THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE IN MEMORY OF Professor Hairy J. Quqyle PRESENTED BY '"Mrs Fannie Q. Paul Mrs Annie Q. Hadley Mrs Elizabeth Q. Flowers J] CO) S E tPM D ft E HISTOEY OF THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE OP FRANCE UNDER NAPOLEON. BY M. ADOLPHE THIEES, LATE PRIME MINISTER OF FBANCE; MEMBER OF TEE FRENCH ACADEMY, AND OF THE INSTITUTE, ETC. ETC. ETC., AUTHOB OF "TEE HISTORY OF TEE FRINGE REVOLUTION." TRANSLATED BY D. FORBES CAMPBELL AND H. W. HERBERT. WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS. VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA: J. B, LIPPING OTT & CO. 1861. in i ^ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1861, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT 4 CO., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. HISTORY or THE CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE or FRANCE UNDER NAPOLEON. BOOK XXII. ULM AND TRAFALGAR. Consequences of the Union of Genoa with the Empire That Union, though a Fault, is attended with beneficia. Results A vast Field opened to the Military Combinations of Napoleon Four Attacks directed against France Napoleon directs his serious Attention to one only, and by the Manner in which he intends to repel it, he purposes to defeat the other three Explanation of his Plan Movement of the six Corps d'Armee from the Shores of the Ocean to the Sources of the Danube Napoleon keeps his Dispositions a profound Secret, and communicates them to the Elector of Bavaria alone, in order to attach that Prince by relieving him from Apprehension Precautions taken by him for the Preservation of the Flotilla His return to Paris Change in the Public Opinion in regard to him Censures passed upon him State of the Finances Commencement of Arrears Difficult Situation of the principal commercial Towns Scarcity of Specie Efforts of Commerce to procure the Precious Metals Association of the Company of the United Merchants with the Court of Spain Speculation with Dollars Danger of that Speculation The Company of United Merchants, having blended in their Hands the Affairs of France and Spain, extend the Embarrassment of one to the other Consequences of this Situation for the Bank of France Irritation of Napoleon against the Men of Business Important Sums in Silver and Gold sent to Strasburg and Italy Levy of the Conscription by a Decree of the Senate Organization of the Reserves Employment of the National Guard Meeting of the Senate Coldness shown towards Napo- leon by the People of Paris Napoleon is somewhat vexed at it, but sets out for the Army, certain of soon changing that Coldness into Transports of Enthusiasm Dispositions of the Coalition March of two Russian Armies, one into Gallicia to assist the Austrians, the other into Poland to threaten Prussia The Emperor Alexander at Pulawi His Negotiations with the Court of Berlin March of the Austrians into Lombardy and Bavaria Passage of the Inn by General Mack The Elector of Bavaria, after great Perplexities, throws himself into the Arms of France, and retires to Wurzburg with his Court and Army General Mack takes Position at Ulm Conduct of the Court of Naples Commencement of Military Operations on the Part of the French Organization of the Grand Army Passage of the Rhine March of Napoleon with Six Corps along the Suabian Alps to turn General Mack Napoleon reaches the Danube near Donauwerth before General Mack has any Suspicion of the Presence of the French General Passage of the Danube General Mack is enve- loped Battles of Wertingen and Giinsburg Napoleon, at Augsburg, makes his Dispositions whh the two^fold Object of investing Ulm and occupying Munich, for the Purpose of separating the Russians from Ihe Austrians Error committed by Murat Danger of Dupont's Division Battle of Haslach Napoleon hastens beneath the Walls of Ulm. and repairs the Faults committed Battle of Elchingen on the 14th of October Investment of Ulm Despair of General Mack and Retreat of the Archduke Ferdinand The Austrian Army is obliged to capitulate Unexampled Triumph of Napoleon He destroys in twenty Days an army of Eighty Thousand Men without a general Engagement Naval Operations after the Return of AdmiralVilleneuve to Cadiz Severity of Napoleon towards that Admiral Admiral Rosilly is sent to supersede him, and Orders are given to the Fleet to leave Cadiz and proceed into the Mediterranean Vexation of Admiral Villeneuve, who resolves to fight a desperate Battle The two Fleets meet off Cape Trafalgar Attack of the English in Two Columns They break the French line of Battle Heroic Conflicts of the Rerloutable. Bueentaure, Fauguevx. Algesiras, Pluton, AchiUe. and Prince of Asturias Death of Nelson, Captivity of Villeneuve Defeat of our Fleet after a memorable Struggle Tremendous Storm after the Engagement Shipwrecks succeed Fights Conduct of the Imperial Government towards the French Navy Silence ordered respecting the late Events Ulm causes Trafalgar to> be forgotten. IT was an egregious fault to unite Genoa with France, on the very eve of the expedition against England, and thus to furnish Austria with the last reason that must decide her to war. It was provoking and drawing upon one's self a formidable coalition at a moment when one had need of absolute peace upon the Con- tinent, in order to have the utmost freedom of action ajrainst England. Napoleon, it is true, had not foreseen the consequences of the union of Genoa ; his error consisted in despising Austria too much, and in believing her to be incapable of acting, whatever liberty he might Vol. II. 2 take with her. Though he has been justly censured for this union, effected under such circumstances, still it was in reality a fortu nate event. No doubt, had Admiral Villeneuve been able to sail up the Channel, and to appear off Boulogne, there would be reason to regret for ever the derangement of the execution'of the most gigantic plan ; but as that admiral* did not arrive, Napoleon, reduced once more- to inaction, unless he had been rash enough to cross the Strait without the protection of a fleet, Napoleon would have found himself in extreme embarrassment. This expedition, so 9 10 HISTORY OF THE [Aug. 1805. frequently announced, and which had miscar- ried thrice successively, would at last have exposed him to a sort of ridicule, and would have exhibited him to the eyes of Europe as in a real state of impotence in opposition to England. The continental coalition, furnish- ing him with a field of battle which he needed, repaired the fault that he had committed by coming itself to commit one, and drew him most seasonably from an indecisive and un- pleasant situation. The chain which links to- gether the affairs of this world is sometimes a very strange one. Frequently, the judicious combination fails, and that which is faulty succeeds This, however, is not an absolute motive for declaring all prudence vain, and for preferring to it the impulsions of caprice in the government of empires. No, we ought always to prefer calculation to impulse in the conduct of affairs; but we cannot help ac- knowledging that the designs of man are over- ruled by the designs of Providence, more sure, more profound, than his. It is a reason for modesty, not for abdication, to human wisdom. One must have had a close view of the dif- ficulties of government, one must have felt how difficult it is to form great determinations, to prepare them, to accomplish them, to move men and things, in order to appreciate the re- solution which Napoleon took on this occasion. The mortification of witnessing the miscar- riage of the Boulogne expedition having once passed off, he turned his whole attention to his new plan of continental war. Never had he greater resources at his disposal; never had a wider lield of operations opened to his view. When he commanded the army of Italy, he found his movements bounded by the plain of Lombardy and the circle of the Alps; and if he thought of extending his views beyond that circle, the alarmed prudence of Carnot, the director, stepped forward to check him in his combinations. When, as First Consul, he con- ceived the plan of the campaign of 1800, he was obliged to humour lieutenants who were still his equals ; and if, for example, he de- vised for Moreau a plan which would proba- bly have been attended with the most fortunate consequi nces, he was stopped by the timid spirit of that general ; he was forced to allow him to act in his own sure but limited manner, and to confine himself within the sequestered field of Piedmont. It is true that he signalized his presence there by an operation which will for ever remain a prodigy of the art of war, but still his genius, in striving to expand itself, had met with obstacles. For the first time he was free, free as Caesar and Alexander had been. Such of his companions in arms, whose jealousy or whose reputation rendered them troublesome, had excluded themselves from the lists by their imprudent and guilty conduct. He had left him none but lieutenants submis- sive to his will, and combining in the highest degree all the qualities necessary for the ex- ecution of his designs. His army, weary of long inaction, eager for glory and battle, trained by ten years of war and three of encampment, was prepared for the most difficult enterprises, for liie most daring marches. All Europe was >pen to his combinations. He was in the West, on the shores of the North Sea and the Channel; and Austria, assisted by Russian, Swedish, Italian, and English forces, was in the East, pushing upon France masses which a sort of European conspiracy had placed at her dis- posal. The situation, the means, every thing, were grand. But if France had never been better able to cope with sudden and serious dangers, so never had the difficulty been equally great That army, so prepared that we may affirm such another never existed, that army was on the shores of the Ocean, far from the Rhine, the Danube, the Alps, which explains why the con- tinental powers had suffered it to assemble without remonstrating, and it was necessary to transport it all at once to the centre of the con- tinent. There was the problem to be resolved. We shall see how Napoleon managed to tra- verse the space that separated him from his enemies, and to throw himself among them at the most suitable point for dissolving their for- midable coalition. Although he had persisted in believing that the war was not so near at hand as it really was, he had completely settled the preparations and the plan. Sweden was making arma- ments at Stralsund in Swedish Pomcrania; Russia, at Revel, in the Gulf of Finland. Two strong Russian armies were alleged to be con- centrating themselves, one in Poland, in order to hurry away Prussia, the other in Gallicia, to assist Austria. It was not merely suspected but known with certainty that two Austrian armies were forming, one of 80,000 men in Bavaria, the other of 100,000 men in Italy, both connected by a corps of 25 or 30 thou- sand in Tyrol. Lastly, Russians, assembled at Corfu, English at Malta, and symptoms of agitation in the court of Naples, left no room to doubt that some attempt would be made to- wards the south of Italy. Four attacks then were preparing: the first, in the North, from Pomerania, on Hanover and Holland, was to be executed by Swedes, Rus- sians, and English ; the second, in the East, by the valley of the Danube, assigned to Austrians and Russians united; the third in Lombardy, reserved for Austrians alone; the fourth on the south of Italy, was to be undertaken, rather later, by a force composed of Russians, Eng- lish, and Neapolitans. Napoleon had as complete a comprehension of this plan as if he had been present at the military conferences of M. de Winzingerode at Vienna, to which we have already adverted. There was but one more circumstance yet un- known to him, likewise to his enemies should they gain Prussia? Napoleon did not think so. The coalesced powers hoped to effect this by intimidating King Frederick William. In this case, the attack in the North, instead of being an accessory attempt, greatly cramped by ihe neutrality of Prussia, would become a threat- ening enterprise against the empire, from Co- logne to the mouths of the Rhine. This, how- ever, was not at all probable, and Napoleon considered only the two grand attacks from Bavaria and Lombardy as serious, and re- garded those preparing in Pomerania and to- wards the kingdom of Naples as at most deserving of some precautions. Aug. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. II He resolved to direct the bulk of his forces into the valley of t.ie Danube, and to frustrate all the secondary attacks by the manner in which he should repulse the principal. His profound conception was based on a very sim- ple fact, the distance of the Russians, which would be likely to make them arrive late to the assistance of the Austrians. He thought that the Austrians, impatient to fall upon Ba- varia, and to occupy, according to their cus- tom, the favourite position of Ulm, would, by acting in that manner, add to the distance which naturally separated them from the Rus- sians ; that the latter would consequently ap- pear late in line, ascending the Danube with their principal army united to the Austrian reserves. Crushing the Austrians before the arrival of the Russians, Napoleon then pur- posed to fall upon the latter, deprived of the aid of the principal Austrian army, and in- tended to employ the expedient, extremely easy in theory, extremely difficult in practice, to beat his enemies one after the other. In order to its success, this plan required a particular mode of moving his army to the theatre of operations, that is to say, to the valley of the Danube. If, after the example of Moreau, Napoleon should ascend the Rhine, for the purpose of crossing it at Strasburg and Schaffhausen, and were then to debouch by the defiles of the Black Forest between the Suabian Alps and the Lake of Constance, and thus attack in front the Austrians posted be- hind the Iller, from Ulm to Memmingen, he should not completely fulfil his object. Even in beating the Austrians, as he was more cer- tain than ever of doing with the army trained in the camp of Boulogne, he should drive them before him upon the Russians, and should cause them, weakened merely, to form a junc- tion with their northern allies. It behoved him, therefore, as at Marengo, and still more than at Marengo, to turn the Austrians, and not to be satisfied with beating them, but to surround them, so as to send them all prison- ers into France. Then Napoleon could throw himself upon the Russians, who would have no other support but the Austrian reserves. To this end, a perfectly simple march oc- curred to his mind. One of his corps d'armee, that of Marshal Bernadotte, was in Hanover, a second, General Marmont's, in Holland, the others at Boulogne. He conceived the idea of making the first descend through Hesse, into Franconia, upon Wurzburg and the Danube; of making the second advance along the Rhine, taking advantage of the facilities afforded by thru river, and of uniting it at Mayence and Wurzburg with the corps coming from Hano- ver. While these two great detachments were to descend from north to south, Napoleon re- solved to transport, by a movement from west to east, from