council, which I convoked at the Tuileries, the pa-crease the feverish excitement, too plainly evident per announcing our mutual consent, and our mutual to me. I gave him his potion and changed his request for the dissolution of our marriage, and the linen, and he fell asleep; but on awaking he again senate pronounced the divorce in solemn sitting. spoke to me of the Empress Josephine, and I The decree of the senate was presented in the should only have uselessly irritated him by telling prescribed form by the Council of Thirty to the him that it was only a dream." tribunal of the metropolitan episcopal court; all the We have time and space only to say that with formalities observed in the divorce of Henry IV. were scrupulously observed, and this tribunal pro- regard to the charge of ridding himself of his invanounced the dissolution of my marriage with Jo-lid soldiers at Jaffa, Bonaparte indignantly denies, sephine in the same terms, and in the same manner as it had pronounced the divorce of Henry IV. "The Empress Josephine received from the treasury of France a million francs a year, and the fine demesne of Navarre as a royal residence. She received from my private treasury a million francs a year, and to this I added Malmaison as a country residence, and the Elysée as a residence in Paris whenever she should wish to sojourn in that city. To these gifts I added the Palace of Laaken, near Brussels, because a short time after our separation she expressed a desire to pass her winters at Brussels. I always thought that this idea was suggested to her by one of her ladies of honor, Madame Darberg, who being a member of one of the highest families in Belgium, was very glad of this opportunity of returning among her relations. and we think successfully refutes it. Having long since transcended our proper limits it remains for us only to express the candid opinion that this book of Count Montholon will deeply interest and amply repay the reader of it. We think it well written as to style, and in the main frank and liberal. While he evidently gazes upon Napoleon as the "Gran Maestro" of war and government, and cherishes his memory with a devotion rare for its strength and constancy, he nevertheless, so far as he can, admits the reader into the very penetralia of Napoleon's heart. No one can read his book without modifying for the better his opinions concerning that wonderful man of whom, (in conclusion as it is so much better than any thing we can write,) another has said, "I had long before secured the royal position of Josephine's children and family. Her daughter, "No man had ever attained a higher rank and Hortence, had married the king of Holland, and sunk from it to a lower. No man had ever been so her children were heirs-presumptive to my crown. favored and so utterly deserted by fortune. No man Engene had been adopted by me to succeed me on had ever possessed so large an influence over the the throne of Italy, in case I should die without mind of Europe and been finally an object of hosleaving two male children. I had married him to tility so universal. He was the only man in Histhe daughter of the king of Bavaria, and had given tory against whom a continent in arins pronounced him domains worth more than forty millions of sentence of overthrow; the only soldier whose perfranes in the Romagna and the Venetian States.sonal fall was the declared object of a general war; Stephanie de Beauharnais, her niece, was married and the only monarch whose capture ensured the to the Grand Duke of Baden, who is father-in-law fall of his dynasty, extinguished an empire, and of the Emperor of Russia, the King of Bavaria. finished the loftiest dream of human ambition in a and the ex-king of Sweden. Another of her nieces dungeon." married the Duke d' Aremberg, whose family was the first in Belgium. Her nephew, young Tascher, married the princess of Leyen, niece of the primate of France. I therefore had nothing to do but to continue my protection to all these objects of Josephine's affection, and I was never wanting in this; they all proved to me that they were worthy of it, except the Duchess d' Aremberg." He had seen all the phases of fortune, from its zenith to its nadir. Even when his mortal remains had slumbered a quarter of a century, they received posthumous honors such as mortal dust never before received. He rests now by a decree of France beneath a splendid mausoleum, as he deAs an evidence how true it was that he loved sired in his will, "on the banks of the Seine among Josephine, and by way of enhancing the surprise of the French people whom he loved so well." mankind at the ambition of Napoleon, who could so far trample upon all natural feeling, Count Montholon gives us, near the close of his book, the following incident, occurring the night before he died. "The Emperor was pretty calm during the night until about four in the morning, when he said to me with extraordinary emotion, I have just seen my good Josephine, but she would not embrace me; she disappeared at the moment when I was about to take her in my arms. She was seated there; it seemed to me that I had seen her yesterday evening: she is not changed; still the same-full of devotion to me. She told me that we were about to see each other again never more to part; she assured me that-did you see her?" I took great care not to say anything which might in Richmond, Nov., 1847. THE LITTLE FLOWER WEAVER. What art thou weaving there So skilfully with thy small, dimpled fingers? C. To the rich leaves. Fair one, methinks there lingers The one is glorious, and the other queenly. The Violet with the Myrtle waving