it was observed, and eagerly repeated, that Alexander turned towards Napoleon and gave him his hand, at the occurrence of the line

"The friendship of a great man is a benefit from the gods."

On another occasion, when Alexander, on arriving at a dinner party, found that he had forgotten his sword, Napoleon begged of him to accept his. Alexander took it eagerly, saying, "Your Majesty is well assured that I shall never draw it against you." All the kings, officers, and courtiers, naturally regarded the apt presentation as a great compliment and a profound courtesy, and it was intended they should; though it is difficult to conceive that Napoleon did not inwardly smile as he saw the flattered Alexander sit down to dinner with the useless encumbrance. A grand fête was given to Napoleon by the Duke of Weimar, on the battle-field of Jena, a piece of courtesy in which obsequious submission to a powerful visitor was certainly carried to the highest pitch. On this occasion, Napoleon paid the most marked attention to the Duchess of Weimar, well remembering the courage and fortitude she had shewn on the occasion

which was necessarily uppermost in all memories. His own dignified, yet calm and unassuming deportment, while thus forming the centre of attraction for all homage and devotion from those of the highest and most commanding station, has been well described by some competent witnesses.

One day, while entertaining many of these guests at his table, he began a sentence in these words;-" When I was a simple lieutenant in the second company of artillery,”—at which a marked expression of uncomfortable surprise was observed among his royal listeners. Scott relates this anecdote with a kind of horror; Hazlitt, with triumph, as an "instance of just and well-placed pride, thus to speak of himself in the presence of all Europe, as it were, assembled at a banquet of kings." We should sympathise more fully with such a manifestation of Napoleon's consciousness that he held his high place by Nature's patent, had he carried out the feeling in his actions, and on all occasions done honour to real nobility, in opposition to conventional rank. Wieland has given an interesting description of him at the ball which followed the entertainment on the field of Jena. 66 was presented," he says, "by the Duchess of Weimar, with the usual ceremonies: he then paid me some compliments in an affable tone, and looked stedfastly at me. Few men have appeared to me to possess, in the same degree, the art of reading, at the first glance, the thoughts of other men. He saw, in an instant, that, notwithstanding my celebrity, I was simple in my manners and void of pretension; and, as he seemed desirous of making a favourable impression on me, he assumed the tone most likely to attain his end. I have never beheld any one more calm, more simple, more mild, or less ostentatious in appearance; nothing about him indicated the feeling of power in a great monarch: he spoke to me as an old acquaintance would speak to an equal; and what was more extraordinary on his part, he conversed with me exclusively for an hour and a half, to the great surprise of the whole assembly." Wieland has related part of their conversation, which is, as it could not fail to be, highly interesting. They touched on a variety of subjects; among others, the ancients. Napoleon declared his preference of the Romans to the Greeks. "The eternal squabbles of their petty republics," he said, "were not calculated to give birth to anything grand; whereas the Romans were always occupied with great things, and it was owing to this they raised up the Colossus which bestrode the world." This preference was characteristic; the following is anomalous :-" He preferred Ossian to Homer." ** "He was fond only of serious poetry," continues Wieland; "the pathetic and vigorous writers; and, above all, the tragic poets. He appeared to have no relish for anything

gay; and in spite of the prepossessing amenity of his manners, an observation struck me often,-he seemed to be of bronze. Nevertheless, he had put me so much at my ease, that I ventured to ask how it was that the public worship he had restored in France was not more philosophical, and in harmony with the spirit of the times? 'My dear Wieland,' he replied, 'religion is not meant for philosophers : they have no faith either in me or my priests: as to those who do believe, it would be difficult to give them or to leave them too much of the marvellous. If I had to frame a religion for philosophers, it would be just the reverse of that of the credulous part of mankind.' Müller, the celebrated Swiss historian, who had a private interview with Napoleon at this period, has left a still fuller account of the impression he received. "The Emperor began to speak," says Müller, "of the History of Switzerland; told me that I ought to complete it; that even the more recent times had their interest. He proceeded from the Swiss to the old Greek constitutions and history; to the theory of constitutions; to the complete diversity of those of Asia, and the causes of this diversity in the climate, polygamy, &c.; the opposite characters of the Arabian and the Tartar races; the peculiar value of European culture, and the progress of freedom since the sixteenth century; how everything was linked together, and in the inscrutable guidance of an invisible hand; how he himself had become great through his enemies; the great confederation of nations, the idea of which Henry IV. had; the foundation of all religion, and its necessity; that man could not bear clear truth, and required to be kept in order; admitting the possibility, however, of a more happy condition, if the numerous feuds ceased, which were occasioned by too complicated constitutions (such as the German), and the intolerable burden suffered by states from excessive armies." These opinions clearly mark the guiding motives of Napoleon's attempts to enforce upon different nations uniformity of institutions and customs. "I opposed him occasionally," says Müller, "and he entered into discussion. Quite impartially, and truly, as before God, I must say, that the variety of his knowledge, the acuteness of his observations, the solidity of his understanding (not dazzling wit), his grand and comprehensive views, filled me with astonishment; and his manner of speaking to me, with love for him. By his genius, and his disinterested goodness, he has also conquered me.'

