l, at Abensberg and at Eckmuhl. Again he
occupied Vienna; but its fall did not discourage the Austrians, who,
soon after, were marshalled against the French at Wagram, which
dreadful battle made Napoleon once more the conqueror of Austria. On
the 14th of November, 1809, he returned to Paris, and soon after made
the grand mistake of his life.

He resolved to divorce Josephine, whom he loved and respected; a woman
fully worthy of his love, and of the exalted position to which she was
raised. But she had no children, and Napoleon wanted an heir to the
universal empire which he sought to erect on the ruins of the ancient
monarchies of Europe. The dream of Charlemagne and of Charles V. was
his, also--the revival of the great Western Empire. Moreover, Napoleon
sought a domestic alliance with the proud family of the German
emperor. He sought, by this, to gratify his pride and strengthen his
throne. He perhaps also contemplated, with the Emperor of Austria for
his father and ally, the easy conquest of Russia. Alexander so
supposed. "His next task," said he, "will be to drive me back to my
forests."

The Empress Josephine heard of the intentions of Napoleon with
indescribable anguish, but submitted to his will; thus sacrificing her
happiness to what she was made to believe would advance the welfare of
her country and the interests of that heartless conqueror whom she
nevertheless loved with unparalleled devotion. On the 11th of March,
1810, the espousals of Napoleon and Maria Louisa were celebrated at
Vienna, the person of the former being represented by his favorite
Berthier. A few days afterwards she set out for France; and her
marriage, in a domestic point of view, was happy. Josephine had the
advantage over her in art and grace, but she was superior in the
charms of simplicity and modesty. "It is singular," says Sir Walter
Scott, "that the artificial character should have belonged to the
daughter of a West India planter; that, marked by nature and
simplicity, to a princess of the proudest court in Europe."

[Sidenote: War in Spain.]

Meanwhile, the war in Spain was prosecuted, and Napoleon was master of
its richest and most powerful provinces. Seventy-five thousand men in
Andalusia, under Soult; fifty thousand under Marmont, in Leon; sixty
thousand under Bessieres, at Valladolid and Biscay; forty-five
thousand under Macdonald, at Gerona, to guard Catalonia; thirty
thousand under Suchet, twenty thousand under Joseph and