The Washington herald., 1914-09-27
With HIS BACK TO
THE WALL OF PARIS

without money and without horses, with
out forts and without men, Napoleon, IN
the opening weeks OF the year lSl4,
turned at bay to face a world in arms
and defend France and his crown 4gainst
a mighty host of Germans, Russians, ana
Austrians swarminES on the banks OF the
Rhine.
He had lost two great armies in q year
and a half. and now France herself lay
bleeding, exhausted and respondent. For
twenty-five years she had been glVing
her sons to war and grieving over her
unreturning brave, sunk to rest unkneIed
and uncoffined beneath the palm and the
pine, until their unburied bones half en-
circled the earth, from the swamps OF
Santo Domingo to the mountains OF Gall
lee, from the salt mounds OF Cadiz TO the
melancholy wastes OF Russia. lear I aIIeI
and hurled army after army at the walls
of her foes But now, when her own
gates we're assailed, they were without
defenders.
The Emperor called upon the nation to
rise and repel the invader from the
frontier, which no foe had passed in the
on the British in the harbor of Toulon
But the France that had risen In her
wonderful strength the last time Ger
man had dared cross the Rhine was the
france of the Revolution, which Napo-
leon himself had slain on the steps OF
St Roch and in the Orangery at St
Cloud We must pull on the boots OF
1888" he cried But the spirit of 'sS was
dead, and even he could not call II back
nor command the French democracy to
rise from its grave beneath the WreckaSe
of his empire and his despotism-
The nation had been reduced to one
man, and he alone remained to face al
lied Europe. How he was overwhelmed,
it is easy enough to Imagine, but how ne
brea sted the tide week after week and
heat it back time and again ever re-
mains an amazing chapter in history
Gold. But No Men.
With the armies Of thirty nations ar Al
his frontier and a British army under
Wellington actually on the soil OF Soutn-
ern France, he found his treasury ms
arsenals, and his barracks empty. Al
the hundreds of millions Of dollars Whlcp
he had collected in tribute from con-
udered states were swallowed up In the
disasters in Spain, Russia, and Germany
For he had supported his armies almost
entirely from levies on other countries. -,
He not only made war support war,
as he said, but he also eNacted the strict
civil administration. Thus in the midst
of endless wars the total cost OF his gov
ernment to the French people, who num-
bered 30cO0,Ooo, never rose much ABOVE
500. .OOO 900 a year. And his finances were
as simple as they were successful. Whlle
the wars were loading down England
and all the other governments with enor-
nous debts. he pursued, like the prudent
administrator of little town, the pay
as-you-go" policy and refused to contract
a national debt
y
the contrary, in the splendor of imperial
power he never lost the homely virtue
Of thrift. and every year he laid by
against a rainy day nearly SS,Oo.OOO.
Those savings from the annual appro-
nriation for himself, his family. and his
palaces, he boarded under the Tuileries,
and now that the rainy day had come
he went down into the cellar and took
the money for his campaign
But alasi He had not saved any Of the
human millions whom the people had IN
I2d h.
monious with blood as with gold, 1t would
have served him in good stead now. Al,
most all the arm-bearing population had
been spent, however and Tor nNe years
he had been running into debt and draw
ing the conscripts to his colors year
and two years before the appointed time
leave enough Of the human crop for seed
For two decades the most stalWart can
didates for paternity had been earned
off to die in the wars or drag themselves
home physical and moral wrecks. ana
the effect of that awful waste was al
ready making itself painfully apparent
in the declining birth rate of France.
Hard as II was to gather even a few
thousand men and boys Of all ages and
all sizes, il was harder still to flnd horses
for them to ride and good muskets to put
in their unframed hands. But old mus
kets and hunting pieces were made to
serve. Even pixies were collected and dis
tributed among the peasants Of the bor-
der as better weapons than scythes. Sup
plies of uniforms and shoes being scant,
many conscripts were sent to the front
without cartridge boxes and in. their blue
blouses round hats, and sabots
There were virtually no forts, for Ma
poleon had been the destroyer, not the
builder, of citadels, which he had can
tured only to dismantle. He had con-
ouered Europe in open felds and General
" had disdained even to throw up breast
works His only castle had been his
bayonets and his batteries, while his
frontier. had been as far from the boun-
diaries Of France as the Vistula and the
Tiber.
The Sinking Ship.
But he no longer held anything beyond
the Pyrennes, the Alps. and the Rhine
Spain and Germany had driven him out
The AustrIans had invaded Italy and
were hastily snatching from him the first
of his fruits of victory, while hemming
in his viceroy at Milan. But adversely
only strengthened the fealty of Jose
phine's son, who replied. when the King
of Bavaria limited. at his forsaking the
Emperor and protecting himself. that he
was sure his royal father-in-law would
always prefer to find his son-on-law a
private citizen but an honest man.
rather than a King and a traitor
EuEene's loyalty. however. could not
preserve for Napoleon the iron crown OF
the Longbeards. while Murats childish
and futile perfldy was fast losing the
rest Of the Italian peninsula The King
of Naples, vainly striving to save his