Nothing could proceed more amicably than the political conferences between the two emperors. Napoleon, on his part, consented to leave Alexander undisturbed in his operations against Sweden and Turkey, and satisfied him on the subject of Poland, by engaging to attempt nothing in its favour; while Alexander recognised the new kings of

Spain and Naples; and promised not to interfere in the approaching war in the Peninsula. The two emperors also wrote a joint letter to the King of England, proposing a general peace on the principle of uti possidetis, which would leave all the contracting parties in possession of what they had gained during the war. The English government, however, demanded that Sweden and Spain should be admitted as parties to the treaty; which, not suiting either of the sovereigns who had opened the negociation, all further proceedings were dropped. The conferences at Erfurt concluded on the 14th of

October. Napoleon returned to Paris without delay, and by the 26th, was on his way to Spain; a powerful army of two hundred thousand men already waited his approach on the frontiers. They were composed of the veteran troops withdrawn from Germany and Italy, the new levies having supplied their places, and included a numerous and splendid cavalry, and a large body of the imperial guard.

In the mean time, the Spaniards had vested the management of their affairs in a central or supreme junta, stationed at their recovered capital of Madrid. The determined spirit of opposition to French interference continued as strong as ever; but the power to act in concert, or maintain well directed efforts in a common cause, already

appeared doubtful. The Supreme Junta found it difficult, sometimes impossible, to enforce obedience on their generals; and the provincial juntas were too apt to act independently, and assert their own right to separate command. The English government, at the same time, though promising aid, and making large preparations to afford it, yet continually procrastinated; and when Napoleon invaded the country, the native forces alone were in the field. Three armies had been formed, all intended to co-operate, and amounting to about one hundred thousand men, but, unfortunately, all under independent generals. Blake commanded the army on the western frontier, which extended from Burgos to Bilbao. General Romana, who commanded one of the auxiliary divisions of Spanish soldiers in the French service, had dexterously contrived to escape from the Island of Funen, and had been landed in Spain, with ten thousand men, by British ships. His corps was attached to that of General Blake. The head-quarters of the central army, under Castaños, were at Soria; those on the eastern side, under Palafox, extended between Saragossa and Sanguesa. The Spanish armies were therefore arranged in the form of a long and weak crescent, the horns of which advanced towards France. The fortresses in the north of Spain were all in the possession of the French, and strongly garrisoned.

Napoleon was at Bayonne on the 3rd of November, and by the 8th, he had directed the movements of the last columns of his advancing army across the frontier: on the same evening, he arrived at Vittoria, where Joseph held his court. The civil and military authorities met him at the gates, and prepared to conduct him with pomp to the house prepared for his reception; but he leaped off his horse, entered the first inn he observed, and called for maps and detailed reports of the position of the armies. In two hours, he had arranged the plan of the campaign; and by day-break on the 9th, Soult took the command of Bessiéres' corps, and began to push forward his columns upon the plains of Burgos, against an auxiliary corps, under the Count de Belvidere, designed to support the right flank of Blake's army. Belvidere was completely defeated at Gomenal: one of his battalions, composed entirely of students from Salamanca and Leon, refused to fly, and fell in their ranks. Blake was then routed at Espinosa, by General Victor, and again at Reynosa, by Soult, whence the wrecks of his army fled in disorder, and took refuge in Santander. Nearly the whole of Romana's corps perished in the cliffs of Espinosa, after the battle. Palafox and Castaños had, meantime, united their forces, and waited the attack of the French under Lannes, at Tudela, on the 22nd of November. The Spaniards were on this cccasion, also, utterly defeated, with the loss of four thousand killed,