Boulogne to Strasburg, the corps encamped on the shores of the Channel, to feign with these latter a direct attack by the Black Forest, but in reality to leave that forest on the right, to pass to the leA through Wur- temburg, in order to join in Franconia the corps of Bernadolte and Marmont, to cross the Danube below Ulm, in the environs of Donau- werth, to get thus into the rear of the Aus- trians, to surround them, to take them, and, after getting rid of them, march upon Vienna to meet the Russians. The position of Marshal Bernadotte coming from Hanover, of General Marmont coming from Holland, was an advantage, for it took one of them but seventeen days, the other only fourteen or fifteen, to reach Wurzburg, on the flank of the hostile army encamped at Ulm. The movement of the troops starting from Boulognefor Strasburg required about twenty- four days, and this was to fix the attention of the Austrians on the ordinary debouche of the Black Forest. In the space of twenty-four days, that is to say about the 25th of Septem- ber, Napoleon might therefore have arrived at the decisive point. By adopting an immediate resolution, by concealing his movements as long as possible, by his further stay at Bou- logne, by circulating false reports, by disguis- ing his intentions with that art for deceiving an enemy which he possessed in a supreme degree, he could have passed the Danube in the rear of the Austrians before they had any suspicion of his presence. If he succeeded, he should rid himself in the month of October of the first hostile army; he would employ that of November in marching upon Vienna, and in the environs of that capital he should meet with the Russians, whom he had never seen, whom he knew to be steady foot-soldiers, but not invincible, for Moreau and Massena had already beaten them, and he promised himself to beat them still more severely. Having reached Vienna, he should have got far beyond the Austrian army of Italy, which would become an urgent motive for that army to retreat. The plan of Napoleon was to give Massena, the most energetic of his lieutenants, and the one who was best acquainted with Italy, the command of the French army on the Adige. It was to consist of no more than 50,000 men, but choice troops, for they had made all the campaigns beyond the Alps from Montenotte to Marengo. Provided that Massena could detain the Archduke Charles on the Adige for a month, which seemed beyond doubt, with soldiers accustomed to conquer the Austrians, whatever might be their number, and under a general who never fell back, Napoleon, having arrived at Vienna, would relieve Lombardy as he had relieved Bavaria. He would draw the archduke upon himself, but at the same time he would draw Massena; and then, uniting the 50,000 men from the banks of the Adige with the 150,000 with whom he had marched along the Danube, he should find himself at Vienna at the head of 200,000 victorious French. Disposing directly of such a mass of forces, having thwarted the two principal attacks, those of Bavaria and Lombardy, what need he care about the two others prepared in the north and south, towards Hanover and towards Naples 1 Were all Europe in arms, he would have nothing to fear from the whole of its forces. Still he omitted not to take certain preca? tions in regard to Lower Italy. General St Cyr occupied Calabria with 20,000 men. Na- poleon gave him instructions to march upon 12 HISTORY OF THE [Aug. 1805. Naples and make himself master of that capi- tal on the first symptom of hostility. It would, no doubt, have been more consistent with his principles not to cut the army of Italy in two, not to place 50,000 men under Massena on the banks of the Adige, and 520,000 under General St. Cyr in Calabria; to unite the whole, on the contrary, into one mass of 70,000 men, which, certain to conquer in the north of Italy, would have little to fear from the south. But he con- ceived that Massena, with 50,000 men and his character, would be sufficient to detain the Archduke Charles for a month, and he deemed it dangerous to permit the Russians and the English to gain a footing at Naples, and to foment in Calabria a war of insurrection, which it would be difficult to extinguish. For this reason he left General St. Cyr and 20,000 men in the gulf of Tarento, with orders to march on the first signal to Naples, and to throw the Russians and the English into the sea, before they had time to establish them- selves on the continent of Italy. As for the attack prepared in the north of Europe, at such a distance from the frontiers of the Empire, Napoleon was content to provide against it by merely continuing the negotiation begun at Berlin relative to the kingdom of Hanover. He had offered that kingdom to Prussia as the price of her alliance ; but, having scarcely any hope of a formal alliance on the part of so timid a court, he proposed to place Hano- ver in its hands in pledge, if it would not receive it as a definitive gift. In either case, it would be obliged to keep the belligerent troops out of the country, and its neutrality would consequently suffice to cover the north of Europe. Such was the plan conceived by Napoleon. Moving his corps d'armee by rapid and unex- pected marches from Hanover, Holland, and Flanders, into the heart of Germany, passing the Danube, below Ulm, separating the Aus- trians from the Russians, enveloping the former, overthrowing the latter, then pushing on through the valley of the Danube to Vienna, and by this movement relieving Massena in Italy, he should soon have repulsed the two principal attacks directed against his Empire. His victorious armies being thus united under the walls of Vienna, he should no longer need o give himself any concern about an attempt m the south of Italy, which, besides, General St. Cyr would frustrate, and another in the north of Germany, which would be cramped on all sides by the Prussian neutrality. Never had captain either in ancient or mo- dern times conceived and executed plans on such a scale. Never, indeed, had a more mighty mind, possessing greater freedom of will, commanding means more prodigious, had to operate on such an extent of country. What is it, in fact, that we see on most occa- sions 1 Irresolute governments, deliberating when they ought to act, improvident govern- ments, which think of organizing their forces when they ought to be on the field of battle, and under them subordinate generals, scarcely capable of stirring on the circumscribed theatre assigned to their operations. Here, on the contrary, genius, decision, foresight, absolute freedom of action, all concurred in the same man and to the same end. It is rarely that such circumstances are combined, but when they do meet together, the world has a master. In the last days of the month of August, the Austrians were already on the banks of the Adige and the Inn, the Russians on the fron- tiers of Gallicia. It seemed as if they should surprise Napoleon ; but that was not the case* He gave all his orders at Boulogne on the 26th of August, but with the recommendation not to issue them till ten at night on the 27th. His object in this was to reserve for himself the whole of the 27th before he definitively re- nounced his grand maritime expedition. The courier despatched on the 27th would not reach Hanover before the 1st of September. Marshal Bernadotte, already forewarned, was to commence his movement on the 2d of Sep- tember, to have collected his corps on the 6th at Gottingen, and to reach Wiirzburg by the 20th. He had orders to collect in the fortress of Hameln the artillery taken from the Hano- verians, the military stores of all kinds, the sick, the depots of his corps d'armee, and a garrison of 6000 men, commanded by an ener- getic officer, who could be relied upon. This garrison was to be provisioned for a year. If an arrangement were concluded with Prussia for Hanover, the troops left at Hameln were immediately to rejoin Bernadotte's corps ; if not, they were to remain in that fortress, and to defend it to the death, in case the English should send an expedition to the Weser, which the Prussian neutrality could not prevent. "I shall be," wrote Napoleon, " as prompt as Frederick, when he went from Prague to Dresden and Berlin. I will run fast enough to the relief of the French defending my eagles in Hanover, and fling into the Weser the ene- mies who shall have come from that quarter." Bernadotte had orders to traverse the two Hesses, to tell the governments of those two principalities that he was returning to France by Mayence, to force a passage if it were re- fused, but to march with money in his hand, to pay for every thing, and to observe rigid discipline. On the same evening of the 27th of August, a courier set off with orders for General Mar- mont to march with 20,000 men and 40 pieces of cannon well horsed, to follow the banks of the Rhine to Mayence, and to proceed by Mayence and Frankfort to Wiirzburg. This order was to reach Utrecht on the 30th of Au- gust. General Marmont, having received a previous intimation, was to set himself in mo- tion on the 1st of September, to arrive at Ma- yence on the 15th or 16th, and at Wiirzburg on the 18th or 19th. Thus these two corps from Hanover and Holland were to be amidst the Franconian principalities of the elector of Bavaria from the 18th to the 20th of Septem- ber, and to form there a force of 40,000 men. As the elector had been recommended to retire to Wiirzburg, if the Austrians should attempt to do him violence, he was sure of finding there a succour ready prepared for his person and for his army. Lastly, on the evening of the 27th were is- sued the orders for the camps of Ambleteuse, Aug. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 13 Boulogne, and Montreuil. These orders were to begin to be executed on the morning of the 29th. On the first day, the first divisions of each corps were to march by three different romes, on the second day the second divisions, on the third day the last; consequently, they followed each other at twenty-four hours' dis- tance. The three routes specified were for ihe camp of Ambleteuse, Cassel, Lille, Namur, Luxemburg, Deux-Ponts, Manheim ; for the tamp of Boulogne, St. Omer, Douai, Cambrai, Mezieres, Verdun, Metz, Spire ; for the camp if Montreuil, Arras, La Fere, Reims, Nancy, Saverne, Strasburg. As it would require twenty-four marches, the whole army might be upon the Rhine between the 21st and the 24th of September. That would be timely enoush to be of use (here; for the Austrians, unwilling to make any stir in order to be the more sure of surprising the French, had con- tinued in the camp of Wels near Linz, and consequently could not be in line before Na- poleon. Besides, the further they advanced upon the Upper Danube, the nearer they ap- proached to the frontier of France between the lake of Constance and Schaffhausen, the more chances Napoleon had of enveloping them. Officers, despatched with funds to all the roads which the troops were to travel, were directed to get provisions prepared for them at every station. Formal and several times repeated orders, like all those given by Napoleon, en- joined that each soldier should be furnished with a great coat and two pair of shoes. Napoleon, closely keeping his secret, which was intrusted to none but Berthier and M. Daru, said to those about him that he was sending 30,000 men to the Rhine. He wrote to the same effect to most of his ministers. He communicated nothing more to M. de Mar- bois, and merely directed him to collect as much money as possible in the chests at Stras- burg, which the avowed mission of 30,000 men to Alsace was sufficient to account for. He ordered M. Daru to set out immediately for Pa- ris, to go to M. Dejean, minister of the materiel of war, to write with his own hand all the ac- ce>sory orders required by the displacing of the army, and not to let a sing'e clerk into the secret. Napoleon resolved to stay himself six or seven days longer at Boulogne, ihe better to deceive ihe public in regard to his plans. As all these corps were to traverse France, excepting that of Marshal Bernadotte, which was to give itself out in Germany for a corps destined to recross the frontiers, it was certain that they must be in full march before they gave any signs of their presence, before these signs were transmuted lo Paris, sent from Pa- ris abroad, and that many davs must elapse before the enemy could be acquainted with the breaking up of the camp of Boulogne. Be- sides, as the tidings of these movements could be accounted for by the mission of 30,000 men to the Rhine, of which no secret was made, they left the most perspicacious minds in doubt ; and there was a great chance of being upon the Rhine, the Neckar, or the Mayn, while the army was supposed to be still on the shores of the Channel. Napoleon at the same time sent away Murat and his aides-de-camp, Sa- vary and Bertrand,' to Franconia, Suabia, and Bavaria. They had orders to explore all the roads leading from the Rhine to the Danube, to observe the nature of each of these roads, the military positions to be found upon them, the means of subsistence which they afforded; lastly, all the suitable points for crossing the Danube. Murat was to travel under a fic- titious name, and, having finished his survey, to return to Strasburg, and there take the com- mand of the first columns that should reach the Rhine. To leave the Russians in ignorance of his resolutions as long as possible. Napoleon moreover recommended to M. de Talleyrand to delay the manifesto destined for the cabinet of Vienna, and the purport of which was to summon that cabinet to explain itself defini- tively. In reply to this summons he expected from it nothing but falsehoods, and, as for con- victing it of duplicity before the face of Eu- rope, it would be time enough to do that at the moment of the first hostilities. He despatched General Thiard, who had entered into the ser- vice of France on the return of the emigrants, to Carlsruhe, and charged him to negotiate an alliance with the grand duchy of Baden. He addressed offers of the like nature to Wurtem- berg, alleging that he foresaw war, judging from the preparations of Austria, but never hinting how far he was ready to commence it. In short, it was to the elector of Bavaria alone that he communicated the whole secret of his plans. That unfortunate prince, hesitating between Austria, which was his enemy, and France, which was his friend, but the one near, the other distant; recollecting too that in preceding wars, invariably trampled upon by both, he had always been forgotten at the peace, this unfortunate prince knew not to which to attach himself. He was aware that, if he gave himself up to France, he might ex- pect accessions of territory; but, still ignorant of the breaking up of the camp of Boulogne, he beheld her, at the period of which we are treating, wholly occupied by her struggle with England, importuned by her German allies, and unable to assist them. Accordingly, he was incessantly talking of an alliance to our minister, M. Otto, without ever daring to con- clude one. This state of things was soon 1 BERTRAXD. HENRI GRATIEN, COUNT General of di- vision, aid-de-rnmp to Napuleon, grand-marshal of the palare. &c. He was born of parents in the mi* Warsaw and Posen, and