poor grandson, Joseph," said she, "is included in the conscription,
and, notwithstanding all my prayers, he must become a soldier. And more
than this, his sister Julie was to have been married to Michael, a
neighbor's son, and now he refuses to marry her because Joseph is in the
conscription. And should my son purchase a substitute for poor Joseph,
it would take all his money, and he would have no dowry to give Julie.
And her dowry was to have been a hundred and twenty dollars."

"Take that," said the emperor, presenting the woman with a purse. "You
will find enough who will be ready to supply Joseph's place for that
amount. I want soldiers, and, for that purpose, must encourage
marriages." Josephine was so much interested in the adventure, that, as
soon as she arrived at Strasburg, she sent a valuable bridal present to
Julie. The good woman's prayers were answered. From Strasburg Josephine
returned to Paris, while Napoleon pressed on to encounter the combined
armies of Austria and Russia in the renowned campaign of Wagram.

It was in 1805, some years before the events we have just described,
that Napoleon, with his enthusiastic troops, embarked in the celebrated
campaign of Ulm and Austerlitz. At Ulm he surrounded thirty thousand of
his foes, and almost without a skirmish compelled them to lay down their
arms. "Your master," said he to the Austrian generals, as, almost dying
with mortification, they surrendered their swords, "your master wages
against me an unjust war. I say it candidly, I know not for what I am
fighting. I know not what he desires of me. He has wished to remind
me that I was once a soldier. I trust he will find that I have not
forgotten my original avocation. I will, however, give one piece of
advice to my brother, the Emperor of Austria. Let him hasten to make
peace. This is the moment to remember that there are limits to all
empires, however powerful. The idea that the house of Lorraine may come
to an end should inspire him with distrust of fortune. I want nothing
on the Continent. _I desire ships, colonies, and commerce._ Their
acquisition would be as advantageous to you as to me."

From Ulm, Napoleon, with two hundred thousand men, flushed with victory,
rushed like a tempest down the valley of the Danube, driving the
terrified Austrians before him like chaff swept by the whirlwind. Ten
thousand bomb-shells were rained down upon the roofs of Vienna, till the
dwellings and the streets were deluged