s would have been far
greater but for the ready wit of a patriotic miller, who, watching the
tide of battle, suddenly let the water into his mill-stream, and thus
interposed a seasonable obstacle between the French cavalry and some
German infantry, whom they had been driving before them; a service which
the King of Prussia subsequently rewarded with munificence.

The pursuit on the road which Napoleon adopted had been entrusted to the
Austrians, who urged it with far less vigour than the Prussians under
the fiery guidance of Blucher would probably have exerted. No
considerable annoyance, therefore, succeeded to the battle of Hanau. The
relics of the French host at length passed the Rhine; and the Emperor
having quitted them at Mentz, arrived in Paris on the 9th of November.

The armies of Austria and Prussia at length halted on the Rhine. To the
Germans of every age this great river has been the object of an
affection and reverence scarcely inferior to that with which an Egyptian
contemplates the Nile, or the Indian his Ganges. When these brave bands
having achieved the rescue of their native soil, came in sight of this
its ancient landmark, the burden of an hundred songs, they knelt, and
shouted _the Rhine! the Rhine!_ as with the heart and voice of one man.
They that were behind rushed on, hearing the cry, in expectation of
another battle.

[Footnote 63: Hoffman's Account of his own Life.]

[Footnote 64: Blucher was created Prince of Wahlstadt.]

CHAPTER XXXIV

Declaration of the Allies at Frankfort--Revolution of
Holland--Liberation of the Pope and Ferdinand VII.--Obstinacy of
Napoleon--His Military Preparations--Dissolution of the Legislative
Senate.

Of the events which crowded upon each other in the space of a few weeks
after the overthrow of Leipsig, any one would in times less
extraordinary have been sufficient to form an epoch in history. Having
once reached the summit of his greatness, the long-favoured child of
fortune was destined to sink even more rapidly than he had ascended.
Every day added some new alliance to the camp of his foreign enemies;
and every hour that passed brought with it clearer indications that the
French nation (considered apart from the army) were weary utterly of the
very names of War, and Ambition, and Napoleon.

The fabric of his German empire crumbled into nothing, as at the spell
of a magician. Hanover returned to the dominion of its rightful
so