proclaim Alexander king of reconstituted Poland. This was a perfectly natural wish for a Pole, but an in- considerate one for a Russian statesman. Na- poleon alone was sufficient to beat the coali- tion ; how would it be if the forced alliance of Prussia were given to him] Besides, it was requiring too much from the irresolute character of Alexander. He had sent his ambassador, M. d'Alopeus, to Berlin, to make an appeal to the friendship of Fred- erick William, to demand of him in the first place a passage through Silesia for the Rus- sian army, and then to insinuate that no doubt was entertained of the concurrence of Prussia in the meritorious work of European deliver- ance. The negotiator was even authorized to declare to the Prussian cabinet that there must be no hesitation, that neutrality was im- possible, that if a passage were not granted with a good grace it would be taken by force. M. d'Alopeus was to be seconded by Prince Dolgorouki, aide-de-camp of Alexander. The latter was instructed to let it be clearly per- ceived at Berlin that there was a fixed deter- mination to win Prussia by caresses or to decide her by violence. Things had even had renounced all pretensions to the throne by a secret instrument, dated January 14, 1822; but on the death of Alexander he was notwithstanding proclaimed emperor. He preferred, however, to abide by his renunciation, and Nicholas, his younger brother, the present Emperor of Russia, succeeded Alexander. Encyc. Americana. H. 3 ALEXANDER I. PAULOVITCH. Son of Paul I.. Auto- crat of all the Russias, and King of Poland. He was born December 23, 1777, ascended the throne March 24, 1801, was crowned 27th of September, 1801, in Moscow, and die'' December 1, 1825. He was one of the most im- portant men of modern time, and a great benefactor of his native land. He had great natural talents, which had been judiciously cultivated by his mother and instructors. He recognised the spirit of the age, and frequently acted with very liberal views. The history of his government may be divided into three periods, the first from 1801 lo 1805, which was peaceful and devoted to the execution of the schemes of Peter the Great and Catharine respect- ing the internal administration. The second from 1805 to 1814, which was a time of war with France, Sweden, Turkey, and Persia, by which the resources and national feelings of his people were wonderfully developed. The third from 1814 to 1825, devoted to the constant and un- interrupted aggrandizement of Russia. He was, as a man, amiable, peaceful, kind, generous, frank, open, chi- valric, and firm ; as a ruler, resolute, able, and enlight- ened; and as a military leader, far above mediocrity. Encyclopaedia Americana. a. Sept. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. been carried to such a length at Pulawi, that the manifesto which was to precede hostilities was drawn up. While these strong representations were addressed to Prussia by the Russian agents, she found herself face to face with the French negotiators, Messrs. Duroc and Laforest, com- missioned by Napoleon to offer her Hanover. It will be recollected that the grand-marshal of the palace, Duroc, had left Boulogne to carry this offer to Berlin. The integrity of the young kinsr had not been proof against it; neither had the sentiments of M. de Hardenberg, who was called in Europe the right-thinking minis- ter. M. de Hardenberg perceived but one diffi- culty in this affair, that was, to find a form which should save the honour of his master in the eyes of Europe. Two months, July and Au?ust, had been spent in seeking this form. One had been devised which was ingenious enough. It was the same that the coalition had contrived on its part for commencing the war against Napoleon, that is to say, an armed mediation. The King of Prussia was, for the sake of peace, which, it was alleged, was needed by all the powers, to declare on what conditions the balance of Europe would ap- pear to him sufficiently guarantied, to state those conditions, and then give it to be under- stood that he should pronounce in favour of those who should admit them, against those who should refuse to admit them, which signi- fied that he would make half-war along with France in order to gain Hanover. He was, in fact, to adopt in his declaration most of Napo- leon's conditions, such as the creation of the kingdom of Italy, with separation of the two crowns at the period of the general peace, the annexation of Piedmont and Genoa to the Em- pire, the free disposal of Parma and Placentia left to France, the independence of Switzer- land and Holland, lastly, the evacuation of Tarento and Hanover at the peace. There was no difficulty but as to the construction to be put upon the independence of Switzerland and Holland. Napoleon, who had then no view upon those two countries, would never- theless not guaranty their independence in terms which would allow the enemies of France to effect a counter-revolution there. The discussions on this subject were prolonged till the end of the month of September, and the young King of Prussia was about to make up his mind to the violence with which he was threatened, when he clearly perceived from the march of the Russian, Austrian, and French armies that war was inevitable and near at hand. Terrified at this prospect, he fell back, and talked no more either about armed mediation or the acquisition of Hano- 1 BRUNSWICK, CIIAHLES WILLIAM FERDINAND, DUKE OF. He commanded the allied army of 70,000 Prussians and 68,000 Austrian-), which invaded France in 1792, in the hope of conquering the release of Louis XVI. from prison, and re-establishing the monarchy ; hut was checked at Valiny by Kellermann anil Diiinoiiriez, and forced to retreat after a few unimportant successes. He commanded the Prussian army during the movements previous to the battle of Jena, in 1806, and by his false manoeuvres did much towards their fatal defeat. A few days later, at Auersladt, he was killed by a ball in the breast while leading a charge gallantly against the ver, as the price of that mediation. He re- turned to his ordinary system of neutrality of the north of Germany. Then Messrs. Duroc and Laforest offered him, agreeably to the or- ders of Napoleon, what the cabinet of Berlin had itself so often demanded, the delivery of Hanover to Prussia, by way of deposit, on con- dition that the latter should insure the posses- sion of it to France. But, gratified as King Frederick William would have been by the retreat of the French and the delivery to him of so valuable a deposit, he saw that he should be obliged to oppose the northern expedition, and he still refused. He made a thousand protestations of attachment to Napoleon, to his dynasty, to his government, adding that, if he did viole'nce to his sympathies, it was because he was defenceless against Russia on the side of Poland. To this Messrs. Duroc and La- forest replied by the offer of an army of 80,000 French, ready to join the Prussians. But this would still be war, and Frederick William re- jected it under this new form. It was at this moment that M. d'Alopeus and Prince Dolgo- rouki arrived at Berlin to require Prussia to declare herself for the coalition. The king was not less frightened at the demands of the one than at the proposals of the others. He replied by protestations exactly like those which he had addressed to the French negotia- tors. He was, he said, full of attachment for the young friend whose acquaintance he had made at Memel, but he should be the first to in- cur the vengeance of Napoleon, and he could not expose his subjects to such great dangers, without making himself culpable towards them. The Russian envoys, insisting, told him that the army collected between Warsaw and Cracow, was placed there expressly to succour him ; and that it was a friendly fore- thought of the Ernperor Alexander; that the 70,000 Russians composing that army were about to cross Silesia and Saxony, on their way to the Rhine, to receive the first shock of the French armies. Frederick William was not to be persuaded by these reasons. The envoys then proceeded still further, and gave him to understand that it was too late ; that, not doubting his adhesion, the Russian troops had been already ordered to pass through the Prussian territory. At this kind 'of violence, Frederick William could no longer contain himself. People were mistaken respecting his character. He wa^ irtesolute, which fre- quently gave him the appearance ot weakness and duplicity ; but, when driven to extremity, he became obstinate and choleric. Filled with indignation, he convoked a council, to which were summoned the old Duke of Brunswick 1 and Marshal de Mollendorf, 2 and, notwithstand- French infantry. He was a noble-minded, chivalric, and gallant man, but lacked the decision of character and ra- pidity of conception and action necessary to make a great commander. He left to his son the duty of vengeance on Hi French, and he, /ike his father, met his death on the field, though not like him of defeat. Encyclopedia Ame- ricana. H. MOLLENDORF, RICHARD JOACHIM HENRY, COUNT VON. A Prussian general, born in 1724, educated at Brandenburg, and in 1740 admitted among the pages of | Frederic II., whom he accompanied in the first Silesian war. and with whom he was present at the battles of 24 HISTORY OF THE [Sept. 1805. ing his parsimony, decided on putting the Prussian army upon the war footing. Seeing that he was on the point of suffering violence from both, he resolved to take his precautions, and ordered the assembling of 80,000 men, which would cost him 16 million Prussian dollars (64 million francs) to be taken partly from the revenues of the state, partly from the treasury of the greaf Frederick, a treasury drained during the preceding year, but reple- nished during the present by dint of savings. M. d'Alopeus, alarmed at these dispositions, hastened to write to Pulawi, to advise his em- peror, with the most earnest entreaties, to hu- mour the King of Prussia, if he wished not to have all the forces of the Prussian monarchy upon his hands. When these tidings reached Pulawi, they shook the resolution of Alexander. Prince Adam Czartoryski had warmly urged him to decide not to give Prussia time to defend her- self, and to take a passage instead of soliciting it for such a length of time. If Prussia turns to war, said Prince Adam, let us declare Alex- ander king of Poland and organize that king- dom, in the rear of the Russian armies. If, on the contrary, she complies, we shall have realized the plan of the coalesced powers and gained one more ally. But Alexander, en- lightened by the correspondence of M. d'Alo- peus, withstood the counsels of his young minister, sent his aide-de-camp Dolgorouki to Berlin to affirm to his royal friend that it had never been his intention to coerce his will, that, on the contrary, he had just given orders for his army to halt on the Prussian frontiers, that this was done in deference to him, but that affairs of such importance could not be settled by means of agents, and that therefore he requested an interview. Frederick Wil- liam, fearing lest he should suffer as much compulsion from the caresses of Alexander as he could have done from his armies, would rather have declined this interview. His court, however, which leaned to the coalition and to war, and the queen, whose sentiments corresponded with those of the young empe- ror, persuaded him that he could not refuse it. The interview was fixed for the first days of October. Meanwhile Messrs. Duroc and La- forest were in Berlin, receiving all sorts of assurances of neutrality. While the Russians were thus employing the month of September, Austria was making better use of that valuable time. She commis. Molwitz and Chotusitz. In 1746, he obtained a company in the guards, and rose regularly in the service, until in 1783 tin was made governor of Berlin. In the reign of Frederic William II. he was made general of infantry, and commanded the Russian troops employed in 1793, in the dismemberment of Poland. On his return home, he was created a field-marshal, and soon afterwards gover- nor of South Russia. He subsequently succeeded the Duke of Brunswick in the command of the Prussian army on the Rhine, in 1794, when he gained the victory of Kai- SHrslauten. In 1799, he was one of the principal advisers of the treaty Of Bach, after which he was made grand- marshal. In 1806, though very old, he accepted a com- mand under the l)uke of Brunswick, and was present at '.i-iia and Auerstadt; at the last of which actions he was Bounded. After this he retired from service and died in January 28, 1816. Encyclopedia Americana. ioned M. de Cobentzel to repeat incessantly in Paris that her sole desire was to negotiate and to obtain guarantees for the future state of Italy, and was meanwhile availing herself of the English subsidies with the utmost activity. She had, in the first place, assembled 100,000 men in Italy, under the Archduke Charles. It was there that she placed her best general and her strongest army, to recover her most re- gretted provinces. Twenty-five thousand men, under the Archduke John, who had command- ed at Hohenlinden, guarded the Tyrol ; 80 or 90,000 men were destined to enter Bavaria, proceed to Suabia, and take the famous posi- tion of Ulm, where, in 1800, M. de Kray 1 had so long detained General Moreau. The 50 or 60 thousand Russians under General Kutusof, coming to join the Austrian army, would form a mass of 140 or 150 thousand fighting men, which, it was hoped, would give the French occupation enough to afford the other Russian armies time to arrive, the Archduke Charles time to reconquer Italy, and the troops sent to Hanover and Naples time to produce a useful diversion. It was the famous General Mack, the same who had formed all the plans of cam- paign against France, and who came, with great activity, and a certain skill in military details, to replace the Austrian army on a war footing it was this same general who had been appointed to the command of the army of Suabia, in conjunction with the Archduke Ferdinand. Advantage had been taken of the towns be- longing to Austria in that country to prepare magazines between the lake of Constance and the Upper Danube. The city of Memmingen, situated on the Iller, and forming the left of the position of which Ulm forms the right, was one of these places. Immense stores of pro- visions had been collected there and some en- trenchments thrown up, which could not have been done at Ulm, because it belonged to Ba- varia. All this had been accomplished by the last days of August. But Austria had, by a preci- pitation not usual with her, committed here an egregious blunder. The position of Ulm could not be occupied without crossing the Bavarian frontier. Besides, Bavaria possessed an army of 25,000 men, large magazines, the line of the Inn, and thus there were all sorts of reasons for being the first to seize such a valuable prey. Aus-tria conceived the idea of acting towards her as Russia was doing towards Prussia, that is to say to surprise and hurry her away. It was easier, it is true, but the 1 KRAY, General. A Hungarian by birth, and one of the most distinguished officers of the empire. Active, intrepid, and indefatigable; gifted with cool head and an admirable coup d'oeil, in danger he was one of the most illustrious generals of the imperial army, and, after the Archduke Charles, has left the most brilliant reputation in its military archives of the last century. In 1799, he gained the decisive victory of Magnano over the French under Scherer. In the same year he besieged and took the strong fortress of Mantua; and afterwards greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Novi. In 1800, he commanded against Moreau in the celebrated Rhine cam* paign, and though unsuccessful displayed great ability and conduct. Alison' a Europe. H-, bept. