NAPOLEON'S INVASION OF FRANCE. 283 LESSON CXCIX. -JULY THE EIGHTEENTH. Napoleon's Invasion of France, after his Escape from Elba. On the 6th of March, 1815, Napoleon hastened towards Grenoble. He was anxious to arrive there, that he might receive intelligence from his friends at Paris. By that his future proceedings would be regulated, and on it his fate depended. As he passed through St. Bonnet, with his advanced guard, the inhabitants proposed to ring the tocsin, to assemble the villagers, and accompany him en masse. "No!" replied he, "Your sentiments prove to me that I have not deceived myself, and they afford me a sure pledge of the sentiments of my soldiers. I do not need your services, and will not drag you from your homes. Those whom I meet will range themselves on my side, and the more numerous they are, the more certain will be my success." The advanced guard of Napoleon reached, at midnight, the village of Mure, where they met the advanced guard of the troops from Grenoble, who were advancing to impede the progress of the invaders. General Cambronne, who commanded the troops of Napoleon, while the latter reposed at Gap, requested a parley, but received a cold and insulting answer. Napoleon now arrived upon the spot, and proceeded to the front of the royal troops, accompanied only by two officers of his staff. They consisted of a battalion of eight hundred men: arriving within pistol shot, he alighted, and advancing to the right of the battalion, which, apparently, only awaited the command of its officers to fire upon him, he bared his bosom, and thus addressed them. "Behold me! If there be one soldier among you who wishes to kill his emperor, let him come forward from the ranks and fire upon me!" The effect was instantaneous, the soldiers grounded their arms, and the air resounded with acclamations. The guard and the soldiers interchanged the courtesies of mutual friendship, the white cockade disappeared from their caps, and the national colours were immediately displayed. In a few moments the soldiers had mounted their tri-coloured cockades. It was highly observable that these emblems of attachment to the emperor were not new, or purchased by his orders. They were the old colours, under which they had formerly marched to victory, and which they had carefully concealed at the bottom of their haversacks. The faded and tattered ribands were shown with enthusiasm. "See," exclaimed the exulting soldiers, "they are the same which we wore at Austerlitz and Marengo." Having formed a square, Napoleon placed himself in their centre, and once more harangued them. "Soldiers, I am come with a handful of men to deliver you from the Bourbons, from treason, from feudal tyranny, and from the abuses by which they have been accompanied. The throne of the Bourbons is illegitimate, because it is contrary to the wishes of the nation. It exists only in the interests of a few families. Is not this true, comrades?" "Yes, sire!" they exclaimed, "You are our emperor, and we will follow you to victory or death!" No time was lost in marching to Grenoble, a town defended, among other troops, by the fourth regiment of artillery, the very regiment in which, twenty-five years before, Buonaparte had commenced his military career, and in which his memory was still idolized. The seventh regiment, also stationed in Grenoble, and commanded by Colonel Labedoyère, when the invasion of Napoleon was announced, participated in the general surprise. He resolved to join the cause of the invader, and his soldiers were well prepared to second his intentions. He had scarcely begun to disclose his views and wishes, when he was interrupted by the cry of "Long live the emperor!" He allowed them no time for reflection, but, affixing an eagle to a willow branch, hastened to effect his purpose. General Devillers, alarmed and astonished at hearing from a distance the shouts of the exulting soldiery, hurried to the ramparts, and discovered that the troops had left the city, and were almost out of sight. At nine o'clock in the evening, Napoleon, reinforced by the division of Labedoyère, arrived before Grenoble, with an army more than double that which he commanded on the preceding day. The gates were closed, and the ramparts were defended by the troops of the garrison, but the keys were formally demanded. Information was returned that Marchand, the governor, had left the city and taken them away. The delay occasioned by this circumstance, only facilitated the tumultuous movement of the troops and inhabitants upon the ramparts. The emperor was recognized at a little distance; the intelligence was communicated with the rapidity of lightning; "He comes! he comes!" resounded from one part of the city to another, and the cannoniers, who stood at their places with lighted matches, joined in the disaffection of their companions, and ⚫ forsook their guns. The engineers of Napoleon had scarcely prepared to force the gates, when the whole garrison threw down their arms, trampled under foot the white cockade, and, rushing to the gates, burst them open. Napoleon entered Grenoble at 10 o'clock, amidst the plaudits of an immense and enthusiastic crowd of officers and soldiers. 1. From what island had Buonaparte escaped? and where is it situated? 2. How did Napoleon conduct himself when he met the advanced guard coming from Grenoble ? 3. What instantaneous effect had this on the soldiers? LESSON CC.