greenly. And tender Myrtle is for thee most meet. Do on thy brow, O fair, and fairy creature? Thou whose pure cheek doth own The wild rose bloom. Oh! soon from each smooth feature Upon an aching brow green Laurels glitter,- Fair to the eye, but to the taste how bitter. CAPT. SIBORNE AND ANGLO-AMERICANUS. (Continued from the Dec. No.) We were interrupted in our reply to the queries of Anglo Americanus, just as we were proceeding to show that the French army at Crecy, Agincourt, &c., &c., was little better than an undisciplined rabble. At this point we take up the thread of our remarks. The nature and machinery of the Feudal System are, doubtless, too generally understood to require a full exposition from us. Yet as they have a direct bearing upon the questions propounded, at least so far as they involve the battles of Crecy, Poictiers, and Agincourt, we do not see how we can well avoid a brief recurrence to them. established in England by William the Conqueror, who invaded that country in 1066, and who having destroyed the Anglo-Saxon army in the battle of Hastings, took advantage of numerous insurrections among his new subjects, to seize upon the whole realm, and divide it among his officers, upon the principle of the Feudal System. In a very short time many of the Normans who came over with William becoming discontented, or for other reasons, retired into Scotland, where they offered their services to Malcolm, the son and heir of that Duncan who was murdered by Macbeth, who, in return, gave them certain lands to be held by military tenure; so that the Feudal System may be considered as universally established before the end of the 11th century. Our readers are perfectly aware of the nature of a Feudal army. The nobles, or knights, fought on horseback, clothed in steel, with long lances, swords, and battle axes, or maces. Persons of inferior degree, fought on foot, armed with bows and arrows, cross-bows, &c., while the peasant brought along with him only such arms as were cheap and ready of access. A single knight was, in many instances, capable of routing and riding down hundreds of them; for these latter were clothed in complete armor, and, unless the horse, which was also sheathed in iron, should fall, when the knight could not rise without assistance and might thus be dispatched, were, literally, invulnerable. It will readily be understood, that the arms, acThe king, as the great Feudal lord, or lord para- coutrements, &c. of his vassals, all depended, in a mount, was, strictly speaking, the owner of all the very great degree, nay, almost entirely, upon the land, he being the only person in the kingdom who wealth of the great Feudal lords, for being bound possessed allodial property in the soil. He granted to furnish a certain number of men, he was comimmense tracts of country to certain great lords, pelled to bring them into the field, let them be who held it on the condition of rendering him certain equipped as they might. It was an aim of the services, mostly of a military nature. These lords kings of France, from a very early period, to break again divided their possessions among others of in- down the power of the great nobles; but perhaps ferior power, who stood to them in the same rela- a system of finance, adopted by them in entire igtion which they bore to the king. From these sec-norance of the true principles of that science, preondary lords others again derived their title, the cipitated their downfall with more certainty than, division being from one to another almost indefinite, from the king on his throne down to the lowest hind or villein in the king's dominions. Each inferior was bound to render his superior, in case of war, a certain amount in military service, according to the value of his fief, from the baron who came to the assistance of the king with a thousand retainers to the peasant who had nothing to offer The principal weight of this disastrous measure but his own muscles and sinews. In time of war fell always, of course, upon the great Feudal landthe king called upon his great barons for their quota holder, who failed not to make exactions to comof men-the barons upon their feudatories for their pensate for it, upon those who were immediately proportions-these feudatories upon their imme-within his power. The principal effect of it, howdiate dependants, &c., &c. Such was the com-ever, was felt in the military array of the kingposition of a feudal army, each chief in his degree dom, for the great barons had it not in their power, being entirely responsible for all the expense at- if they had the inclination, any longer to array their tendant upon his immediate array. This system, vassals as became the feudatories of a French which had become universal on the continent, was king. in a later period, did all the bloody measures of Louis XI., of Sully and of Richelieu. We allude to the wretched practice existing in France, long previous to the reign of Philip of Valois, (the same who was beaten at Crecy,) of debasing the coin and forcing it, under severe penalties, into circulation at its nominal value. The bill-men carried long bills, or knives, shaped like pruning knives, and set upon long handles. They were very unwieldy, and by no means preferable to the spear. "The ordinary infantry of France," (says al was a cloth yard in length. They drew the bow writer, surely not deficient in national pride-we to the ear, and as they were of prodigious stiffness, mean Sir Walter Scott-speaking of this very pe-and the men generally exceedingly strong, they riod, the invasion of France by Edward III.) " ad- flew an immense distance. The