citadel. Early on the 18th, the prisoner was made to proceed to Paris, and, after having travelled night and day, he was brought, at noon on the 20th, to one of the gates of the capital, where a courier was in waiting with an order to proceed along the walls to the castle of Vincennes. The Duke arrived there at five o'clock, and, being exhausted with hunger and fatigue, took a slight repast. Having then thrown himself on a miserable bed in his apartment, he soon fell into a sound sleep. At eleven o'clock, he was called from his repose, and led into a room in the middle pavilion looking towards the wood, where eight officers sat prepared to judge him. The whole proceedings were finished and sentence passed about four o'clock; and, in half an hour afterward, the noble victim suffered death near one of the ditches of the castle.

Every precaution had been taken to bury this horrid attempt in the obscurity of night, and to make sure of its accomplishment. The suddenness of the seizure, and the haste in travelling, were intended to shake the fortitude which this gallant youth was known to possess and to have displayed during ten years of military service: but the base hope was vain, for he spoke to his judges with the nobleness and simplicity which belonged to his character and his virtues. When asked why he had carried arms against his country, his reply was, "I contended, with my family, for the recovery of the inheritance of my ancestors: but, since the conclusion of the peace, I have laid down my arms, and have acknowleged that there were no longer sovereigns in Europe." The Abbé Bouvens, who pronounced in London a funeral oration on the Duke d'Enghien, was mistaken when he said that the execution of this horrid sentence had been performed by foreign soldiers. The truth of history calls for a confession that the men who acted on this occasion were gens d'armes, and Frenchmen.'

To these particulars, are added several others which we decline to notice, on account of the uncertainty that always attends the rumours of such transactions. It is said, for example, that Savary and Murat were present at the execution; an arrangement which, however unnecessary, may perhaps have been the case: but we believe that we may contradict with confidence another allegation; viz. that, in the privycouncil held ostensibly on this question by Bonaparte, Cambacérès voted for saving the prince's life. — After having stated (p.48.) an example of the tyranny of Bonaparte towards the partizans of the Bourbon family, this writer continues:

• Such was the treatment to which we were then exposed. Our new governors have different principles and a different conduct; they deserve our approbation, no doubt, but would it not be desirable that they shewed less confidence, and a less complete security? Ought we to see at Paris a Mehée, whose name requires no additiona epithet?-a Montalivet, who has been surnamed "Monte au gibet ?"-a Cortaz, who bears the stamp of ignominy in his look ?—a Boulay de la Meurthe, whose atrocious character is

written

written in the page of history?-a Fievée, who is iniquity itself?an Etienne, who was the manager of the literary police under Savary? -a Malte-Brun, a Dane who was banished from his home, and a supporter of the secret policy of that minister? Let us remove from Paris ten or twelve of these dangerous persons, who chuse to shew themselves in public, and the disquietude of the well-intentioned part of the community will be at an end. People ask, with reason, what business they have in the capital, where the course of events must be such as to mortify them extremely? They had no scruple in putting the royalists into obscure prisons; - would it be severity in us to oblige them to pass their time in the country?

Different opinions are entertained respecting the prudence of the lenient course pursued by the advisers of Louis XVIII. : but those who are satisfied that his power rests on a more solid foundation, than the writer of this pamphlet chuses to acknowlege, will see, in the disposition to overlook and to treat with indifference such obnoxious characters as the above mentioned, a proof of consciousness of strength on the part of the new government.

ART. VIII. Campagne de Moscow, &c.; i. e. The Campaign of Moscow in 1812; a Work compiled from official Documents, by R. J. DURDENT. 8vo. Pamphlet. Paris. 1814.

To publish a new tract, in addition to the number which

have already appeared on the Russian campaign, naturally suggests the idea of a view to catch attention at a moment when compositions adverse to the late usurper are likely to be welcomed in France. The substance of this pamphlet is soon found to confirm this anticipation, and discovers, it must be confessed, a greater desire to attract popularity by declamatory effusion than by the evidence of careful research. The facts are chiefly taken from the news-papers; and the compiler displays little sagacity in examining the secret motives of Bonaparte's measures. For example, the performance of a theatrical pieee every evening at Moscow, during the fatal five weeks of his stay in that capital, is attributed to his personal sollicitude for such entertainments; when it is well known that he made use of them merely to fix the volatile minds of the French, and to assume the appearance of gaiety in the midst of alarm and distress.

The eyes of the discerning part of the political world were opened to the impending destruction of the French army, by the 28th bulletin, dated from Smolensko, rrth November; and the losses admitted in that memorable document, howsoever short of the reality, were sufficient to create a most serious

impression,

impression, on those who were aware what formidable additions it is necessary to make to the statements of these fallacious narratives. A surer and more conclusive ground of calculation was to be found in the inspection of the map, and in a due consideration of the season of the year. Of such reflections, however, the giddy minds of the French people were little capable; and the magnitude of the mischief does not appear to have been suspected until the publication, three weeks afterward, of the 29th bulletin, dated from Molodetchno. Nay, it seems that the French people believed for a while that the loss was confined to the horses, and imagined that the dragoons who perished with cold and hunger in the deserts of Lithuania were marching home, dismounted indeed, but in other respects in good condition. The papers in the pay of government had even the assurance to assert that few pages of antient or modern history could be compared to this memorable bulletin ; — that it was a composition of the highest character, and equal to the Anabasis of Xenophon or the Commentaries of Cæsar !

