of honour. On the renewal of hostilities with Austria, he left Hanover with his forces, joined the Bavarian army at Wurzburg, and marched to the siege of Ulm. At the battle of Austerlitz, his corps broke through the centre of the Russian army, and on the 5th June, 1806, Napoleon appointed him prince of Ponte-Corvo. In the war against Prussia, he commanded the first corps and greatly distinguished himself. On the 14th October, following up his advantages against the Prussian army, he pursued General Blücher to Lübeck, where he compelled him to capitulate. He was the only French commander who earnestly endeavoured to prevent the fate of this unfortunate town. He also behaved with great kindness towards 1500 Swedish prisoners, which excited the greatest esteem for him in Sweden, and was probably the foundation of that national regard which afterwards raised him to the throne. After this he advanced towards Poland, and on 25th January, 1807, was present at the bloody battle of Morungen. Fighting afterwards against the Russians, he was wounded at Spanden on June 5, and was thus unable to take part in the battle of Friedland. After the peace of Tilsit, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army stationed in North Germany, and made stadtholder of the Hanseatic towns, with command to march into Denmark, and take possession of Sweden and Finland. Pomerania was already in his hands when King Gustavus IV. was dethroned by the revolution of 1809, and various causes prevented the carrying out of this scheme. In April, 1809, Bernadotte was ordered to the Danube; here he took command, in the war against Austria, of the allied troops, principally Saxons, and led them to the battle of Wagram, where they fought with the most unexampled bravery. The Saxons took Wagram, and kept their ground for two hours in the burning village. As they had lost great numbers of their body, Bernadotte ordered General Dupas, whose division belonged to the 9th corps, to support the Saxons. But Dupas hesitated; he had, he said, received superior orders to remain where he was. Astonished at this Bernadotte determined to save the remnant of his brave Saxons, and hastened to headquarters to remonstrate. "If they wanted his death," he said, there were other less hateful means of accomplishing it, than by murdering with him such numbers of brave men." The emperor was again displeased, because he had issued in his own name a proclamation after the battle, in which he called the Saxon troops "the granite column." Nevertheless he endeavoured to explain away the cause of dissatisfaction which Bernadotte felt on being left unaided, by saying that such misunderstandings were unavoidable in great actions; but Bernadotte, on an armistice being concluded, returned to Paris.
Bernadotte, however, could not remain inactive, and on the landing of the English at Walcheren, the minister of the interior and the minister of war urged upon him the command of the troops. He accordingly called out the national guard, and by a series of marches and counter-marches, compelled the enemy to evacuate the island. Spite of all this the emperor, still continuing to be distrustful of him, superseded him in his command, and ordered him to return to his principality; but instead of doing so, Bernadotte demanded his discharge. Sent back to Austria by the minister of war, he had an interview with the emperor at Vienna, when an apparent reconciliation took place. Still, however, the emperor considered him dangerous to his power, and in order to remove him from his sphere of influence, offered him the office of governor-general of the Roman states, which after some hesitation he accepted.
