56 DIGNIFIED RECEPTION OF NAPOLEON BY THE FRENCH. [A.D. The Prince-Royal refused to ratify the capitulation, and declared war against England, asserting, in his idle rage, that he could continue hostilities until he had retaken by arms what had been taken from him by treachery. Napoleon, of course, raised a loud cry against Great Britain for this mighty blow, saying, "Blood and fire have made the English masters of Copenhagen," and French and European writers are even yet found to treat it as a "scélératesse" and a "barbarie "- terms which, it must be confessed, are quite applicable to every operation of war, but in no way peculiar to the siege of Copenhagen. The King of Prussia now united with Denmark and Russia in a new Northern Coalition against Great Britain, to which Sweden was constrained to accede, after the Prince of PonteCorvo had made preparations to cross the Baltic to enforce it, and that the Czar had ordered Generai Buxhowden to invade Finland. 19. CAPTURE OF HELIGOLAND. The British frigate “Quebec,” 32, Captain the Lord Falkland, was ordered, at this time, to proceed and obtain possession of the Danish island of Heligoland, situated in the North Sea, and forming a natural defence to the shores of the Elbe, the Weser, the Ems, and the Eyder. The "Quebec" arrived off the island on the 30th of August, and Lord Falkland forthwith summoned the Danish Commandant and Governor, who at first refused, but, while steps were taken to employ force to compel him, yielded up his trust. The "Majestic," 74, Captain Hart, carrying the flag of Vice-Admiral Macnamara Russell, had, in effect, anchored close off the town; and on the 5th the Danish officer, seeing the uselessness of opposition, sent an offer to capitulate, which was accepted; the flag of England was raised over the little rocky island, where it still flies as a beacon in dangerous waters, a guide to and an asylum for the ships of all nations. 20. NAPOLEON RETURNS TO FRANCE- SENDS AN ARMY INTO THE PENINSULA. On the morning of the 27th of July, the cannon of the Invalides announced to the citizens that Napoleon, after an absence from Paris of nearly a year, was amongst them once more. He had arrived in the night at St. Cloud, and rejoined his family, who were assembled to meet him at his accustomed summer residence. He was waited upon there by all the great dignitaries and ministers, and immediately announced a Session of the Corps Législatif, which he opened in person on his name day, the 15th of August. It was a glorious day and a grand fête, for he appeared among his people as the greatest conqueror that had ever reigned in France; and "Voilà la paix continentale assurée," he said, "et quant à la paix maritime nous l'obtiendrons bientôt. Je viendrai à bout de tous les résistances." In fact, he was at the very summit of his glory. After the most glorious of his famous campaigns, he had no enemy capable of resisting his further progress, except the British nation. The accounts that now arrived of their attempt on Copenhagen only added this little bitterness to his cup, that his enemies T 1807.] NAPOLEON FOMENTS INTRIGUES WITH SPAIN. 57 had learned to become as unscrupulous and as energetic as he would have been himself under similar cricumstances. The success of this affair, however, deranged his bright scheme for bringing to bear the whole maritime power of Europe united against the navy of England. He is described by those who were around him to have openly lost his temper upon this news; but, as is said of him by Thiers, "Sa tête ardente, sans cesse en travail, ne terminait une œuvre que pour en commencer un autre," and the completion of his "Continental System' now appears to have occupied all his attention. Having secured, by the Treaty of Tilsit, the concurrence of the whole of the North of Europe in this system, he now had leisure to devise how to carry it out in the southern kingdoms of Europe. No sooner, therefore, was he arrived in Paris than he began to turn his eyes towards the Peninsula. At a reception of the Corps Diplomatique, in the first days of August, Napoleon briskly demanded of the Count de Lima, Portuguese Ambassador at the Tuileries, what had been done by his Government to carry into effect the exclusion of the commerce of Great Britain from the Tagus; and as he had an old score against the wretched favourite who mis-governed Spain, he was now in a condition to settle the quarrel in the way most favourable to his own designs. The Emperor had previously fomented, through Beauharnais, his ambassador at Madrid, an intrigue calculated to embroil the royal family of Spain in such a manner as that he might be called in to arbitrate between them. These Bourbons were still smarting under the dethronement of the Neapolitan branch of the house; nevertheless, they sent the Duke de Frias to Paris, as an extraordinary ambassador, to congratulate the Emperor on his triumph. At the same time, however, M. Yzquiendo was in that capital as particular agent for the Prince of the Peace, and, with true Spanish ability, was ready to be made available for any intrigues. They soon bore fruit. Godoy, the minion of the Queen, was set against her son, the Prince of Asturias, so that, upon