ice was followed by a union of
Austria with the forces of Prussia and the Czar; and in October a final
overthrow of Napoleon at Leipzig forced the French army to fall back in
rout across the Rhine.

[Sidenote: His Abdication.]

The war now hurried to its close. Though held at bay for a while by the
sieges of San Sebastian and Pampeluna, as well as by an obstinate
defence of the Pyrenees, Wellington succeeded in the very month of the
triumph at Leipzig in winning a victory on the Bidassoa, which enabled
him to enter France. He was soon followed by the Allies. On the last day
of 1813 their forces crossed the Rhine; and a third of France passed,
without opposition, into their hands. For two months more Napoleon
maintained a wonderful struggle with a handful of raw conscripts against
their overwhelming numbers; while in the south, Soult, forced from his
entrenched camp near Bayonne and defeated at Orthez, fell back before
Wellington on Toulouse. Here their two armies met in April in a stubborn
and indecisive engagement. But though neither leader knew it, the war
was even then at an end. The struggle of Napoleon himself had ended at
the close of March with the surrender of Paris; and the submission of
the capital was at once followed by the abdication of the Emperor and
the return of the Bourbons.

[Sidenote: The American War.]

England's triumph over its enemy was dashed by the more doubtful
fortunes of the struggle across the Atlantic. The declaration of war by
America seemed an act of sheer madness; for its navy consisted of a few
frigates and sloops; its army was a mass of half-drilled and half-armed
recruits; while the States themselves were divided on the question of
the war, and Connecticut with Massachusetts refused to send either money
or men. Three attempts to penetrate into Canada during the summer and
autumn were repulsed with heavy loss. But these failures were more than
redeemed by unexpected successes at sea, where in two successive
engagements between English and American frigates, the former were
forced to strike their flag. The effect of these victories was out of
all proportion to their real importance; for they were the first heavy
blows which had been dealt at England's supremacy over the seas. In 1813
America followed up its naval triumphs by more vigorous efforts on land.
Its forces cleared Lake Ontario, captured Toronto, destroyed the British
flotilla on Lake Erie, and made themselves masters of U