Bernadotte was in Paris making preparation for his departure to Rome, when events were taking place in the north which entirely altered the whole future of his life. But before we proceed with the incidents of his life, it is necessary to take a hasty glance at the state of affairs in Sweden. Gustavus IV., king of Sweden, had in consequence of incapacity been compelled to abdicate his crown in March, 1809, and the states of Sweden had declared him and his descendants excluded from the throne for ever. His uncle, the duke of Sudermania, assumed the government under the title of Karl XIII.; but, being childless, the brother of the reigning duke of Augustenburg was chosen as his heir and successor. This young man, however, suddenly dying 26th May, 1810, not without suspicion of poison, it was necessary to choose another heir to the crown. Many candidates offered themselves; but none seemed to have the requirements needful, where a man of firmness, experience, and military abilities was so requisite. It was not extraordinary, perhaps, that Bernadotte, already so favourably known by his kind behaviour to the Swedish prisoners, and by his moderation and wisdom in his government of the Hanseatic towns, should suggest himself to the minds of the Swedish nation; and it is unquestionable that, as soon as his name was publicly proposed, it was universally accepted. The immediate means in which, however, this extraordinary event was brought about, has been only made known of late years. It was revealed by M. A. Geoffray in the Revue des Deux Mondes from memoirs compiled and arranged by M. Bergman, son-in-law of Colonel Schinkel, aid-de-camp to the late king of Sweden, from private papers left in the hands of that officer by his majesty himself, to assist in drawing up a memoir of his life. The circumstances as thus related are shortly these. A lieutenant of the Swedish army, M. Mörner, arrived in Paris in June, 1810, with despatches for Herr von Lagerbjelke, the Swedish ambassador. Young and enthusiastic, he was an ardent admirer of Napoleon, and could imagine no one so fitted to rule over Sweden as one of his generals; therefore no sooner had he delivered his despatches, than he hastened to M. Lapie the geographer, one of his Parisian friends, and broached the subject to him. Lapie, on his side young also and enthusiastic, was flattered by this compliment to his emperor, and seized the idea with avidity. The subject was discussed, and the merits of the various generals weighed. None had equal merits or equal recommendations to the mind of the Swede with Bernadotte. Lapie was quite acquiescent, and the affair being so far agreed, Lapie sounded General Guilleminot as to the probable sentiments of the emperor, whilst Mörner consulted Signeul, the consul-general of Sweden in Paris. Signeul, imagining that Mörner spoke only the known wishes of his countrymen, advised him to go at once to Bernadotte, without mentioning the subject to the Swedish ambassador. Mörner accordingly saw Bernadotte, and representing to him that he spoke as the organ of a large and influential party in Sweden, and expressed the wishes of the diet, of which he himself was a member, assured him also that he could vouch for the acquiescence of Karl XIII. Bernadotte was surprised, heard all attentively, but in no way committed himself, leaving his visitor uncertain of willingness on his part to accede to the proposal. Mörner, nothing daunted, next opened his views to General Wrede, to whom Karl XIII. had intrusted his communications with Napoleon. Wrede, who knew perfectly well the state of public feeling in Sweden, was not surprised by this proposal, and imagining that Mörner was empowered by an influential party in his own country, spoke to Bernadotte on the subject, and Bernadotte, assured by this second overture, agreed that the proposal should be laid before the emperor. Napoleon having read the document, replied that he should not interfere with the wishes of Sweden, on which Bernadotte accepted the offered dignity. The business having been brought to this decisive and favourable issue, Mörner without a moment's delay set off for Sweden, without so much as informing M. Lagerbjelke, the ambassador, of the affair, with the intelligence that Napoleon wished to propose his able marshal and relative, the prince of Ponte Corvo, as successor to the Swedish throne. Immediately afterwards arrived General Wrede with the same intelligence. Every party in Sweden was thrown into the utmost excitement. The king himself was not less astonished than the rest. But time for deliberation was not allowed; for, while a committee of the diet was voting for the duke of Augustenburg, a message arrived from the Swedish consul-general in Paris, with the formal acceptance by Bernadotte of the proposal. Again, without allowing time for hesitation, Mörner and Wrede ordered copies of the consul-general's letter to be struck off and circulated among the members of the diet. The next day the fact was abroad among all classes; songs and addresses were improvised on the moment; and so completely did this choice meet the feelings and wants of the nation, that the diet on the 21st August, 1810, elected the prince of Ponte Corvo crown-prince of Sweden and heir-presumptive to the throne, on condition of his adopting the faith as laid down in the Confession of Augsburg. Bernadotte accepted the condition. After having acknowledged the Lutheran faith in the house of the consul at Elsinor, in presence of the bishop of Upsala and other Swedish dignitaries, he landed 20th of October at Helsingborg, and on the 31st was formally