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 25 consequences, in case of failure, would be dis- astrous. On the arrival of General Mack 1 upon the banks of the Inn, Prince de Schwarzenberg was sent to Munich to make the strongest so- licitations to the elecior on the part of the em- peror of Germany. He was commissioned to urge him to pronounce in favour of the coali- tion, to unite his troops with those of Austria, to consent to their being incorporated into the imperial army, dispersed regiment by regiment in the Austrian divisions, to give up his terri- tory, his magazines, to the allies, to join, in short, in the new crusade against the common enemy of Germany and Europe. The Prince of Schwarzenberg was even authorized, in case of necessity, to offer to Bavaria, in Salz- burg, in the Tyrol itself, the fairest aggran- dizements, provided that, on the reconquest of Italy by their joint arms, the collateral branches of the imperial house, which had been ex- pelled from that country, could be re-esta- blished there. When Prince de Schwarzenberg arrived at Munich, the elector was in much the same situation as Prussia herself. M. Otto, the same who, in 1801, had so ably negotiated the peace of London, was our minister at Munich. Affecting, amidst that capital, to be neglected by the court, he had, nevertheless, secret in- terviews with the elector, and strove to prove to him that Bavaria existed solely through the protection of Napoleon. It is certain that, on this, as on many other occasions, she could not save herself from Austrian rapacity with- out the support of France. If, even in 1803, she had obtained a reasonable share of the Germanic indemnities, she owed it entirely to French intervention. M. Otto, by insisting on these considerations, had put an end to the hesitation of the elector, and had induced him to bind himself, on the 24th of August, by a treaty of alliance. It was a few days after- wards, on the 7th of September, that Prince de Schwarzenberg made his appearance at Mu- nich. The elector, who was very feeble, had about him a* fresh cause for feebleness, in the electress his wife, one of those three beautiful princesses of Baden who had ascended the thrones of Russia, of Sweden, and of Bavaria, and who all three were distinguished for their animosity against France. Of the three, the electress of Bavaria was the most vehement. She fretted, she wept, she manifested extreme vexation, at seeing her husband chained to Napoleon, and rendered him more miserable than he would naturally have been from his own agitation. M. de Schwarzenberg, fol- lowed at the distance of two days' march by the Austrian army, and seconded by the tears of the electress, succeeded in shaking the 1 MACK, CHARLES, BARON VON. An Austrian general, born in Franconia in 1752. He enlisted as a private dra- goon, but soon rose to be a petty officer, and in the war with Turkey obtained a captain's commission. When (he war with France broke out he was appointed quarter- master-general in the Prince of Coburg's army, and di- rected its operations in the campaign of 1793. In 1797, ne succeeded the Archduke Charles in the command of the army of the Rhine. The next year he was sent to Naples, then invaded by the French, was beaten in the VOL. II. 4 ! elector, and extorting from him a promise to | give himself up to Austria. This prince, how- ever, dreading the consequences of this sudden change, fearing General Mack, who was near at hand, and Napoleon too, though he was at a distance, thought it right to inform M. Otto of the circumstance, to excuse his conduct by I alleging his unfortunate position, and to solicit the indulgence of France. M. Otto, being thus apprized of the fact, hastened to the elector, represented to him the danger of such a defection and the certainty of soon having Napoleon as conqueror at Munich, making peace by the sacrifice of Bavaria to Austria. Certain circumstances seconded the arguments of M. Otto. The re- quisition to dislocate the army and to disperse it among the Austrian divisions had roused indignation in the Bavarian generals and offi- cers. News arrived, at the same time, that the Austrians, without waiting for the consent solicited at Munich, had passed the Inn, and public opinion was revolted by such a viola- tion of the territory. People remarked pub- licly that, if Napoleon was ambitious, Pitt was not less so ; that the latter had bought the cabinet of Vienna, and that, thanks to the gold of England, Germany was to be again trampled under foot by the soldiers of all Eu- rope. Independently of these circumstances favourable to M. Otto, the elector had an able minister, M. de Monlgelas, fired with ambition for his country, dreaming of securing for Ba- varia in the nineteenth century those aggran- dizements which Prussia had acquired in the eighteenth, seeking incessantly whether it was in Vienna or in Paris that there was most chance of obtaining them, and having finally concluded that it would be from the most in- novating power, that is to say from France. He had, therefore, been in favour of the treaty of alliance signed with M. Otto. Touched, however by the offers of Prince Schwarzen- berg, he was shaken for a moment under the influence of ambition, as his master had been under that of weakness. But he was soon brought back, and the solicitations of M. Otto, seconded by the public opinion, by the irrita- tion of the Bavarian army, by the counsels of M. de Montgelas, once more gained the as- cendency. The elector was again won for France. In the agitated state of mind in which that prince was, he did every thing that he was advised to do. It was proposed that he should retire to Wurzburg, a bishopric secularized for Bavaria in 1803, and that his army should follow him. He approved this proposal. In order to gain time, he informed M. de Schwarzenberg, that he was going to send to Vienna a Bavarian general, M. de No- garola, a known partisan of Austria, commis- fleld, fell intosuspicion with the Neapolitans, fled into the French lines, and was sent as a prisoner to Dijon. la 1801, he was appointed by the emperor commander-in chief in the Tyrol, Dalmatia, and Italy. In 1805, he wan driven beyond the Danube by Napoleon and submitted to the capitulation of Ulm, by which 28,000 Austrians laid down their arms, for which he was subsequently sen- tenced to death as a traitor. His sentence was, however, commuted to imprisonment, and he died in obscurity in 1828. Encyclopedia Americana. c 36 HISTORY OF THE [Sept 1805. sioned to treat there. This done, the elector set out with his whole court, in the night be- tween the 8th and the 9th of September, and proceeded first to Ratisbon, and from Ratisbon to Wurzburg, where he arrived on the 12th of September. The Bavarian troops collected at Amberg and at Ulm received orders to con- centrate themselves at Wurzburg. The elec- tor, on leaving Wurzburg, published a mani- festo, denouncing to Bavaria and Germany the violence of which he was the victim. M. de Schwarzenberg and General Mack, who had passed the Inn, thus saw the elector, his court, and his army, slip out of their hands, and found themselves objects of ridicule as well as of indignation. The Austrians ad- vanced by forced marches, without being able to overtake the Bavarians, and everywhere found the opinion of the country exasperated against them. One circumstance contributed more particularly to irritate the people in Ba- varia. The Austrians had their hands full of paper money, not current at Vienna without a great loss. They obliged the inhabitants to take this discredited paper as money. Thus a serious pecuniary injury was added to the galled national feelings to incense the Bava- rians. General Mack, after this pitiful expedition, for which, however, he was less responsible than the Austrian negotiator, marched for the upper Danube, and took the position which had long been assigned him, the right at Ulm, the left on Memmingen, the front covered by the Iller, which runs to Memmingen and falls into the Danube at Ulm. The officers of the Austrian staff had been for some years past incessantly extolling this position as the best that could be occupied for making head against the French debouching from the Black Forest. Here they had one of their wings supported on the Tyrol, the other on the Da- nube. They thought themselves, therefore, quite secure on both sides, and, as for their rear, they never gave it a thought, not imagin- ing that the French could ever come by any other than the ordinary route. General Mack had drawn to him General Jellachich, 1 with the division of the Vorarlberg. He had 65,000 men, immediately at hand, and, on his rear, to connect him with the Russians, Gene- ral Kienmayer at the head of 20,000. This formed a total of 85,000 combatants. General Mack then was just where Napo- leon had supposed and wished, that is to say on the upper Danube, separated from the Rus- sians by the distance from Vienna to Ulm. The elector of Bavaria was at Wurzburg, with his tearful court, with his army indig- nant against the Austrians, and in expectation of the speedy arrival of the French. In order to form a complete idea of ~the state of Europe during this great crisis, all we have to do now is to cast our eyes on what was passing in the south of Italy. The su- preme counsellors of the coalition, unwill- ing that the court of Naples, watched by the 20,000 French under General St. Cyr, should compromise itself too early, had suggested to it a real treachery, which that court, blinded and demoralized by hatred, was not likely to be very scrupulous about. It had been ad- vised to sign a treaty of neutrality with France, in order to obtain the withdrawal of the corps which was at Tarento. When this corps should have retired, the court of Naples, less closely watched, would have, it was told, time to declare itself, and to receive the Rus- sians and the English. The Russian general, Lascy, a prudent and considerate man, was at Naples, commissioned to make secret pre- parations, and to bring in the allies when the moment should be deemed seasonable. There were 12,000 Russians at Corfu, besides a re- serve at Odessa, and 6000 English at Malta. They reckoned further upon 36,000 Neapoli- tans, somewhat less wretchedly organized than usual, and on the levy en masse of the banditti of Calabria. This treaty, proposed to Napoleon just be- fore his departure from Paris, had appeared acceptable to him, for he did not conceive that so weak a court would risk with him the con- sequences of such a treachery. He imagined that the terrible example which he had made of Venice in 1797 would have cured the Italian governments of their propensity to knavery. In a treaty of neutrality, excluding the Russians and the English from the south of Italy, he found the advantage of being en- abled to give Massena 20,000 more men, if the 50,000 under his command were not suffi- cient to defend the Adige. He accepted, therefore, this proposal, ant* by a treaty signed at Paris on the 21st of Sep tember, he consented to withdraw his troops from Tarento, on the promise made him by the court of Naples not to suffer any landing of the Russians and the English. On this condition, General St. Cyr had orders to march towards Lombardy, and Queen Caroline and her weak husband were left at liberty to pre- pare a sudden levy of troops on the rear of the French. Such was the situation of the allied powers from the 20th to the 25th of September. The Russians and the Swedes, charged with the attack on the north, joined at Stralsund, to combine with a landing of the English at the mouth of the Elbe ; a Russian army was or- ganizing at Wilna, under General Michelson ; the Emperor Alexander, with his corps of guards and Buxhu'vden's army, was at Pulawi, on the Vistula, soliciting an interview with the King of Prussia ; another Russian army, under General Kutusof, had penetrated through Gallicia into Moravia, to join the Austrians. This latter was parallel to Vienna, and was about to ascend the Danube. General Mack, a hundred leagues in advance, had taken po- sition, at Ulm, at the head of 85,000 men, awaiting the French at the outlet of the Black Forest. The Archduke Charles was on the Adige with 100,000 men. The court of Na- 1 JELLACHICH. An Austrian general of more ability than good fortune. He was defeated and forced to sur- render with the Prince de Rohan in the Tyrol in 1805, and was again totally defeated in the valley of the Mnhr by the Viceroy Eugene Beauharnais in 1603. .Iliton't Europe H. Sept. