e fortresses of
France, after the disasters of 1812 and '13, failed to save the nation,
the cause must be sought for in the peculiar features of the invasion
itself, rather than any lack of military influence in the French
defences. As has been already remarked, a million of disciplined men,
under consummate leaders, were here assailing a single state,
impoverished by the fatal war in Russia,--torn in pieces by political
factions,--deserted by its sworn allies,--its fortresses basely betrayed
into the enemy's hands, and its military power paralyzed by the treason
of generals with their entire armies. Its only hope was in the
fortresses which had remained faithful; and Napoleon said at St. Helena,
that if he had collected together the garrisons of these few fortresses
and retired to the Rhine, he could have crushed the allies even after
their entrance into Paris. But political considerations prevented the
operation.

Again in 1815, Napoleon, even after the defeat of Waterloo, possessed
lines of defence sufficiently strong to resist all attempts at invasion.
But again the want of co-operation on the part of the government at
Paris, and the treason of his own generals, forced his second
abdication. If he had retained the command of the army, and the nation
had seconded his efforts, the allies would never have reached Paris. But
the new government presented the disgraceful spectacle of opening the
way for the enemies of their country. "France," said Napoleon, "will
eternally reproach the ministry with having forced her whole people to
pass under the Caudine-forks, by ordering the disbanding of an army that
had for twenty-five years been its country's glory, _and by giving up to
our astonished enemies our still invincible fortresses_."

History fully supports Napoleon's opinion of the great danger of
penetrating far into a hostile country to attack the capital, even when
that capital is without fortifications. The fatal effects of such an
advance, without properly securing the means of retreat, is exemplified
by his own campaign of 1812, in Russia. If, after the fall of Smolensk,
he had fortified that place and Vitepsk, which by their position closed
the narrow passage comprised between the Dnieper and the Dwina, he might
in all probability, on the following spring, have been able to seize
upon Moscow and St. Petersburg. But leaving the hostile army of
Tschkokoff in his rear, he pushed on to Moscow, and when the
conflagrat