his bad news was confirmed, to prepare to fall back on the Alps. But,
in order to clog Murat's movements, the Emperor resolved to make use
of the spiritual power, which for six years he had slighted. He gave
orders that the aged Pope should be released from his detention at
Fontainebleau, and hurried secretly to Rome. "Let him burst on that
place like a clap of thunder," he wrote to Savary (January 21st). But
this stagey device was not to succeed. Even now Napoleon insisted on
conditions with which Pius VII. could not conscientiously comply, and
he was still detained at Tarrascon when his captor was setting out for
Elba.

Three days after Murat's desertion, Denmark fell away from Napoleon.
Overborne by the forces of Bernadotte, the little kingdom made peace
with England and Sweden, agreeing to yield up Norway to the latter
Power in consideration of recovering an indemnity in Germany. To us
the Danes ceded Heligoland. Thus, within three months of the disaster
at Leipzig, all Napoleon's allies forsook him, and all but the Danes
were now about to fight against him--a striking proof of the
artificiality of his domination.

By this time it was clear that even France would soon be stricken to
the heart unless Napoleon speedily concentrated his forces. On the
north and east the allies were advancing with a speed that nonplussed
the Emperor. Accustomed to sluggish movements on their part, he had
not expected an invasion in force before the spring, and here it was
in the first days of January. Buelow and Graham had overrun Holland.
The allies, with the exception of the Czar, had no scruples about
infringing the neutrality of Switzerland, as Napoleon had consistently
done, and the constitution, which he had imposed upon that land eleven
years before, now straightway collapsed. Detaching a strong corps
southwards to hold the Simplon and Great St. Bernard Passes and
threaten Lyons, Schwarzenberg led the allied Grand Army into France by
way of Basel, Belfort, and Langres. The prompt seizure of the Plateau
of Langres was an important success. The allies thereby turned the
strong defensive lines of the Vosges Mountains, and of the Rivers
Moselle and Meuse, so that Bluecher, with his "Army of Silesia," was
able rapidly to advance into Lorraine, and drive Victor from Nancy.
Toul speedily surrendered, and the sturdy veteran then turned to the
south-west, in order to come into touch with Schwarzenberg's columns.
Neither leader delayed b