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 27 pies was meditating a surprise, which was to be executed with the Russians from Corfu and the English from Malta. Napoleon, as we have already seen, had arrived at Strasburg on the 26th of September. His columns had strictly followed his orders and pursued the routes which he had pre- scribed them. Marshal Bernadotte, having furnished Hameln with stores, provisions, and a strong garrison, and left there the men least capable of taking the field, had set out from Giittingen with 17,000 soldiers, all fit to en- counter any hardship. He had forewarned the elector of Hesse of his passage, with the formalities enjoined by Napoleon. He had at first met with a consent, afterwards with a refusal, to which he had paid no heed, and had crossed Hesse without experiencing any resistance. Officers of administration, pre- ceding his corps, ordered provisions at every station, and, paying for every thing in ready money, found speculators eager to supply the wants of our troops. An army that carries its travelling expenses along with it, can live without magazines, without loss of time, with- out annoyance to the country through which it is passing, if that country is but moderately stocked with articles of consumption. With this auxiliary, Bernadotte traversed without difficulty the two Hesses, the principality of Fulda, the territories of the prince arch-chan- cellor, to Bavaria. He marched perpendicu- larly from north to south. He arrived on the 17th of September near Cassel, on the 20th at Giessen, on the 27th at Wurzburg, to the great joy of the elector of Bavaria, who was dying of fright amidst the contradictory tidings of the Austrians and the French. A minister of the Emperor of Germany had hastened to that prince, to make excuses for what had happened, and to endeavour to con- ciliate him. The Austrian minister knew nothing of the march of Bernadotte's corps, till the French cavalry appeared on the heights of Wiirzburg. He set out immediately, leav- ing the elector for ever, that is for the whole time that our prosperity lasted. M. de Montgelas, the better to colour the conduct of his master, solicited from us a pre- caution far from honourable for Bavaria; which was to alter the date of the treaty of alliance concluded with France. That treaty was signed in reality on the 24th of August. M. de Montgelas expressed a wish to give it another date, that of the 23d of September. This was assented to, and he was enabled to assert to his confederates at Ratisbon, that he had not given himself up to France till the day after the violences done him by Austria. General Marmont, ascending the Rhine, and availing himself of it for the conveyance of his materiel, had marched along the fine road which Napoleon had opened on the left bank of the river, and which is one of the me- morable works of his reign. On the 12th of September he was at Nimeguen, on the 18th at Cologne, on the 25th at Mayence, on the 26th at Frankfurt, on the 29th in the environs of Wurzburg. He brought a corps of 20,000 men, a park of 40 pieces of cannon well horsed, and a considerable supply of ammu- nition. These 20,000 men included a division of Dutch troops commanded by General Du- monceau. As for the 15,000 French who composed this corps, a fact unexampled in the history of the war will afford a correct idea of their quality. They had just traversed part of France and Germany, and marched twenty successive days without halting : and on their ! arrival at Wurzburg nine men only were miss- , ing. There was not a general who would not have deemed himself fortunate if he had 1 lost no more than two or three hundred, for it | is the entering upon a campaign, and the effects of the first marches, that try weakly constitutions, and cause men to lag behind. Towards the end of September, then, Napo- leon had, in the heart of Franconia, six days' march from the Danube, and threatening the flank of the Austrians, Marshal Bernadotte with 17,000 men, General Marmont, with 20,000. To these forces must be added 25,000 Bavarians, collected at Wurzburg, and ani- mated with real enthusiasm for the cause of the French, which, for the moment, had be- come their own. They clapped their hands on seeing our regiments appear in sight. Marshal Davout, with the corps that had marched from Ambleteuse, Marshal Soult, with that from Boulogne, Marshal Ney, with that from Montreuil, traversing Flanders, Picardy, Champagne, and Lorraine, were on the Rhine on the 23d and 24th of September, preceded by the cavalry, which Napoleon had set in mo- tion four days before the infantry. All marched with unparalleled ardour. Dupont's division, in passing through the department of the Aisne, had left behind about fifty men belong- ing to that department. They had gone to see their families, and by the day after the next they had all of them rejoined. After travel- ling 150 leagues, in the middle of autumn, without resting for a single day, this army had neither sick, nor stragglers, an unexampled circumstance, owing to the spirit of the troops and to a long encampment. Marshal Augereau had formed his division in Bretagne. Setting out from Brest, passing through Alencon, Sens, Langres, Befort, he had to cross France in its greatest breadth, and was to be on the Rhine a fortnight after the other corps. Thus, he was destined to act as a reserve. Never was astonishment equal to that whicn filled all Europe on the unexpected arrival of this army. It was supposed to be on the shores of the ocean, and in twenty days, that is to say, in the time required for the report of its march to begin to spread, it appeared on the Rhine, and inundated South Germany. It was the effect of extreme promptness in de~ ciding, and of profound art in concealing, the determinations that were taken. The news of the appearance of the French spread immediately, and produced in the Aus- trian generals no other idea than this, that the principal theatre of the war would be in Ba- varia and not in Italy, since Napoleon and the army of the Ocean were proceeding thither. The only consequences were an application to augment the Austrian forces in Suabia, and an order, highly displeasing to the Archduke 28 HISTORY OF THE [Sept. 1805 Charles, to send a detachment from Italy into the Tyrol, which was then to proceed through the Vorarlberg to the assistance of General Mack. But the real design of Napoleon con- tinued to be a profound secret. The troops which had joined at Wiirzburg seemed to have no other errand but to pick up the Bavarians and to protect the elector. The principal force, placed at the upper Rhine, at the entrance of the defiles of the Black Forest, seemed des- tined to enter there. General Mack, there- fore, was more and more confirmed everyday in his idea of keeping the position of Ulm, which had been assigned to him. Napoleon, having collected his whole army, gave it an organization which it has ever since retained, and a name which it will for ever re- tain in history, that of the GRAND ARMY. He divided it into seven corps. Marshal Bernadotte, with the troops brought from Han- over, formed the first corps, 17,000 strong. General Marmont, with the troops from Hol- land, formed the second, which numbered 20,000 men present under arms. The troops of Marshal Davout, encamped at Ambleteuse, and occupying the third place along the coast of the Ocean, had received the designation of third corps, and amounted to an effective force of 26,000 fighting men. Marshal Soult, with the centre of the grand army of the Ocean, encamped at Boulogne, and composed of 40,000 infantry and artillery, formed the fourth corps. Suchet's division was destined to be soon de- tached from it, in order to form part of the fifth corps, with Gazan's division and the grenadiers of Arras, which were henceforward known by the appellation of Oudinot's grena- diers, after the name of their gallant leader. This fifth corps was to consist of 18,000 men besides Suchet's division. It was assigned to the faithful and heroic friend of Napoleon, Marshal Lannes, who had been recalled from Portugal to take part in the perilous expedition of Boulogne, and was now summoned to fol- low the Emperor to the banks of the Morawa, the Vistula, and the Niemen. Under the in- trepid Ney, the camp of Montreuil composed the sixth corps, and amounted to 24,000 sol- diers. Augereau, with two divisions, 14,000 strong at most, placed last on the line of coast he was at Brest composed the seventh corps. The name of eighth corps was subse- quently given to the Italian troops, when they came to act in Germany. This organization was that of the army of the Rhine, but with important modifications, adapted to the genius of Napoleon, and necessary for the execution of the great things which he meditated. In the army of the Rhine, each corps, com- plete in all arms, formed of itself a little army, having every thing within itself, and capable of giving battle. Hence these corps had a tendency to separate, especially under a general like Moreau, who commanded only in proportion to his genius and character. Na- poleon had organized his army in such a man- ner that it was entirely in his hand. Each corps was complete in infantry only; it had the necessary artillery, and of cavalry just what was requisite to guard itself well, that is to say, some squadrons of hussars or chas- seurs. Napoleon reserved to himself to com- plete them afterwards by the aid of a reserve of those two arms, which he alone disposed of. According to the ground and circumstances, he withdrew from one to give to another, either a reinforcement of artillery or a mass of cuirassiers. Above all, he made a point of keeping together under one chief, and in immediate dependence on his will, the principal mass of his cavalry. As it is with this that one ob- serves the enemy by running incessantly around him, that one completes his defeat when he is staggered, that one pursues and envelopes him when in flight, Napoleon re- solved to reserve to himself exclusively this means of preparing victory, of deciding it, and of reaping its fruits. He had therefore collected into a single corps the heavy caval- ry, composed of cuirassiers and carabineers, commanded by Generals Nansouty and d'Haur- poul ; to these he had added dragoons on foot as well as mounted, under Generals Klein, Walther, Beaumont, Bourcier, and Baraguay d'Hilliers, and had given the command of the whole to his brother-in-law, Murat, who was the most dashing cavalry officer of that day, and who, under his orders, represented the magister equitum of the Roman armies. Bat- teries of flying artillery followed this cavalry, and procured for him, in addition to the might of swords, that of fires. We shall soon see it spreading over the valley of the Danube, upsetting the Austrians and the Russians, entering astonished Vienna pell-mell with them ; presently, hastening back to the plains of Saxony and Prussia, pursuing to the shores of the Baltic and carrying off the entire Prus- sian army, or rushing at Eylau upon the Rus- sian infantry, saving the fortune of Napoleon by one of the most impetuous shocks that ever armed masses have given or received. This reserve numbered 22,000 horsemen, of whom 6000 were cuirassiers, 9 to 10 thousand mounted dragoons, 6000 dragoons on foot, and a thousand horse artillery. Lastly, the general reserve of the grand army was the imperial guard, the finest corps d'clite in the world, serving at once for a means of emulation and a means of reward for such soldiers as distinguished themselves ; for they were not introduced into the ranks of this guard till they had proved their prowess. The imperial guard was composed, like the consu- lar guard, of mounted grenadiers and chas-- seurs, much the same as a regiment, where the companies of elite only have been retained. It comprised, moreover, a fine Italian battalion, representing the royal guard of the king of Italy, a superior squadron of Mamelukes, the last memorial of Egypt, and two squadrons of gendarmerie d'elite, to perform the police duty of the head-quarters, in all 7000 men. Napo- leon had added to it, in large proportion, the arm to which he was partial, because, on cer- tain occasions, it made amends for all the others artillery. He had formed a park of 24 pieces of cannon, manned and horsed with particular care, which made nearly four pieces to every thousand men. The guard scarcely ever quitted the head' Sept. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 29 quarters ; it riarched almost always beside the Emperor, with Lannes' and Oudinot's grena- diers. Such was the grand army. It presented a mass of 186,000 combatants really present under the colours. It numbered 38,000 horse- men, and 340 pieces of cannon. If we add to these Massena's 50,000 men, and General St. Cyr's 20,000, we shall have a total of 256,000 French spread from the gulf of Ta- rento to the mouths of the Elbe, with a reserve of 150,000 young soldiers in the interior. If we further add 25,000 Bavarians, 7 or 8 thou- sand subjects of the sovereigns of Baden and Wurtemberg ready to fall into line, we may say that Napoleon was going, with 250,000 French, 30 and odd thousand Germans, to fight about 500,000 men belonging to the coalition, 250,000 of whom were Austrians, 200,000 Russians, 50,000 English, Swedes, Neapoli- tans, having also their reserve in the interior of Austria, of Russia, and in the English fleets. The coalition hoped to join to them 200,000 Prussians. This would not be im- possible, if Napoleon did not make haste to conquer. It was, in fact, urgent for him to commence operations, and he gave orders for passing the Rhine on the 25th and 26th of September, after sacrificing two or three days to rest the men, to repair some damages to the harness of the cavalry, to exchange some wounded and jaded horses for fresh horses, a great number of which had been collected in Alsace, and lastly to prepare a large park and a con- siderable quantity of biscuit. His disposi- tions for turning the Black Forest, behind which General Mack, encamped at Ulm, was waiting for the French, were these. If we fix our eyes upon that country so often traversed by our armies, and for that reason so frequently described in this history, we see the Rhine issuing from the Lake of Constance, running westward as far as Basle, then suddenly turning and running almost direct north. We see the Danube, on the con- trary, rising from some petty springs very near the point where the Rhine issues from the Lake of Constance, taking its course to the east, and following that direction with very few deviations to the Black Sea. It is a chain of mountains of very moderate height, most improperly called the Suabian Alps, that thus separates the two rivers, and sends the Rhine to the seas of the North, the Danube to the seas of the East. These mountains turn their steepest declivities towards France, and sub- side by a gradual slope, in the plains of Fran- conia, between Nordlingen and Donauwerth. From their riven flank, clothed with woods, called by the general name of Black Forest, run to the left, .that is to say, towards the Rhine, the Neckar and the Mayn ; to the right, the Danube, which runs along the back of them, nearly bare of wood and formed into terraces. Through them run narrow defiles which you must necessarily traverse in going from the Rhine to the Danube, unless you choose to avoid those mountains, either by ascending the Rhine, to above Schaffhausen, or by travel- ling along the foot of them from Strasburg to Nordlingen and into the plains of Franconia, where they disappear. In the preceding war, the French had alternately taken two routes. Sometimes debouching from the Rhine, be- tween Strasburg, and Huningen, they had traversed the defiles of the Black Forest; sometimes ascending the Rhine to Schaffhau- sen, they had crossed that river near the Lake of Constance, and found themselves at the sources of the Danube, without passing through the defiles. Napoleon, purposing to place himself be- tween the Austrians who were posted at Ulm, and the Russians who were coming to their assistance, was obliged to take another route. Studying in the first place to fix the attention of the Austrians on the defiles of the Black Forest by the appearance of his columns ready to enter it, he meant then to proceed along the foot of the Suabian Alps, without crossing them, as far as Nordlingen, to turn, with all his united columns, their lowered ex- tremity, and to pass the Danube at Donau- wenh. By this "novement he should form a junction on the way with the corps of Berna- dotte and Marmont, which would have already reached Wiirzburg, he should turn the posi- tion of Ulm, debouch on the rear of General Mack, and execute the plan long settled in his mind, and from which he expected immense results. On the 25th of September, he ordered Mural and Lannes to pass the Rhine at Strasburg, with the reserve of cavalry, Oudinot's grena- diers, and Gazan's division. Murat was to proceed with his dragoons from Oberkirch to Freudenstadt, from Offenburg to Rothweil, from Freiburg to Neustadt, and thus appear at the head of the principal defiles, so as to induce a supposition that the army itself was to pass through them. Provisions were be- spoken along this route, to complete the delu- sion of the enemy. Lannes was to support these reconnaissances by a few battalions of grenadiers, but, in reality, placed with the bulk of his corps in advance of