a pretended conspiracy of the heir-apparent against the King, his father, the Prince was arrested and confined in the Escurial Palace. The King was a weak man, and easily influenced by his Queen and her favourite, and permitted, at their instigation, the departure of Romagna's army. A treaty was soon afterwards concluded at Fontainebleau, by which French troops were to be admitted into Spain, to be maintained and subsisted by that state for the ostensible conquest of Portugal, which was to be divided into separate kingdoms, for the benefit of the King of Etruria and the Prince of the Peace; and, with some singularity under the circumstances, or some double purpose, Napoleon named the Prince of Asturias Generalissimo of the combined French and Spanish armies to be sent on this service. He had already formed a camp at Bayonne of 23,000 infantry, 2000 cavalry, and 30 guns, of which he had given the command to General Junot, who was now ordered, without further instructions, to cross the frontier, and direct his march by way of Valladolid, Salamanca, 58 BRITISH AND PORTUGUESE FLEETS AT SEA. [A.D. Ciudad Rodrigo, and Alcantara, upon Lisbon. At the same time, he prepared a second army, consisting of 24,000 men, with 40 guns, under General Dupont, the remains of the army of England in the camp at Boulogne, to be ready to follow Junot when required. The united force was short of cavalry, and there was difficulty, from some cause or other, of collecting from the stables at Compiègne, Chartres, Orleans, and Tours, as many as 5000 horses for this expedition. 21. A FRENCH ARMY, UNDER JUNOT, TAKES POSSESSION OF When the Prince-Regent of Portugal received the despatch from the Count de Lima, detailing the hostile language of Napoleon and the propositions from Paris, he had just lost, by death, his principal Minister, the Count de Villaverde, and was somewhat bewildered as to the course he should pursue by the presence and advice of Lord Strangford, the British Ambassador, and M. de Rayneul, Chargé d'Affaires of France. His first determination was to yield to the Emperor Napoleon's demands, and to exclude the commerce of Great Britain from Portugal, and he actually did this by a proclamation dated the 20th of October, but Lord Strangford demanded his passports in consequence; but when he heard of the assembling of a French army to take the field against him, and reflected how completely his continental possessions in South America lay at the mercy of England, he changed his policy, and determined to abandon his European kingdom, and take refuge in Brazil, with the whole of the Portuguese fleet, according to the proposal of the British Ambassador. This resolve was hastened by the arrival in the Tagus of 9 sail of the line, under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, which had been sent from England on the receipt of the Prince Regent's proclamation early in the month, and which squadron now came to anchor on the 17th of November. The British Ambassador forth with repaired on board, and the Tagus was declared in a state of blockade by the British Admiral. Lord Strangford, however, received from England, by extraordinary despatch, the decree issued by Napoleon on the 13th, stating that the House of Bragança had ceased to reign, on which he opened fresh negotiations with the Prince-Regent, who, on the 27th, proclaimed his intention to retire, with the Queen, his mother, and all the Royal family, to South America, and to establish his court in Rio de Janeiro, appointing a Regency to govern the Kingdom of Portugal in his absence. The bulk of the Portuguese fleet was, fortunately for the Sovereign of Portugal, in readiness to put to sea; and, accordingly, on the 29th, in the morning, Vice-Admiral Don Manuel Sottomayor, having his flag on the 'Principe Reale," 84, with "Conde Henrique," 74, "Medusa," 74, "Principe de Brazil," 74, "Rainha de Portugal," 74," Alfonso, d'Albuquerque," 74, "Don Juan de Castro," 74, "Martino de Freitas," 74," Mineron," 44, "Golfinho," 36, "Urania" 36, and 66 1807.] JUNOT LEVIES CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE PORTUguese. 59 another frigate of 32 guns, together with 3 20-gun corvettes and 1 12-gun schooner, accompanied by 20 large armed merchant-ships, set sail from Lisbon. The fleet received on board the whole of the Royal family of Bragança, and many of its most faithful counsellors and adherents, amounting in number to no less than 18,000 persons; and they carried away with them cargoes and property to the amount of many millions' value. The British and Portuguese fleets, before leaving the Tagus, ranged alongside each other, and the junction was reciprocally announced by salutes of 21 guns. So desirous was General Junot of fulfilling the Emperor's wishes with regard to the Portuguese fleet, that, on receiving information soon after he had crossed the frontier that the Royal family had embarked for South America, he pushed forward in all haste with 1500 men and 1 gun, and entered Lisbon on the morning of the 29th November. A French emigrant, the Count de Novion, met him at the gate of Saccavem, and with some Portuguese police they traversed the town together, rapidly crossing the Praça do Commercio