accuracy of their ded much to the numbers, but little to the military aim, if not exaggerated, surpassed anything known strength, and a great deal to the unwieldy confu- in the practice of fire-arms. When they made a sion of their great armies. These poor men knew discharge against an advancing column it resemthat they were little trusted to, and cannot be sup- bled a shower of hail; and so rapid and accurate posed to have displayed much zeal in behalf of was the discharge, that the boldest column of inmasters by whom they were contemned and op- fantry in Europe could not stand before it. The pressed. They wore almost no defensive armor Archer was, himself, out of danger, his bow carryexcept tanned hides, and were irregularly armed ing so far, that no missile, in the possession of the with swords, spears, or clubs, as offensive weapons. enemy, could reach him before the column was No kind of discipline was taught them, and when fairly routed. The only possible way to neutralise attacked by the men-at-arms, they seem frequently his attack was by a sudden charge of men-at-arms to have made no more defence than might have been as was practiced by Robert Bruce at the batexpected of a flock of sheep." All this was oc- tle of Bannockburn, when, being poorly provided casioned by the fatal financial measures alluded to against such assaults, they were of course obliged in conjunction with others of a like nature, all ope- to give way. Provision was usually made for their rating through the baron on the peasant, and re-retreat, as for that of skirmishers and light troops coiling, finally, on the king himself. The same in a modern army, or else they were protected by author says, the "men-at-arms on both sides might the men-at-arms of their own army. be considered on an equality." That is to say, being equally treated, equally trained, and equally armed, there was no discoverable superiority. This is a very ingenuous confession from a writer so full of prejudices, and who was so wont to fill pages of what Let us now come to the battle of Crecy, since he called history, with vain-glorious laudations of we have cleared the way to the better comprehenBritish valor, to the thorough disgust of every im- sion of an issue otherwise altogether unintelligible. partial reader. The infantry, indeed, at that pe- In the year 1346, Philip of Valois being at that riod, with the exception of the English Archers, time king of France, Edward III., at the head of a seem to have been little regarded; at the battle of large army, splendidly equipped, admirably trained, Crecy, they were an incumbrance, for they se- and having among them a large proportion of those riously impeded the attack of the men-at-arms. terrible Archers who had so often decided the vicThese things certainly argue no inferiority of race. tory in favor of England, in Scotland as well as in Far different was the education of the English France, landed in the latter kingdom and comArcher and bill-man. In the first place, they were menced ravaging the whole country on the borders less oppressed, and thought more of themselves as of the Seine with fire and sword. After threatenmen. Secondly, they were better trained and arm-ening the city of Paris for some time, he suddenly ed, and in the third place, better care was taken to turned eastward, burning and destroying every keep them in preparation for service. At this time, thing before him. The French monarch followed no weapon being in existence which possessed the with an immense force and came up with him at advantage of shooting and striking, as the musket the field of Crecy, in the country of Ponthien, now does, the English infantry was divided into posted in immensely strong position. The weather archers and bill-men. The first was the most for- was very warm, it being in the month of August, midable species of force known to Europe at that and the English had the advantage of a sound day, and was the cause of nearly every victory of night's rest, while the French, in spite of the heat consequence gained by the English, from the battle of the weather, had been hurried over fifteen of Falkirk to that of Agincourt, a period of more leagues to attack the enemy. Their whole march than two hundred years. The education of the was riotous and disorderly, resembling the inroad Archer commenced with his earliest youth, prizes of a furious rabble, as in fact, for the most part, they of archery being customarily offered in all the vil- were. Their total want of discipline is evinced by lages, in order to keep up the English superiority the fact, that when Philip, in compliance with the in this formidable species of troops. The best advice of some of his officers, halted the vanguard, Archers were thus well known, and they were se- in order that they might take some rest before enlected for service in such proportions as the occa- tering upon such a serious adventure, the rear posision required. Their dress was light, and their tively refused to stop, but pressed on, with the decarmament consisted of a bow and twelve forked ar- laration, that “they did not mean to be left behind." rows, at their girdles, which they were accustomed The Genoese cross-bow-men, 15,000, occupied the to term "the lives of twelve Scots," each of which front. They had been employed as a match for the English Archers, but in the open field they | who were advancing to charge the archers, and a were not. Their arms were heavy and unwieldy, scene of indescribable confusion ensued. The horand the bow, which was of steel, was so stiff that ror of this terrific moment was increased by an it was obliged to