Strasburg, on the Stuttgard road, he had orders to cover the movement of Marshals Ney, Soult, and Da- vout, who were directed to cross the Rhine lower down. General Songis, who command- ed the artillery, had thrown two bridges of boats, the first between Lauterburg and Carls- ruhe for the corps of Marshal Ney, the second in the environs of Spire for the corps of Mar- shal Soult. Marshal D;ivout had at his dis- posal the bridge of Manheim. These mar- shals were to cross the valleys which descend from the chain of the Suabian Alps and to skirt that chain, supporting themselves one upon the other, so as to be able to assist each other in case of the sudden appearance of the, enemy. All of them had orders to be pro- vided with four days' bread in the soldiers' knapsacks, and four days' biscuit in the bag- gage-wagons, in case they should be obliged to make forced marches. Napoleon did not leave Strasburg till he saw his parks and his reserves move off under the escort of a divi- sion of infantry. He passed the Rhine on the 1st of October, accompanied by his guard, after taking leave of the empress who re- r. 2 30 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805, mained at Strasburg, with the imperial court, aiid the chancellery of M. de Talleyrand. On reaching the territory of the Grand-duke of Baden, Napoleon found the reigning family, which had come to meet and pay him homage. The old elector presented himself surrounded by three generations of princes. Like all the second and third-rate sovereigns of Germany, he had been desirous to obtain the boon of neutrality, an absolute chimera under such circumstances; for when the petty German powers are not able to prevent war by resist- ing the great powers which are intent on it, they must not flatter themselves that they can obviate its calamities by a neutrality which is impossible, because they are almost all in the obligatory track of tfie belligerent armies. Napoleon had offered them his alliance in- stead of neutrality, promising to settle to their advantage the questions of territory or of sovereignty which separated them from Aus- tria ever since the unfinished arrangements of 1803. The Grand-duke of Baden concluded to. accept that alliance, and promised to fur- nish 3000 men, besides provisions and means of conveyance, to be paid for in the country itself. Napoleon, after sleeping at Ettlingen, set out on the 2d of October for Stuttgard. Before his arrival, a collision had wellnigh taken place between the Elector of Wurtem- berg and Marshal Ney. That elector, known throughout Europe for the extreme warmth of his temper and disposition, was at that mo- ment discussing with the minister of France the conditions of an alliance which he greatly disliked. But he insisted that, till the conclu- sion of this business, no French troops should enter either Louisburg, which was his country residence, or Stuttgard, which was his capital. Marshal Ney did consent not to enter Louis- burg, but he ordered his artillery to be pointed against the gates of Stuttgard, and by these means obtained admission. Napoleon arrived opportunely to appease the anger of the elec- tor. He was received by him with great magnificence, and stipulated with him an alliance, which has founded the greatness of that house, as similar alliances have founded that of all the princes of the south of Ger- many. The treaty was signed on the 5th of October, and contains an engagement on the part of France to aggrandize the house of Wurtemberg, and, on the part of that house, to furnish 10,000 men, besides provisions, horses, and carriages, which were to be paid for when taken. Napoleon stayed three or four days at Louis- burg, to allow his corps on the left time to get into line. It was a most delicate position to brush, for forty leagues, the skirts of an enemy 80 or 90 thousand strong, without rousing him too much, and at the risk of seeing him debouch on a sudden upon one of his wings. Napoleon provided against this with admirable art and foresight. Three routes ran across Wurtemberg and terminated at those lowered extremities of the Suabian Alps, which it was necessary 10 reach in order to arrive at the Danube between Donauwerth and Ingolstadt. The principal was that of Pforzheim, Stutt- aard, Heidenheim, which skirted the very flanks of the mountains, and which was ir? communication, by a great number of defiles, with the position of the Austrians at Ulm. Il was this that required to be traversed with the greatest precaution, on account of the proxi- mity of the enemy. Napoleon occupied it with Mural's cavalry, the corps of Marshal Lannes, that of Marshal Ney, and the guard. The second, which, running from Spire, passed through Heilbronn, Hall, Ellwangen, and ter- minated in the plain of Nordlingen, was occu- pied by the corps of Marshal Soult. The third, running from Manheim, passing through Heidelberg, Neckar-Elz, and Ingelfingen, ter- minated at Oettingen. It was by this that Marshal Davout marched. It approached towards the direction which the corps of Ber- nadotte and Marmont were to follow, in pro- ceeding from Wurzburg to the Danube. Na- poleon arranged the march of these different columns so as that they should all arrive from the 6th and 7th of October in the plain extending along the Danube, between Nordlin- gen, Donauwerlh, and Ingolstadt. But in this revolving movement, his left wheeling upon his right, the latter had to describe a less ex- tensive circle than the former. He was there- fore obliged to make his right slacken its pace, in order to give the corps of Marmont and Ber- nadotte, which formed the extreme left, Marshal Davout's which came next to them, lastly, Mar- shal Souk's, which came after MarshalDavout's, and connected them all with the head-quarters, time to finish their revolving movement. After waiting sufficiently, Napoleon set him- self in march on the 4th of October, with the whole of his right. Murat, galloping inces- santly at the head of his cavalry, appeared by turns at the entrance of each of the defiles which run through the mountains, merely showing himself there and then withdrawing his squadrons as soon as the artillery and baggage had made so much way as to have nothing to fear. Napoleon, with the corps of Lannes, Ney, and the guards, followed the Stuttgard route, ready to hasten with 50,000 men to the assistance of Murat, if the enemy should appear in force in one of the defiles. As for the corps of Soult, Davout, Marmont, and Bernadotte, forming the centre and the left of the army, their danger did not begin till the movement that was executing, by march- ing along the foot of the Suabian Alps, was finished, and they should debouch in the plain of Nordlingen. It was possible, in fact, that General Mack being timely apprized, might fall back from Ulm upon Donauwerth, cross the Danube, and come to this plain of Nordlingen to fight, for the purpose of stopping the French. Napoleon had so arranged things that Murat. Ney, Lannes, and with them the corps of Mar- shals Soult and Devout, at least, should con- verge together on the 6th of October between Heidenheim, Oettingen, and Nordlingen, in such a manner as to present an imposing mass to the enemy. But till then his incessant study was to deceive General Mack so long that he should not think of decamping, and that Ihe French might reach the Danube at Donau- werth before he had quitted his position at Ulm. On the 4th and ou the 6th of October, Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE every thing continued to wear the best aspect. The weather was splendid; the soldiers, well provided with shoes and great-coats, marched merrily. One hundred and twenty-four thou- sand French advanced thus on a line of battle of 26 leagues, the right touching upon the mountains, the left converging towards the plains of the Upper Palatinate, capable of be- ing collected in a few hours to the number of 90 or 100 thousand men on one or the other of their wings, and, what is more extraordi- nary, without the Austrians having the least idea of this vast operation. " The Austrians," wrote Napoleon to M. de Talleyrand and to Marshal Augereau, " are on the debouches of the Black Forest. God j grant that they may remain there ! My only fear is that we shall frighten them too much j .... If they allow me to gain a few more marches, I hope to have turned them and to find myself, with my whole army, between the Lech j and the Isar." He wrote to the minister of the police: "Forbid the newspapers of the Rhine to make any more mention of the army than if it did not exist." To reach the points indi- cated to them, the corps of Bernadotte and Marmont were to cross one of the provinces which Prussia possessed in Franconia, that of Anspach. By drawing them nearer to the corps of Marshal Davout, Napoleon could in fact have brought them closer to him, and thus avoided entering the Prussian territory. But the roads were already encumbered; to have accumulated more troops in them would have occasioned inconvenience for the order of the movement and for the supply of provisions. Besides, by contracting the circle described by the army, he would have diminished the chances, of enveloping the enemy. Napoleon purposed to embrace in his movement the course of the Danube as far as Ingolstadt, in order to debouch as far as possible in the rear of the Austrians, and to be able to stop them, in case they should fall back from the Iller to the Lech. Not imagining, from the state of his relations with Prussia, that she could make any difficulty towards him, reckoning upon the custom established in the late wars of tra- versing the Prussian provinces in Franconia, because they were out of the line of neutrality, having received no intimation that a different course would be adopted in this, Napoleon made no scruple to borrow the territory of An- spach, and gave orders to Marmont's and Ber- nadotte's corps accordingly. The Prussian magistrates appeared on the frontier, to protest in the name of their sovereign against the vio- lence that was done them. In reply, the orders of Napoleon were produced, and the troops passed on, paying in specie lor all that was taken, and observing the strictest discipline. The Prussian subjects, well paid for the bread and the meat with which they supplied our soldiers, did not appear to be much irritated at the alleged violation of their territory. On the 6th of October, our six corps d'armee had arrived without accident beyond the Sua- bian Alps, Marshal Ney at Heidenheim, Mar- shal Lannes at Neresheim, Marshal Davout at Oettingen, General Marmont and Marshal Bernadotte on the Aichstadt road, all in sight of the Danube, considerably beyond the posi- tion of Ulm. What, meanwhile, were General Mack, the Archduke Ferdinand, and all the officers of the Austrian staff, about? Most fortunately, the intention of Napoleon was not revealed to them. Forty thousand men, who had passed the Rhine at Strasburg, and who had plunged at once into the defiles of the Black Forest, had confirmed them in the idea that the French would pursue the accustomed track. False reports of spies, artfully despatched by Napo- leon, had confirmed them still more in this opinion. They had heard, indeed, of some French troops spread in Wurtemberg, but they supposed that they were coming to occupy the petty states of Germany, and perhaps to assist the Bavarians. Besides, nothing is more con- tradictory, more perplexing, than that multi- tude of reports of spies or of officers sent on reconnaissance. Some of them place corps d'armee where they have met with detach- ments only, others mere detachments where they ought to have found corps d'armee. Frequently they have not seen with their own eyes what they report, and they have merely picked up the hearsays of terrified, surprised, or astonished persons. The military, like the civil police, lies, exaggerates, contradicts itself. In the chaos of its reports the superior mind discerns the truth, while the weak mind is lost. And, above all, if any anterior prepossession exists, if one is disposed to believe that the enemy will come by one point rather than by another, the facts collected are all interpreted in a single sense, how far soever they may be from admitting of it. In this manner are pro- duced great errors, which sometimes ruin armies and even empires. Such was at this moment General Mack's state of mind. The Austrian officers had long extolled the position which, supporting its right at Ulm, its left at Memmingen, faced the French debouching from the Black Forest. Authorized by an opinion which was general, and in obedience, moreover, to positive in- structions. General Mack had established him- self in this position. He had there his provi- sions, his military stores, and nothing would have persuaded him that he was n.ot most con- veniently placed there. The only precaution which he had taken upon his rear consisted in sending General Kienmayer, with a few thou- sand men, to Ingolstadt, to observe the Bava rians who had fled to the Upper Palatinate, and to connect himself with the Russians, whom he expected by the high road from Munich. While General Mack, with a mind prepos sessed with an opinion formed beforehand, re mained motionless at Ulm, the six corps of the French army debouched on the 6lh of Oc- tober in the plain of Nordlingen, beyond the mountains of Suabia, which they had turned, and on the banks of the Danube, which they were about to cross. On the evening of~th 6th, Vandamme's division, belonging to Mar- shal Soult's corps, outstripping all the others, reached the Danube, and surprised the bridgt of Miinster, a league above Donauwerth. On the 7th of October, the corps of Marshal Soult 82 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. took the bridge of Donauwerth itself, faintly disputed by a battalion of Colloredo's, 1 which, unable to defend, endeavoured in vain, to de- stroy it. The troops of Marshal Soult speed- ily repaired it, and passed over in the greatest haste. Murat, with his division of dragoons, preceding the right wing, formed of the corps of Marshals Lannes and Ney, had proceeded to the bridge of Miinster, already surprised by Vandamme. He claimed that bridge for his troops and those which were following him, left that of Donauwerth to Marshal Soult's troops, passed instantly with a division of dra- goons, and dashed off on the other side of the Danube, in pursuit of an object of great inte- rest, the occupation of the bridge of Rain on the Lech. The Lech, which runs behind the Iller, nearly parallel to the latter, and falls into the Danube near Donauwerth, forms a position situated beyond that of Ulm, and, by occupy- ing the bridge of Rain, the French would have turned both the Iller and the Lech, and left General Mack few chances of falling back to good purpose. It took but the time required for Murat's dragoons to gallop the distance, to make themselves masters of Rain and the bridge over the Lech. Two hundred horse overturned all the patroles of Kienmayer's corps, while Marshal Soult established him- self in force at Donauwerth, and Marshal Da- vout came in sight of the bridge of Neuburg. Napoleon repaired the same day to Donau- werth. His hopes were now realized, but he did not consider himself completely sure of success till he had won the very last result