mphed over
his love of glory; it made him proceed rapidly to Posen, where, shortly
after his arrival, he disappeared, and abandoned us.

This defection took place on the 16th of January, twenty-three days
before Schwartzenberg detached himself from the French army, of which
Prince Eugene took the command.

Alexander arrested the march of his troops at Kalisch. There, the
violent and continued war, which had followed us all the way from
Moscow, slackened: it became only, until the spring, a war of fits, slow
and intermittent. The strength of the evil appeared to be exhausted; but
it was merely that of the combatants; a still greater struggle was
preparing, and this halt was not a time allowed to make peace, but
merely given to the premeditation of slaughter.

CHAP. XII.

Thus did the star of the North triumph over that of Napoleon. Is it then
the fate of the South to be vanquished by the North? Cannot that subdue
it in its turn? Is it against nature that that aggression should be
successful? and is the frightful result of our invasion a fresh proof of
it?

Certainly the human race does not march in that direction; its
inclination is towards the south, it turns its back to the north; the
sun attracts its regards, its wishes, and its steps. We cannot with
impunity turn back this great current of men; the attempt to make them
return, to repel them, and confine them within their frozen regions, is
a gigantic enterprise. The Romans exhausted themselves by it.
Charlemagne, although he rose when one of these great invasions was
drawing to a termination, could only check it for a short time; the rest
of the torrent, driven back to the east of the empire, penetrated it
through the north, and completed the inundation.

A thousand years have since elapsed; the nations of the north have
required that time to recover from that great migration, and to acquire
the knowledge which is now indispensable to a conquering nation. During
that interval, it was not without reason that the Hanse Towns opposed
the introduction of the warlike arts into the immense camp of the
Scandinavians. The event has justified their fears. Scarcely had the
science of modern war penetrated among them, when Russian armies were
seen on the Elbe, and shortly after in Italy; they came to reconnoitre
these countries, some day they will come and settle there.

During the last century, either from philanthropy or vanity, Europe was
eager in contributi