and the Roçio to Belem, whence he was just able to descry the united fleets in full sail; and it is said that, in his disappointment at their escape, he discharged at them the sole gun he had with him. The French army followed the Marshal, and arrived by driblets each day, until, at length, 21,000 or 22,000 soldiers were assembled under arms, who immediately took possession of all the forts and barracks of the capital, where they soon recompensed themselves for the fatigues of their hurried march, and were amply provided with everything required to perfect their organisation. Of course, Marshal Junot had no scruple about treating the people as a conquered nation, and accordingly he levied contributions, and exercised all the attributes of sovereignty, disbanding and sending_back to their homes the Portuguese troops whom he found in Portugal, and placing the administration of the kingdom in the hands of Monsieur Hermann, whom Napoleon had nominated to administer the Portuguese finances, he being at the time attached to the French Legation at Lisbon. The regency was at once formally dissolved, and the ancient flag of Portugal was hauled down and the tricolor hoisted in its place, under a salvo from the Moorish fort. 22. WAR IN ITALY-NAPOLEON REPAIRS THITHER ON A VISIT. When, early in the year, Marshal Massena was summoned from Italy to the grand army in the north, General Reynier had assumed* the command in that kingdom. The Marshal had directed General Verdier with the French troops in Calabria to lay siege to Amantea, and the trenches were opened before it in the night of the 14th-15th of January. A practicable breach was soon effected, and an assault attempted and repulsed. On the 20th, General Reynier arrived and took the direction of the besieging force, when mines were employed to destroy the walls, so that on the 5th of February another assault was attempted, and again failed. On the 6th, however, the supplies 60 UNDEFINED MOTIVE of Napoleon's viSIT TO ITALY. [A.D. of the garrison being all exhausted, Mirabelli, the Commandant, capitulated, on permission to retire to Sicily with the garrison. The following day the Castle of Fiume Freddo was invested; but some dissensions took place in the garrison, who rose against Micheli, the Governor, and gave up the fort. General Lamarque was then sent to bring Maratea to obedience. This place, perched upon a rock, was protected by some British frigates, and Mandasini, the Commandant, held it for 22 days against the French, when he likewise obtained terms to return to Sicily. On the 9th of May, the Prince of Hesse Philipstadt, who had so successfully defended Gaeta, landed at Reggio with 6000 men and 6 guns, and advanced to Mileto, when he summoned Reynier, who was in the vicinity with 3000 men, to surrender, when the French General, for all answer, marched out, on the 27th, to attack him. The Sicilian force was well posted and defended by their guns; but two battalions, under General Abbé, threatening either flank, while General Camus advanced with the reserve, the Sicilians were thrown into disorder, and lost their guns, so that the Prince of Hesse had some difficulty in reaching Reggio, with 50 cavalry only. Here he was joined by Corem-Cantone, a celebrated partisan, and took possession of Cortone, and, notwithstanding all the endeavours of Reynier, he held his ground in Calabria, and gave the French divisions so much trouble, that they could not effect an investment of Reggio and Scylla till the last days of the year. It does not clearly appear what was the motive of Napoleon's visit to Italy at this juncture, whether affairs of peace or war. He certainly desired to consult his brother Lucien on matters connected with his Spanish views, and perhaps he had a love for the sunny land, which returned upon him more strongly after he had passed a campaign so active and so long amidst the fogs and marshes of Poland. He could not, however, leave Paris till the 16th of November, but he most unexpectedly presented himself at the cathedral of Milan on the 21st, while they were singing a Te Deum on his account. He had not seen his brother Joseph, nor his step-son, Prince Eugène, since their accession to their new honours, and they were the two persons in the world who nestled most in his affections. The Italian society pleased him, and wherever he went he was received with the greatest respect. He made an excursion to Venice on the 10th of December, and on his way thither visited Lucien. The Queen of the Adriatic, though, perhaps, feeling but little real warmth, was well disposed to receive the conqueror of her ancient oligarchy with something like the enthusiasm of hope. A grand marine fête awaited his arrival, in which a fleet of gondolas, brilliant with every colour, and with rich music on board, accompanied the Imperial barge, which carried the Emperor, the Viceroy and Vice-Queen, the King and Queen of Bavaria, the King of Naples, the Grand-Duke of Berg, the Prince of Neufchâtel, and a host of distinguished generals, to the venerable palace of the Doge, which now for the first time received the sovereign of Italy. Amidst the varied business which engaged his attention in this short Italian tour, Na |