of his admirable manoeuvre. Some hundreds of prisoners had been already taken, and their reports were unanimous. General Mack was at Ulm on the Iller: it was his rear-guard, commanded by General Kienmayer, and in- tended to connect him with the Russians, which the French had just fallen in with and driven across the Danube. Napoleon imme- diately determined to take a position between the Austrians and the Russians, so as to pre- vent their junction. The first movement of General Mack's, had he been capable of a timely resolve, ought to have been to quit the banks of the Iller, to fall back upon the Lech, to pass through Augsburg, in order to join General Kienmayer on the Munich road. Na- poleon, without losing a moment, ordered the following dispositions: He would not throw Ney's corps beyond the Danube, but left it on the roads running from Wurtemberg to Ulm, to guard the left bank of the Danube, by which we arrived. He directed Murat and Lannes to pass to the right bank by the two bridges which the French were masters of, those of Miinster and Donauwerth, to ascend the river, and to place themselves between Ulm and Augsburg, to prevent General Mack from re- treating by the high road from Augsburg to Munich. The intermediate point which they had to occupy was Burgau. Napoleon or- dered Marshal Soult to leave the mouth of the Lech, where he was in position, to ascend that tributary of the Danube to Augsburg, with the three divisions of St. Hilaire, Vandamme, and Legrand. Suchet's division, the fourth of Marshal Soult's, was already placed under the command of Lannes. Thus Marshal Ney, with 20,000 men on the left bank of the Da- nube, which had been abandoned, Murat and Lannes, with 40,000 on the right, which had just been taken possession of, Marshal Soult, with 30,000 on the Lech, surrounded General Mack, by whatever outlet he might attempt to escape. Turning his immediate attention from this point to others, Napoleon ordered Marshal Davout to hasten and cross the Danube at Neuburg, and to clear Ingolstadt, towards which Marmont and Bernadotte were proceed- ing. The route followed by these latter was longer; they were two marches behindhand. Marshal Davout was then to proceed to Aich- ach on the Munich road, to push General Kien- mayer before him, and to form the rear-guard of the masses which were accumulating around Ulm. The corps of Marmont and Ber- nadotle had orders to quicken their pace, to cross the Danube at Ingolstadt, and to march for Munich, in order to replace the elector in his capital, barely a month after he had quitted it. It was for Marshal Bernadotte, at this mo- ment the companion of the Bavarians, that Napoleon reserved the honour of reinstating them in their country. By this disposition, Napoleon would present to the Russians com- ing from Munich, Bernadotte and the Bava- rians, then, in case of emergency, Marmont and Davout, who were to march, according to cir- cumstances, either upon Munich or Ulm, to assist in the complete investment of General Mack. On the following day, the 8th of October, Marshal Soult ascended the Lech, on his way to Augsburg. He found no enemies before him. Murat and Lannes, destined to occupy the space comprised between the Lech and the Iller, ascended from Donauwerth to Bur- gau, through a country presenting some slight" obstructions, covered here and there with woods, and traversed by several small rivers, tributaries of the Danube. The dragoons were marching at the head, when they met with a hostile corps, more numerous than any which they had yet seen, posted around and in ad- vance of a large village called Wertingen. This hostile corps was composed of six bat- talions of grenadiers and three of fusileers, commanded by Baron d'Auffenberg, of two squadrons of Duke Albert's cuirassiers, and two squadrons of Latour's light horse. They had been sent on reconnaissance by General Mack, on the circulation of a vague rumour of the appearance of Frenchmen on the banks of the Danube. He still conceived that these French must belong to Bernadotte's corps, posted, it was said, at Wilrzburg, to assist the Bavarians. The Austrian officers were at dinner when they were informed that the French were in sight. They were extremely ' COLLOREDO, JEROME, COUKT. A member of one of the most distinguished families of Austria, born in 1775. He was master-general of the ordnance in 1813, com- manded the first division of the army at Him, and died in 1822 while commander-in-chief in Bohemia. Kncyelopa- dia Americana. H. Oct. 1805.1 CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. surprised, refused at first to believe the report, but could not long doubt its accuracy, and they mounted their horses precipitately, to put themselves at the head of their troops. In ad- /ance of Wertingen, there was a hamlet named Hohenreichen, guarded by a few hundred Aus- trians, foot and horse. Sheltered by the houses of this hamlet, they kept up a galling fire, and held in check a regiment of dragoons which first arrived on the spot. The chef d'cscadron Excellmans, the same who has since signalized his name by so many brilliant acts, then no more than aide-de-camp to Murat, had hastened up at the sound of the firing. He induced two hundred dragoons to dismount cheerfully, when, musket in hand, they rushed into the hamlet, and dislodged those who occupied it. Fresh detachments of dragoons had mean- while come up; the Austrians were pressed more warmly; the assailants penetrated in pursuit of them into Wertingen, passed that village, and found, on a sort of plateau, the : nine battalions formed into a single square, of small extent, but close and deep, hav- ! ing cannon and cavalry on its wings. The brave chef d'escadron Excellmans immediately charged this square with extraordinary bold- ness, and had a horse killed under him. At his side Colonel Meaupetit was upset by the thrust of a bayonet. But, vigorous as was the attack, there was no breaking this compact mass. Some time was thus spent, the French dragoons endeavouring to cut down the Aus- trian grenadiers, who returned their efforts with thrusts of the bayonet and the fire of their pieces. Murat at length came up with the bulk of his cavalry, and Lannes with Oudi- not's grenadiers, both drawn in haste by the reports- of the cannon. Murat immediately ordered his squadrons to charge the enemy's square, and Lannes directed his grenadiers upon the margin of a wood which was seen in the background, so as to cut off the retreat of the Austrians. The latter, charged in front, threatened in rear, fell back at first in a close mass, but presently in disorder. If Oudinot's grenadiers could have reached the ground a few moments earlier, the whole of the nine battalions would have been made captive. Two thousand prisoners, several pieces of cannon, and several colours, were nevertheless taken. Lannes and Murat, who had seen the chef fescadron Excellmans at the point of the hos- tile bayonets, determined to send him to Na- poleon with the news of the first success ob- tained, and the colours taken from the enemy. The Emperor received the young and dashing officer at Donauwerth, granted him rank in the Legion of Honour, and delivered the insignia to him in the presence of his staff, to give the greater eclat to the first rewards earned in this war. On this same day, October the 8th, Marshal Soult entered Augsburg, without striking a blow. Marshal Davout had crossed the Danube at Neuburg, and proceeded to Aichach to take the intermediate position assigned to him, be- tween the French corps going to invest Ulm, and those going to Munich to make head against the Russians. Marshal Bernadotte VOL. II. 5 and General Marmont made preparations for passing the Danube towards Ingolstadt, with the intention of repairing to Munich. Napoleon ordered the position of Ulm to be straitened. He enjoined Marshal Ney to as- cend the left bank of the Danube, and to make himself master of all the bridges over the river, in order to be enabled to act on both banks. He directed Murat and Lannes, on their side, to ascend the right bank, and to contribute with Ney to the closer investment of the Austrians. Next day, Marshal Ney, prompt at executing the orders which he re- ceived, especially when those orders brought him nearer to the enemy, reached the bank of the Danube, and ascended it till he was oppo- site to Ulm. The first bridges that he met with were those of Ganzburg. He charged Malher's division to take them. These bridges were three in number. The principal was before the small town of Gilnz- burg; the second above, at the village of Leipheim ; the third below, at the small ham- let of Reisensburg. General Malher ordered them all to be attacked at once. He charged the staff-officer Lefol to attack that of Leip- heim with a detachment, and General Labassee to attack that of Reisensburg with the 59th of the line. He reserved for himself, at the head of Marcognet's brigade, the attack of the prin- cipal bridge, that of Giinzburg. The bed of the Danube not being regularly formed in this part of its course, it was necessary to cross a multitude of islands and petty channels, bor- dered with willows and poplars. The ad- vanced guards fushed resolutely forward, forded all the waters that impeded their pro- gress, and took two or three hundred Tyrolese, with major-general Baron d'Aspre, who com- manded at this point. Our troops soon ar- rived at the principal arm, over which was erected the bridge of Giinzburg. The Aus- trians, on retiring, had destroyed part of the flooring of the bridge. General Malher would have had it repaired ; but on the other bank were posted several Austrian regiments, a numerous artillery, and the Archduke Ferdi- nand himself, who had hastened thither with considerable reinforcements. The Austrians began to comprehend how serious was the operation undertaken on their rear, and they resolved to make a strong effort to save at least the bridges nearest to Ulm. They pour- ed a murderous fire of musketry and artillery upon the French. These, being no longer screened by woody islands, and remaining un- covered on the strand, endured this fire with extraordinary firmness. To ford the river was impossible. They clambered up the piles of the bridge for the purpose of repairing it with planks. But the workmen, picked off one by one by the balls of the enemy, could not ac- complish it, and the French lines, exposed meanwhile to the fire of the Austrians, sus- tained a heavy loss. General Malher made them fall back to the wooded islands, in order not to prolong a useless temerity. This fruitless attempt had cost some hun- dreds of men. The two other attacks were made simultaneously. Impassable marshes had rendered that of Leipheim impracticably 34 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. That of Reisensburg had been more successful. General Labassee, having at his side Colonel Lacuee, commandant of the 59th, had ad- vanced with this regiment to the margin of the great arm of the Danube. Here also the Austrians had destroyed part of the planks of the bridge, but not so completely as to pre- vent our soldiers from repairing and passing it. The 59th crossed the bridge, took Reisens- burg and the surrounding heights, in spite of at least treble their force. Its colonel, La- cuee, was killed there, fighting at the head of his soldierts. On seeing a French regiment thrown unsupported across the Danube, the Austrian cavalry hastened up to the assistance of the infantry, and most furiously charged the 39th, formed into a square. Thrice did it rush upon the bayonets of that brave regiment, and thrice was it stopped by the fire close to the muzzles of the guns. The 59th remained master of the field of battle after efforts the memory of which deserves to be perpetuated. One of the three bridges being crossed, General Malher moved his whole division upon Reisensburg towards evening. The Austrians then did not care to persist in dis- puting Giinzburg. They fell back upon Ulm in the night, leaving the French 1000 prison- ers and 300 wounded. Great honours were paid to Colonel Lacuee. The divisions of Ney's corps, assembled at Giinzburg, attended his funeral on the 8th, and paid unanimous regrets to his memory. Marshal Ney placed Dupont's division on the left bank of the river, and sent Malher's and Loison's divisions to the right bank, to keep up Ae communication with Lannes. Napoleon remained till the evening of the 9th at Donauwerth. He then set out for Augs- burg, because that was the centre for collect- ing intelligence and for issuing directions. At Augsburg he was between Ulm on one side and Munich on the other, between the army of Suabia which he was about to envelop, and the Russians whose approach general rumour was proclaiming. His object in staying away from Ulm for a day or two was to concentrate the command there ; and, from a reason of relationship much more than from a reason of superiority, he placed Marshals Ney and Lannes under the orders of Murat, which highly displeased them, and produced sad bickering. These were embarrassments inse- parable from the new system established in France. A republic has its inconveniences, which are sanguinary rivalships; and mo- narchy has its inconveniences, which are fa- mily compliances. Thus Murat had at his disposal about 60,000 men, to keep General Mack in check under the walls of Ulm. On his arrival at Augsburg, Napoleon found Marshal Soult there with the fourth corps. Marshal Davoul had established him- self at Aichach ; General Marmont followed him ; Bernadotte was on the road to Munich. The French army was in nearly the same situation as it had been at Milan, when, after miraculously crossing the St. Bernard it was in the rear of General Melas. seeking to en- vlop him, but ignorant of the route by which it might catch him. The same uncertainty prevailed in regard to the plans of General Mack. Napoleon set about studying what he might be templed to do in so urgent a danger, and was puzzled to guess ; in fact, General Mack himself did noi know it. You have greater difficulty to guess the intentions of an irresolute than of a resolute adversary, and if the uncertainty were not likely to ruin you to-morrow, it might serve you to deceive the enemy to-night. In this state of doubt, Napo- leon attributed to General Mack the most rea- sonable design, that of retreating through the Tyrol. That general, in fact, if he directed his course to Memmingen, on the left of the position of Ulm, would have but two or three marches to make in order to reach the Tyrol by way of Kempten. He would thus connect himself with the army which was guarding the chain of the Alps, and with that which occupied Italy. He would save himself and contribute to form a mass of 200,000 men, a mass always formidable, what position soever it occupies on the genera) theatre of opera- tions. He would, at any rate, escape a catas- trophe for ever celebrated in the annals of war. Napoleon, therefore, attributed to him this design, without dwelling upon another idea which General Mack might have conceived, and which he did conceive for a moment, that of fleeing by the left bank of the Danube, guarded by only one of the divisions of Mar- shal Ney, Dupont's division. This desperate step was the least supposable, for it required extraordinary boldness. It