But Napoleon's range and pace returned in 1808, as he swept into Madrid and out again in menccing pursuit of the British expeditionary force, which the unchanging übiquity of sea power had planted on the coast àf Portugal. The Empetor war soon sweeping across Europe on Vienna, In a five-day mähoeuvre he drove the Atistrians into Bohemia; and within three weeks of his arrival in Gerfnany he rode into Vienna once again. That summer there was a good deal of fighting on the level fields outside the city as he tried to convince thè Austrisns of their defeat. At Aspern-Essling they were slow th learn their lesson. But he emphasized the point at Wagram, and one more war wound up in a Napoleonic victory.
The hunt was resumed in eastern Europe, es Napoleon passed 400,000 men in four days across the Niemen into Rüssia. In twelve weeks he was at Moscow, riding into the last conquered capital of his career. This time a military. victory. was indecisive, and the geographical achievement of occupying Moscow and thrusting into the heart of Russia proved indecisive too. For the heart of Russia proved to be movable. It was in the Russian armies; and Since they managed to elude his blows. Napoleon never reached it with His thrust. (It was the lesson of 1812, and it may well be that of 1940, that a military victory is not necessarily decisive).
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A shrewd English soldier once compared Napoléon's career to the trajoctory of & cannon ball, which must either go on or drop, When he could go 6n no further, Napoleon dropped: and the stáges of his fall are mathed By the names of the receding tide of Battles fought with decreasing forces as his armies ebbed toward the French frontier. Then the war enfered France. Guns thundered at the gates of Paris, and presently the tide of foreign uniforms flowed victoriously through its conquered streets. ás a whitefaced man sat huddled in 4 Russian. Army cloak in the far corner of his carriage, while hooting mobs with angry eyes threatened their on His way to exile: That was the end, until he made a swift return the next year, thrust into Belgium. arid tasted final military failure 25 miles from the French troutier at Waterloo.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.