be bent by a windlass. The disorder given by the French king, who cried out to charge was of course very slow, while that of the the men-at-arms to charge through and over the Archers was like a shower of hail. They dis- helpless multitude. This order was obeyed, and charged at least eight or ten arrows for one bolt the men-at-arms became a mark for the archers, from the cross-bow-men. The latter, when they who slew them without mercy, and without their came in sight of the enemy, halted, and insisted on being able in the slightest degree to extricate themresting, after a forced march of four or five leagues selves. A part of them having become disentanthrough a hot sun, under the weight of their heavy gled, rode along the entire line, exposed all the arms. This the Duc d'Alençon, the king's brother, way to the arrows of the enemy, and exhausted as positively refused, and they were forced into battle, they were, attacked the men-at-arms under the fatigued as they were, with an enemy perfectly re-immediate command of the Prince of Wales, known freshed, in position, and prepared at all points. in history as the “ Black Prince." They were men. eleven princes, eighty knights-banneret, twelve hundred knights, and about thirty-five thousand rank and file, having been stretched upon that bloody field, never to rise again. The whole force of the French king was 115,000 | speedily repulsed, and the whole front line, which Of these there were nine thousand men-at- had advanced in the most unmilitary and disorderly arms, six thousand lancers, and fifteen thousand Ge- | style, was thrown back upon the rear, producing innoese cross-bow-men, who might be called good extricable confusion, in the midst of which a territroops. The rest were that species of rabble des- ble slaughter was inflicted upon them, two kings, cribed by Sir Walter Scott in the passage above quoted. The king of England had with him about 35,000 troops all told; they were all troops of high discipline, and had been accustomed to arms. They were in fact veterans. Among them were nearly It is apparent that this battle, so far from being ten thousand men-at-arms, (as many as there were a struggle for victory between men of equal apin the French army,) and at least as many archers. pointments, was a mere massacre, for the English The bill-men were all veteran soldiers, accustomed only lost a few hundred men. The bad equipments to war from their youths, and, like all other vete- of the French, their total want of discipline, the rans, able to beat the militia in the proportion of at | ignorance, presumption and hasty folly of their least three or four to one. Such being the com- leaders must have rendered them an easy prey to position of the two armies, when we take into con- | half the number of well-disciplined troops, Engsideration the fact that one of them was command-lish or any thing else. There is no necessity to ed by a hair-brained and impetuous youth, (the Duc d'Alençon,) and the other by the most experienced warrior of the age, we are at no loss to account for the terrible disaster that ensued. call to aid any fancied superiority of race, to account for the catastrophe. It was as inevitable as was the defeat of our forces at Bladensburg. or The battle of Poictiers, which occurred five The cross-bow-men being forced forward in spite or six years after, was in every respect a much of their remonstrances by d'Alençon, had yet a more remarkable affair. The French were there, further disadvantage to encounter. A thunder to their enemy, in the proportion of seven storm arising as they advanced, thoroughly wetted eight to one, and the proportion of men-at-arms the strings of their cross-bows, while it did no in- was much greater than in the battle of Crecy. jury to the English archers, who always carried a Yet the same disorder, the same want of considdouble supply in cases made for that purpose. Iteration, the same absence even of common pruis almost certain, however, that, without this acci- | dence is observable in both. The Black Prince dent, they could not have withstood the terrible had posted his little army in a position so strong, discharge of their opponents, for having made one that it resembled a fortress. It was at the option discharge, the English, according to Froissart, who of King John to have blockaded him until he were formed in the shape of a hurse or harrow, surrendered at discretion, or to have attacked him made one step forward and simultaneously let fly at once. Prudence recommended the first; morsuch a volley of arrows that it seemed to snow. tified pride, the worst of all counsellors, determinEvery shaft found out its man, and as the archers ed him to adopt the latter alternative. The Engfired eight or ten volleys while the cross-bow-men lish army was amply supplied with archers, that were loading their weapons, it may be conceived species of force to which so many of their victothat no troops could long stand unmoved. They ries were due, and the Prince placed these behind broke, in fact, without having been able to fire a hedges in a position entirely unassailable by cavsecond volley, and left the field in the wildest dis- alry. But perhaps the best idea of his position may, many of them cutting the strings of their may be formed from the account rendered to the bows, as an apology for flight! In their flight they French King, by Sir Eustace de Ribeaumont who came in contact with the French men-at-arms, had reconnoitred it. "Sir, we have seen the ene my. By our guess they amount to two thousand | plainly that the affair was a massacre rather than a men-at-arms, four thousand