History of the Expedition to Russia | Page 7

they added, that he was perfidiously treating for peace with England, on
the terms of restoring Hanover, which he was to take back from Prussia.
Drawn in at last by the general feeling, the king allowed all these
passions to burst forth. His army advanced, and threatened Napoleon;
fifteen days afterwards he had neither army nor kingdom; he fled alone;
and Napoleon dated from Berlin his decrees against England.
Humbled and conquered as Prussia thus was, it was impossible for
Napoleon to abandon his hold of her; she would have immediately
rallied, under the cannon of the Russians. Finding it impossible to gain
her to his interests, like Saxony, by a great act of generosity, the next
plan was to divide her; and yet, either from compassion, or the effect of
Alexander's presence, he could not resolve to dismember her. This was
a mistaken policy, like most of those where we stop half-way; and
Napoleon was not long before he became sensible of it. When he
exclaimed, therefore, "Is it possible that I have left this man so large a
territory?" it is probable that he did not forgive Prussia the protection of
Alexander; he hated her, because he felt that she hated him.
In fact, the sparks of a jealous and impatient hatred escaped from the
youth of Prussia, whose ideas were exalted by a system of education,
national, liberal, and mystical. It was among them that a formidable
power arose in opposition to that of Napoleon. It included all whom his
victories had humbled or offended; it had all the strength of the weak
and the oppressed, the law of nature, mystery, fanaticism, and revenge!
Wanting support on earth, it looked up for aid to Heaven, and its moral
forces were wholly out of the reach of the material power of Napoleon.
Animated by the devoted and indefatigable spirit of an ardent sect, it
watched the slightest movements and weakest points of its enemy,
insinuated itself into all the interstices of his power, and holding itself
ready to strike at every opportunity, it waited quietly with the patience
and phlegm which are the peculiar characteristics of the Germans,
which were the causes of their defeat, and against which our victory
wore itself out.

This vast conspiracy was that of the Tugendbund[1], or _Friends of
Virtue_. Its head, in other words, the person who first gave a precise
and definite direction to its views, was Stein. Napoleon perhaps might
have gained him over to his interests, but preferred punishing him. His
plan happened to be discovered by one of those chances to which the
police owes the best part of its miracles; but when conspiracies enter
into the interests, passions, and even the consciences of men, it is
impossible to seize their ramifications: every one understands without
communicating; or rather, all is communication--a general and
simultaneous sympathy.
[Footnote 1: In 1808, several literary men at Königsberg, afflicted with
the evils which desolated their country, ascribed it to the general
corruption of manners. According to these philosophers, it had stifled
true patriotism in the citizens, discipline in the army, and courage in the
people. Good men therefore were bound to unite to regenerate the
nation, by setting the example of every sacrifice. An association was in
consequence formed by them, which took the title of _Moral and
Scientific Union_. The government approved of it, merely interdicting
it from political discussions. This resolution, noble as it was, would
probably have been lost, like many others, in the vagueness of German
metaphysics; but about that time William, Duke of Brunswick, who had
been stripped of his duchy, had retired to his principality of Oels in
Silesia. In the bosom of this retreat he is said to have observed the first
progress of the Moral Union among the Prussians. He became a
member of it; and his heart swelling with hatred and revenge, he
formed the idea of another association, which was to consist of men
resolved to overthrow the confederation of the Rhine, and to drive the
French entirely out of Germany. This society, whose object was more
real and positive than that of the first, soon swallowed up the other; and
from these two was formed that of the Tugendbund, or Friends of
Virtue.
About the end of May, 1809, three enterprises--those of Katt, Dörnberg,
and Schill--had already given proofs of its existence. That of Duke
William began on the 14th of May. He was at first supported by the
Austrians. After a variety of adventures, this leader, abandoned to his

own resources in the midst of subjugated Europe, and left with only
2000 men to combat with the whole power of Napoleon, refused to
yield: he stood his ground, and threw himself into Saxony and Hanover;
but finding it impossible to raise