Napoleon in Germany

It was a fine, warm day in May, 1812. The world was groaning under the yoke of Napoleon's tyranny. As a consolation for the hopeless year, came the laughing spring. Fields, forests, and meadows, were clad in beautiful verdure; flowers were blooming, and birds were singing everywhere - even at Charlottenburg, which King Frederick William formerly delighted to call his pleasure palace, but which now was his house of mourning