archers, and two thou-battle. In that case 3,000 raw militia, with the adsand other men ; which troops appear to us to form vantage of strong works, beat so absolutely 12,000 bat one division. They are strongly posted, wise-Peninsular veterans, that they made them absoly ordered, and their position is well-nigh inacces-lutely run off the field-not retreat in good order, sible. If you would attack them, there is but one nor even in a disorderly manner-but literally run. passage, where four horsemen may ride abreast, Now, if the small loss of the Americans proves which leads to the centre of their line. The hedg- too much, what does the insignificant loss of the es which flank this access are lined with archers, English in these engagements prove? Why that and the English main body itself consists of dis- they were contending with a rabble, or that they mounted men-at-arms, before whom a large body were so posted as to defy attack. of archers are arranged in the form of a hurse or harrow. By this difficult passage alone, you can approach the English position. Think, therefore, what is to be done." This is the description of a position utterly impregnable, except to artillery, of which there was none in either army. The Prince afterwards sent a body of men-at-arms around the hill to lie in wait and attack the rear and flank when it was engaged. The French King, deeming the position unassailable on horseback, for, as we have seen, not more than four could ride abreast, dismounted all of his menat-arms but three hundred, and made them cut their lances to the length of four or five feet to act as infantry. The three hundred were ordered to enter the pass and clear away the archers They had no sooner done so, than a volley of arrows from the hedges, not only slew half the men, but rendered the horses perfectly unmanageable. A large body of dismounted men-at-arms sent up to assist them, were routed by the arrows with prodigious slaughter, and falling back on the second line, threw it into confusion. At that moment it was attacked by the men in ambush, and the whole, falling back on the infantry, a disastrous route ensued. It is remarkable that in this battle, the French were assisted by a number of Scotch men-at-arms, over whom Bannockburn forbids England to claim any superiority, equal to the whole of that species of force in the English army. The loss of Prince Edward was very trifling. There was one battle, however, in the days of chivalry, only forty years before that of Crecy, equally remarkable with it, in which the defeated party could not claim the apology of being undisciplined and badly armed. We allude to Bannockburn, where the veteran army of Edward I. led on by his son and successor, the second of that name, and amounting to more than 100,000 men, was routed as signally by Robert Bruce at the head of 30,000 Scotchmen, as Philip, John, or Charles were, by Edward, the Black Prince, and Henry. Does any Englishman mean to say that the Scotch as a race are as far superior to the English, as the English are to the French? With great complacency the Englishman accounts for his defeat by saying, that Edward I. was no longer alive-that his successor was effeminate and unwarlike-and that the chances were unequal, Bruce being one of the most experienced warriors in the world. If such excuse be available, we would ask, when did Eugland ever see such warlike monarchs as Edward III. and Henry V. ? Our theory with regard to the prowess of nations is far different from that implied in the question of Anglo-Americanus. We believe that all the nations of Europe-those at least who have not degenerated-are so nearly on an equality in this particular, that in a contest between equal forces of any two of them, (equal in every particular we mean,) in nine cases out of ten the genius of the commander is sufficient to turn the scale. The These scenes were repeated sixty-five years af- French under Turenne habitually defeated the Austerwards by King Henry V., who with fifteen thou-trians; the Austrians under Eugene inflicted a sesand men defeated nearly 100,000 at the battle of vere defeat on the French. The Prussians under Agincourt. It is sufficient for the reader to know, the great Frederick routed the French at Rossbach; that ten thousand gentlemen were killed and prob- on the very same ground fifty years afterwards, ably double that number of boors--that the Eng- the French under Napoleon annihilated the Pruslish King made ten thousand prisoners-and that sian army. The Englishman we consider equal to he lost only forty men, to enable him to see what any soldier in the world; we see no reason to besort of a fight this was and what sort of troops the lieve him any better. And these considerations vanquished must have been. It was in fact like lead us to the last battle for the event of which we Crecy and Poictiers, no fight at all, but a massacre are required to account; that namely of Blenheim. by disciplined soldiers, of half-armed and half- We should feel prouder, were we English, of naked boors. We recollect, some years since, in this achievement, and of the great man who peran English periodical, to have read an article upon formed it, than of all the victories gained by the American affairs, in which the author, speaking in- semi-barbarous kings who made the earth a scene cidentally of the battle of New Orleans, said, that of havoc during the middle ages. Brought about the small comparative loss of the Americans in by a series of splendid manœuvres, fought by forthat affair proved too much. It showed but too ces between whom the disparity was so slight as VOL. XIV-7 |