The writer of the sketch before us mentions that a part of his narrative was communicated by an officer who had survived these melancholy scenes; and the passage more immediately indicated to proceed from this authority is thus given :

Until the French troops reached Smolensko on their retreat, some portion of discipline had continued to characterize their conduct; because, though many soldiers forsook their colours and repaired to the flanks, a central point remained on which the members of each regiment were accustomed to rally :-but, after they had left Smolensko, the soldiers, exhausted by continued fatigue, gave over even this partial obedience, threw away their arms, and abandoned the ammunition-waggons. They acted no longer as parts of a great whole, whose strength depends on the union of its component portions, but as detached individuals, obliged to confine their care to their personal safety. The private, who had made his way to the scanty fire of a bivouac, no longer gave place to a starving officer, but was determined to maintain his station if necessary by force. Amid this general disorder, Bonaparte proceeded with his guards drawn up in a hollow square, with their muskets loaded, that they might be enabled to repel any attack on the flanks. The remnant of the chasseurs à cheval of his guard cleared, or rather attempted to clear, both sides of the way for the march of the troops, and were frequently engaged in skirmishing with the Cossacks.

On reaching the town of Orscha, Bonaparte declined to receive the deputies of the Polish province of Mohilow, which was perhaps the first time that he retired from the homage of his vassals. The shame of appearing in the character of a fugitive, surrounded by the wreck of an army lately so splendid, was no doubt the motive of his refusal. On arriving at the Beresina, two whole days were occupied in passing the river: but the bridge was so weak and narrow,

that

that a number of soldiers found a watery grave in their impatience to reach the opposite side. The fresh troops lately arrived were stationed partly on the left to oppose Tchitchagoff, and partly on the right to withstand the assault of Wittgenstein. The safety of the portion that escaped was owing to the resistance, or rather to the sacrifice, of these corps; and no words can describe the confusion, when the Russians, having at last overthrown these protecting divisions, began to draw near to the bridge. Those who succeeded in crossing the river were destined to fall by cold or hunger in the tedious march to Wilna. An eye witness reported the manner of expiring from cold to be nearly as follows:

When the frame began to be affected in a fatal manner, the unhappy victim was obliged to stop short, and his distorted features appeared like those of a man deprived of intellect, and unconscious whether he should yield to a tear or to a convulsive laugh. Aware that he could not longer maintain an upright posture, the hands were mechanically placed before the body, while the knees tottered, and the miserable sufferer, falling with his face on the earth, was soon deprived of motion and life." "I dreaded," said another witness of these calamities, "the return of night, not only as an aggravation of our sufferings, but as giving rise to melancholy alarms from the fate of our comrades. On making a halt, we were accustomed to draw together, and even to press one against the other. In this situation, and through the silence produced by dejection and despair, our ears were often assailed by the recurrence of slight noises, which took place in succession, and occasionally in several places at a time. What was the cause of them?-the fall on the frozen ground of men and of horses, sinking under the excess of cold and hunger. Never shall I forget the impression of this melancholy scene. It continues to haunt my imagination, together with the terrible circumstances that accompanied it; and often, in the midst of night, I start from my slumbers, because my terrified fancy again assails my ears with those melancholy sounds."

The present writer treats very cursorily the question how far the Russians participated in the dreadful sufferings which destroyed the French army: but, from the nature of the season and the country, as well as from the limited numbers who were found capable of taking a share in the operations in Saxony in the month of May, it is apparent that their loss in the pursuit must have been very considerable. That it was not much greater was no doubt owing to the men and horses being accustomed to the climate, to the friendly disposition of the surrounding peasantry, and, above all, to the difference of situation between a flying and a pursuing force :- not forgetting the important consideration that the fresh corps of Tchitchagoff relieved the troops of Kutusoff in the midst of the pursuit, and was enabled to accomplish the destruction of the French without any other co-operation than that of the Cossacks; who, from circumstances sufficiently known, are steeled against

against the inclemency of winter. With regard to another melancholy calculation, we mean the number who perished on the side of the French, and which is generally computed to have been, from the beginning to the end of the campaign, between 3 and 400,000 men, this pamphlet is as uninstructive as on other topics, on which precision is to be obtained only by a careful research into documents that are not open to ordinary readers.

ART. IX. Bonaparte peint par lui-même, &c..; i. e. Bonaparte delineated by himself, in his Military and Political Career. By M. C***, avocat à la cour royale. 8vo. pp. 554. Paris.

1814.

THE

HE reader who opens this volume in the expectation of finding in it any thing new with regard to Bonaparte will be much disappointed, since it falls exactly under the description of the book-selling compilations which are so common in Paris, and consists only of an abstract of the public life of the late ruler of France, taken from the news-papers and government publications. In order to accommodate it to the general feeling, the author has been indefatigable in infusing a large portion of abuse on Bonaparte and of encomium on the Bourbons: but he has failed, in throwing any new light on the secret motives of the policy of the usurper. He divides the volume into three parts; the first treating of the history of Napoleon while he was a General Officer; the second, of his consulship, viz. from November 1799 to May 1804; and the third, of the ten years that have elapsed since he assumed the title of Emperor.

It would have been interesting to have introduced, into a work of this nature, some account of the education and early habits of this singular man: but, as the materials did not offer themselves readily to the compiler, he has been contented to dismiss the subject in a couple of pages, and to enter at once on the life of Bonaparte after the 13th Vendemiaire 1795; or, in other words, on that part which may be read in every magazine or newspaper. The campaign of Italy is passed over without any of those observations which indicate a disposition or an ability to analyze the combinations of a commander. The account of the Egyptian expedition is equally superficial, and has scarcely any prominent characterstic, except the introduction (p. 115) of a pretended dialogue between Bonaparte and two disciples of Mohammed. We come next to the sudden revolution of 18th Brumaire, which, by an inconsistency that would have surprized any other people than the French, rendered a baffled and fugitive General the absolute