For a few years it
seemed as if the original empire might be restored. The power of
Napoleon, indeed, extended farther than that of his great predecessor,
all Europe west of Russia becoming virtually his. Some of the kings were
replaced by monarchs of his creation. Others were left upon their
thrones, but with their power shorn, their dignity being largely one of
vassalage to France. Not content with an empire that stretched beyond
the limits of that of Charlemagne or of the Roman Empire of the West,
Napoleon ambitiously sought to subdue all Europe to his imperial will,
and marched into Russia with nearly all the remaining nations of Europe
as his forced allies.
His career as a conqueror ended in the snows of Muscovy and amid the
flames of Moscow. The shattered fragment of the grand army of conquest
that came back from that terrible expedition found crushed and dismayed
Germany rising into hostile vitality in its rear. Russia pursued its
vanquished invader, Prussia rose against him, Austria joined his foes,
and at length, in October, 1813, united Germany was marshalled in arms
against its mighty enemy before the city of Leipsic, the scene of the
great battles of the Thirty Years' War, nearly two centuries before.
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