ransformed into mechanical forces. The time was to come, in spite of
the military enthusiasm of his veteran soldiers, when it was to be
proved that the throne of absolutism is better sustained by love than
by mechanism.

[Sidenote: Aggrandizement of Napoleon's Family.]

Napoleon had already elevated his two brothers, Louis and Joseph, to
the thrones of Holland and Naples. He now sought to make his brother
Joseph the King of Spain. He availed himself of a quarrel between King
Charles and his son; acted as mediator, in the same sense that
Hastings and Clive acted as mediators in the quarrels of Indian
princes; and prepared to seize, not to humble, one of the oldest and
proudest monarchies of Europe.

The details of that long war on the Spanish peninsula, which resulted
from the appointment of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne of Spain, have
been most admirably traced by Napier, in the best military history
that has been written in modern times. The great hero of that war was
Wellington; and, though he fought under the greatest disadvantages and
against superior forces,--though unparalleled sufferings and miseries
ensued among all the belligerent forces,--still he succeeded in
turning the tide of French conquest.

Spain did not fall without a struggle. The Spanish Juntas adopted all
the means of defence in their power; and the immortal defence of
Saragossa, the capital of Arragon, should have taught the imperial
robber that the Spanish spirit, though degenerate, was not yet
extinguished.

It became almost the universal wish of the English to afford the
Spaniards every possible assistance in their honorable struggle, and
Sir Arthur Wellesley, the conqueror of the Mahrattas, landed in
Portugal in August, 1808. He was immediately opposed by Marshal Junot.
Napoleon could not be spared to defend in person the throne of his
brother, but his most illustrious marshals were sent into the field;
and, shortly after, the battle of Corunna was fought, at which Sir
John Moore, one of the bravest of generals, was killed in the moment
of victory.

[Sidenote: The Peninsular War.]

Long and disastrous was that Peninsular war. Before it could be
closed, Napoleon was called to make new exertions. Austria had again
declared war, and the forces which she raised were gigantic. Five
hundred and fifty thousand men, in different armies, were put under
the command of the Archduke Charles. Napoleon advanced against him,
and was again successfu