Excerpt, “A Metrical History of the Life and Times of Napoleon Bonaparte: A Collection of Poems and Songs. Many from Obscure and Anonymous Sources, Selected and Arranged with Introductory Notes and Connective Narrative.” William J. Hillis. 1896.

Napoleon returned to Paris in the middle of the night of July 2, 1800.  The next day, as soon as his arrival became known, the whole city turned out to welcome him.  As Hazlitt well puts it: “It was a day, like which few occur in history; yet in this instance how many such were crowded into the life of a single man.”

The period of the armistice having expired and Austria having refused to accept its terms, the French armies were again set in motion.  Macdonald crossed the Alps  in the dead of winter, and achieved brilliant victories for the French cause.

Moreau, on the Rhine, commenced that memorable winter campaign, which ended so gloriously at the terrible battle of Hohenlinden.  At midnight, on 3 December, 1800, in the midst of a raging snowstorm, the French and Austrian armies met.  The terrific and awful combat which followed has been immortalized by Campbell in the poem so familiar to every schoolboy.

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