. 146

Map of the Spanish Campaign..................................... 184

Joseph Bonaparte................................................ 196

Map of the Battle of Eckmuehl.................................... 212

Two Maps of the Battles of Aspern and Essling................... 221

Map of the Battle of Wagram..................................... 228

Eugene Beauharnais.............................................. 246

Napoleon Bonaparte in 1809...................................... 296

Map of the Russian Campaign, 1812............................... 340

LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

CHAPTER I

WAR WITH RUSSIA: PULTUSK[1]

[Footnote 1: References as before.]

Poland and the Poles -- The Seat of War -- Change in the
Character of Napoleon's Army -- The Battle of Pultusk --
Discontent in the Grand Army -- Homesickness of the French --
Napoleon's Generals -- His Measures of Reorganization -- Weakness
of the Russians -- The Ability of Bennigsen -- Failure of the
Russian Manoeuvers -- Napoleon in Warsaw.

[Sidenote: 1806-07]

The key to Napoleon's dealings with Poland is to be found in his
strategy; his political policy never passed beyond the first tentative
stages, for he never conquered either Russia or Poland. The struggle
upon which he was next to enter was a contest, not for Russian
abasement but for Russian friendship in the interest of his
far-reaching continental system. Poland was simply one of his weapons
against the Czar. Austria was steadily arming; Francis received the
quieting assurance that his share in the partition was to be
undisturbed. In the general and proper sorrow which has been felt for
the extinction of Polish nationality by three vulture neighbors, the
terrible indictment of general worthlessness which was justly brought
against her organization and administration is at most times and by
most people utterly forgotten. A people has exactly the nationality,
government, and administration which expresses its quality and secures
its deserts. The Poles were either dull and sluggish boors or haughty
and elegant, pleasure-loving nobles. Napoleon and his officers
delighted in the life of Warsaw, but he never appears to have
respected the Poles either as a whole or in their wrangling cliques;
no doubt he occasionally faced the possibility of a redeemed Poland,
but in general the suggestion of such a consummation served