud, having been absent but little more than two months.

In the mean time, while Napoleon was far away with his army, upon the
other side of the Pyrenees, Russia, Sweden, and Austria thought it a
favorable moment to attack him in his rear. They brought no accusations
against the emperor, they issued no proclamation of war, but secretly
and treacherously conspired to march, with all the strength of their
collected armies, upon the unsuspecting emperor. It was an alliance of
the kings of Europe against Napoleon, because he sat upon the throne,
not by hereditary descent, the only recognized divine right, but by the
popular vote. The indignation of the emperor, and of every patriotic
Frenchman, had been roused by the