. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. s portrait while travelling in Europe, whitherhe was sent by his sovereign George IV., and paid twenty-five thousand francsa year, to paint for the great Windsor gallery the portraits of all the heroes du grand hasard de Waterloo.—A. D. 23S TROUBLE WITH THE POPE 239 With this imposing force at his command, Napoleonbeheved that he could compel Alexander to suppport thecontinental blockade, for come what might that systemmust succeed. For it the reigning house had been drivenfrom Portugal, the Pope despoiled and imprisoned, Louisgone into exile, Bernadotte driven
. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. s portrait while travelling in Europe, whitherhe was sent by his sovereign George IV., and paid twenty-five thousand francsa year, to paint for the great Windsor gallery the portraits of all the heroes du grand hasard de Waterloo.—A. D. 23S TROUBLE WITH THE POPE 239 With this imposing force at his command, Napoleonbeheved that he could compel Alexander to suppport thecontinental blockade, for come what might that systemmust succeed. For it the reigning house had been drivenfrom Portugal, the Pope despoiled and imprisoned, Louisgone into exile, Bernadotte driven into a new alliance. Forit the Grand Army was led into Russia. It had become,as its inventor proclaimed, the fundamental law of the em-pire. Until he crossed the Nieman, Napoleon preserved thehope of being able to avoid war. Numerous letters to theRussian emperor, almost pathetic in their overtures, Alexander never replied. He simply allowed his enemyto advance. The Grand Army was doomed to make theRussian NAPOLEON READING. By Girodet. From the collection of Monsieur Cheramy of Paris. 240 CHAPTER XIX THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN THE BURNING OF MOSCOW A NEW ARMY IF one draws a triangle, its base stretching along the Nie-man from Tilsit to Grodno, its apex on the Elbe, he willhave a rough outline of the army of twenty nations as it lay in June, 1812. Napoleon, some two hundred andtwenty-five thousand men around him, was at Kowno, hesi-tating to advance, reluctant to believe that Alexander wouldnot make peace. When he finally moved, it was not with the precision andswiftness which had characterized his former he began to fight, it was against new odds. He foundthat his enemies had been studying the Spanish campaigns,and that they had adopted the tactics which had so nearlyruined his armies in the Peninsula: they refused to givehim a general battle retreating constantly before him;they harassed his separate corps with indecisive contests;they wasted t
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