-JULY THE NINETEENTH. AGRICULTURE, in a general sense, denotes the art of rendering the earth fertile by tillage and culture. Its theory includes the nature and properties of land, the different sorts of plants fitted for it, and the rotation of crops. The practical part comprehends the labours of husbandry, with the implements and animals appertaining thereto. Since the revival of the arts, the science of agriculture has been zealously cultivated by the higher orders. The writers likewise on this subject have within the last century been more numerous than at any former period; and every effort has been made by experiments, inventions, and improvements, to render the land productive. Nor can this be a matter of wonder, since it is the most important science to which the human intellect can be directed, alike interesting all nations and all ages, and spreading an influence over the whole circle of our wants, comforts, pleasures, luxuries, arts, and commerce. It is the basis of all other arts, and in all countries coeval with the first dawn of civilization. It is not only indispensable to national prosperity, but is eminently conducive to the welfare of those who are engaged in it. It gives health to the body, energy to the mind, is favourable to virtuous and temperate habits, and to purity of moral character. In the energetic language of Dr. Johnson we may truly say, that " though mines of gold and silver should be exhausted, and the specie made of them lost; though diamonds and pearls should remain concealed in the bowels of the earth and the womb of the sea; though commerce with strangers be prohibited; though all arts, which have no other object than splendour and embellishment, should be abolished: yet the fertility of the earth alone would afford an abundant supply for the occasions of an industrious people, by furnishing subsistence for them, and such armies as should be mustered in their defence. We, therefore, ought not to be surprised that agriculture was in so much honour among the ancients; for it ought rather to seem wonderful that it should ever cease to be so, and that the most necessary and most indispensable of all professions should have fallen into any contempt." It must not, however, be forgotten, that the husbandmen of antiquity, as well as those of the middle ages, were destitute of many advantages enjoyed by the modern cultivator. Neither the practical nor the theoretical agriculturists of those periods had any correct knowledge of geology, mineralogy, chemistry, botany, vegetable physiology, or natural philosophy; but these sciences have given the modern husbandman the command of important agents, elements, and principles, of which the ancients had no idea. Nature's most simple modes of operation were to them inexplicable, and their ignorance of causes often led to erroneous calculations with regard to effects. To modern science we are indebted, among numerous other advantages, for the knowledge and means of chemically analyzing soils, by which we can ascertain their constituent parts, and thus learn what substances are wanted to increase their fertility; for immense improvements in the implements used in husbandry; and for the art of breeding the best animals and obtaining the most nutritive vegetables, by a judicious selection of individuals and species to propagate from. These, and many other things of nearly equal importance, have rendered the agriculture of the present period infinitely superior to that of the middle ages, and even greatly surpassing the degree of perfection it had attained during the days of Roman greatness. 1. What does the theory of agriculture include? 2. What is comprehended in the practical part? 3. Repeat, as nearly as you can remember, what Dr. Johnson says in favour of agriculture? 4. In what respect is agriculture indebted to modern science ? THE BLESSINGS OF HEALTH. 287 LESSON CCI.-JULY THE TWENTIETH. The Blessings of Health. HEALTH, invaluable treasure!-thou givest fresh lustre to the beams of the sun, and fresh radiance to the skies of heaven! Thou bestowest a more balmy odour on the breath of morning, and deepenest the richness of that tincture which flushes over the rose! Ah! Health, thou prime source of pleasure, and vivifying soul of every felicity beneath the moon! for thee and thy inspiring influence I would travel, were I assured of meeting thy rewarding smiles, into the heart of the most uncheery and unpeopled climate. With what a fervent alacrity doth the sick man leave even his velvet couch and downy pillows, to court those breezes and those vales, however distant and obscure, which thou deignest to frequent. No desert can long deserve that name, or long remain barren, which is honoured by thy radiating presence. Wherever thou journeyest, plenty and pleasure are thy harbingers;—the thorn is softened to a flower, and from the barren rock issues, at thy bidding, the most copious streams of living water. In thy train are all the graces, and the gayest assemblage of those enchanting ideas which those graces inspire. Imagination, fancy, poesy, and every power belonging to her divine and ingenious sisters, are thine. They describe, sing, design, paint, and regulate their separate arts, each allied to the other, only under thy immediate auspices. With the blessings of health come spontaneously the blessing of correcter remark. The eye acquires a clearer light of its object-the intellect is cleansed of those cloudy films which before obscured it-and the ways of men, their manners and their hearts, are more easily read, and more easily wrought upon. 66 'Hygeia, hail! I'll drink at thy pure spring, Where Temperance and Exercise preside; And while life's dearest boon thy handmaids bring, The tempting goblet from my lips I'll fling Scorning the gifts by luxury supplied. Hail! then, Hygeia, hail! thee, goddess, I adore,' For, blest with health, I'm rich,-though scanty be my store." 1. Why is health called an invaluable treasure? 2. What comes spontaneously with the blessings of health? 3. Repeat the concluding stanza. |