could not be taken without crossing the route which the French had followed, and which was still covered with their equipages and their depots; and it would perhaps expose those who had to exe- cute it to the danger of meeting with them en masse, and fighting their way through them in order to retreat into Bohemia. Napoleon did not admit such a probability, and con- cerned himself only about barring the routes to the Tyrol. Accordingly, he ordered Mar- shal Soult to ascend the Lech to Landsberg, for the purpose of occupying Memmingen, and intercepting the road from Memmingen to Kempten. He sent General Marmont's corps to Augsburg, to take the place of Marshal Soult's. In that city he likewise established his guard, which habitually accompanied the head-quarters. There he awaited the move- ments of his different corps-d'armee, rectify- ing their march whenever that was needed. Bernadolte, pushing the rear-guard of Kien- mayer, entered Munich on the morning of the 12th, precisely a month after the invasion of the Austrians and the retreat of the Bavari- ans. He took about a thousand prisoners from the enemy's detachment, which he pushed before him. The Bavarians, trans- ported with joy, received the French with ve- hement applause. It was impossible to come either more expeditiously or more surely to the aid of their allies, especially when they had been a few days before at the extremity of the continent, on the shores of the Chan- nel. Napoleon wrote immediately to the elec- tor, to induce him to return to his capital. He invited him to come back with the whole Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. Bavarian army, which would have been use- less a* Wurzburg, and which was destined to occupy the line of the Inn conjointly with Ber- nadotte's corps. Napoleon recommended that it should be employed in making reconnais- sances, because the country was familiar to it, and it could give the best intelligence respect- ing the march of the Russians, who were com- ing by the road from Vienna to Munich. Marshal Soult, sent towards Landsberg, met with nothing there but Prince Ferdinand's cuirassiers, who fell back upon UJm by forced marches. So great was the ardour of our troops, that the 26th chasseurs were not afraid to measure their strength with the Austrian heavy cavalry, and took from it an entire squadron, with two pieces of cannon. This rencounter evidently proved that the Austri- ans, instead of running away towards the Tyrol, were concentrating themselves behind the I-ller, between the Memmingen and Ulm, and that they would there find a new bat- tle of Marengo. Napoleon prepared to fight it with the greatest possible mass of his forces. He supposed that it might take place on the 13th or 14th of October, but not being hurried, as the Austrians did not take the initiative, he preferred the 14th, that he might have more time for collecting his troops. He first modified the position of Marshal Da- vout, whom he moved from Aichach to Da- chau, so that this marshal, in an advantageous post between Augsburg and Munich, could, in three or four hours, either advance to Munich, to oppose, with Bernadotte and the Bavarians, 60,000 combatants to the Russians, or fall back towards Augsburg, to second Napoleon in his operations against the army of General Mack. Having taken these precautions on his rear, Napoleon made the following dispositions on his front, with a view to that supposed battle of the 14th. He ordered Marshal Soult to be established on the 13th at Memmingen, press- ing that position with his left, and connecting himself by his right with the corps which were about to be moved upon the Iller. He sent his guard to Weissenhorn, whither he resolved to proceed himself. He hoped in this manner to assemble 100,000 men in a space of ten leagues, from Memmingen to Ulm. The troops, in fact, being able in one day to make a march of five leagues and to fight, it was easy for him to collect on one and the same field of battle, the corps of Ney, Lannes, Murat, Marmont, Soult, and the guard. Fate, however, reserved for him a totally dif- ferent triumph, from that which he anticipated, a newer triumph, and not less astonishing for its vast consequences. Napoleon left Augsburg on the 12th, at 11 o'clock at night, for Weissenhorn. On the road he fell in with Marmont's troops, com- posed of French and Dutch, overwhelmed with fatigue, laden at once with their arms, and their rations of provisions for several UIJPONT. A French general of division of some abi- lity and high renown, which at a later period he lost in Spain, by the surrender of Baylen, in 180S, in which twen- ty thousand of the bst troops of France laid down their arms to the Spaniards under Reding and Castanos. On his return to France thereafter, he, with all the other uiii- days. The weather, which had been fine till the passage of the Danube, had become fright- ful. Thick snow, melting as it fell, was con- verted into mud, and rendered the roads im- passable. All the little streams which run into the Danube were overflowed. The sol- diers proceeded through absolute bogs, fre- quently impeded in their march by convoys of artillery. Nevertheless, not a murmur was heard. Napoleon stopped to harangue them : he made them form a circle around him, explained to them the situation of the enemy, and the manoeuvre by which he had surrounded them, and promised them a tri- umph as glorious as that of Marengo. The soldiers, intoxicated by his speech, proud of seeing the greatest captain of the age explain his plans to them, burst forth into the most vehement transports of enthusiasm, and re- plied by unanimous shouts of " Vive CEmpe- reur .'" They resumed their march, impatient to assist in the great battle. Those who had heard the words of the Emperor repeated them to those who had not heard them, and they cried, with joy, that it was all over with the Austrians, and that they would be taken to the last man. It was high time for Napoleon to return to the Danube, for his orders, misunderstood by Murat, would have led to disasters if the Aus- trians had been more enterprising. While Lannes and Murat were investing Ulm on the right bank of the Danube, Ney, continuing a cheval on the river, had two divi- sions on the right bank, and one only, that of General Dupont,' on the left bank. On ap- proaching Ulm, to invest it, Ney had perceived the defect of such a situation. Enlightened by incidents of which he had a closer view, guided by a happy instinct for war, confirmed in his opinion by Colonel Jomini, a staff-offi- cer of the highest merit, Ney had discovered the danger of leaving but one division on the left bank of the river. Why, said he, should not the Austrians seize the opportunity for flight on the left bank, trampling under foot our equipages and our parks, which would certainly not oppose any great resistance to them 1 Murat would not admit that such a thing could happen, and, appealing to the mis- construed letters of the Emperor, who, expect- ing a serious affair on the Iller, ordered all the troops to be concentrated there, he was even on the point of concluding that it was wrong to leave Dupont's division on the left bank, since that division must be away from the place of action on the day of the great battle. This difference of opinion gave rise to a warm altercation between Ney and Murat. Ney was mortified to have to obey a superior, whom he thought below himself by his talents, if he was above him by the imperial relationship. Murat, filled with pride at his new rank, proud above all of being admitted to a more particu- lar acquaintance with the intentions of Napo- cers, was cast into prison, where he lingered many years, without trial or investigation, until 1812, when a court of inquiry sat on the generals, and condemned them all. It is, perhaps, but just here to add that public opinion did not support their decision. Alison's Europe. H. HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. leon, made Marshal Ney feel his official supe- riority, and at last went so far as to give him absolute orders. But for mutual friends, these two lieutenants of the Emperor would have decided their quarrel in a manner not at all consistent with their position. This alterca- tion led to the issue of contradictory orders to. ' Dupont's division, and to a situation that was ! perilous for it. But, fortunately, while the dispute respecting the post fittest for it to oc- cupy was going forward, it was extricated from the danger into which an error of Murat's { had thrown it by an ever memorable battle. General Mack, who could not entertain further doubt of his fate, had made a change of front. Instead of having his right at Ulm, he had his left there ; instead of having his I left at Memmingen, he had his right there. Still supported on the Iller, he turned his back to France, as if he had come from it, while . Napoleon turned his on Austria, as if that had ' been the point from which he started. This ! would be the natural position of the two gene- rals, one of whom has turned the other. Gene- ral Mack, after drawing to him the troops dis- persed in Suabia, as well as those which had returned beaten from Wertingen and Giinzburg, had left some detachments on the Iller from Memmingen to Ulm, and had assembled the greater part of his forces at Ulm itself, in the entrenched camp which overlooks that city. The reader is acquainted with the situation and the formof this camp, which has been already described in this history. At this point the left bank of the Danube is much higher than the right bank. While the right bank presents a marshy plain, slightly inclined towards the river, the left bank, on the con- trary, presents a series of heights laid out terrace-fashion, and washed by the Danube, nearly in the same manner as the terrace of St. Germain is washed by the Seine. The Michaelsberg is the principal of these heights. The Austrians were encamped there to the number of about 60,000, having the city of Ulm at their feet. General Dupont, who was left alone on the left bank, and who, agreeably to the orders of Marshal Ney, was to approach nearer to Ulm on the morning of the 1 1th of October, had advanced within sight of that place by the Albeck road. It was the very moment which Murat and Ney, meeting at Giinzburg, were spending in contention, and which Napoleon, hastening to Augsburg, was employing in making his general dispositions. General Du- pont, on reaching the village of Haslach, from which the Michaelsberg is seen in its full extent, discovered there 60,000 Austrians in an imposing attitude. The last marches, per- formed in the worst weather and with extreme rapidity, had reduced his division to 6000 men. There had, however, been left him Ba- raguay d'Hillier's dismounted dragoons, who, during the journey from the Rhine to the Danube, had been assigned not to Murat, but to Marshal Ney. This was a reinforcement of 5000 men, which might have been of great service, if it had not remained at Languenau, three leagues in the rear. General Dupont, having come in sight of the Michaelsberg and the 60,000 Austrians who occupied it, found himself before them, with three regiments of infantry, two of cavalry, and a few pieces of cannon. That officer, since so unfortunate, was seized at this sight by an inspiration, which would do honour to the greatest generals. He judged that, if he fell back, he should betray his weakness, and be soon surrounded by 10,000 horse, despatched in pursuit of him ; that if, on the contrary, he performed an act of daring, he might deceive the Austrians, persuade them that he was the advanced-guard of the French army, oblige them to be circumspect, and thus gain time to retrieve the wrong step into which he had been led. In consequence, he immediately made his dispositions for fighting. On his left he had the village of Haslach, surrounded by a small wood. There he placed the 32d, which had become celebrated in Italy, and commanded, at this period, by Colonel Darricau, the 1st hussars, and part of his artillery. On his right, backed in like manner upon a wood, he placed the 96th of the line, commanded by Colonel Meunier, and the 17th dragoons. A little in advance of his right, he had the village of Jungingen, surrounded also by a few clumps of wood, and he ordered it to be occupied by a detachment. In this position General Dupont received the Austrians, detached to the number of 25,000, under the Archduke Ferdinand, to fight a division of 6000 French. General Dupont, still under the influence of a happy inspiration on this occasion, soon perceived that his divi- sion would be destroyed by the musketry alone, if he suffered the Austrians to deploy their line and to extend their fire. Then, combining the daring of a vigorous execution with the daring of a great resolution, he ordered the two regi- ments of his right, the 96th of the line and the 9th light, to charge with the bayonet. At the signal given by him, these two brave regiments moved off", and marched with bayonet lowered, upon the first Austrian line. They overturned it, threw it into disorder, and took 1500 pri- soners, who were sent to the left, to be shut up in the village of Haslach. General Dupont, after this feat, placed himself again in position with his two regiments, and awaited immov- ably the sequel of this extraordinary combat. But the Aastrians, not choosing to admit them- selves to be beaten, returned to the attack with fresh troops. Our soldiers advanced a second time with the bayonet, repulsed the assailants, and again took numerous prisoners. Dis- gusted with these useless attacks in front, the Austrians directed all their efforts against our wings. They marched upon the village of Haslach, which covered. the left of Dupont's division, and which contained their prisoners. The 32d, whose turn was come to fight, vigor- ously disputed that village with them, and drove them from it, while the 1st hussars, vying with the infantry, made impetuous charges on the repulsed columns. The Aus- trians did not confine themselves to the attack of Haslach ; they made an attempt on the other wing, and endeavoured to take the village of Jungingen, situated on the right of General Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 37 Dnpont. Favoured by numbers, they pene- trated into it and made themselves masters of the place for a moment. General Dupont, appreciating the danger, caused Jungingen to be attacked by the 9th, by which it was re- taken. Again it was wrested from him, and again he retook it. This village was thus carried by main force five times consecutively, and in the confusion of these repeated attacks, the French made each time some prisoners. Buf while the Austrians were exhausting themselves in impotent efforts against this handful of soldiers, their immense cavalry, dashing away in all directions, fell upon the 7th dragoons, charged it several times, killed its colonel, the gallant St. Dizier, and obliged it to retire into the wood against which it was backed. A host of Austrian horse then spread itself over the surrounding plateaux, galloped to the village of Albeck, from which Dupont's division had started, took its baggage, which Baraguay d'Hilliers' dragoons ought to have defended, and thus picked up some vulgar trophies, a sad consolation for a defeat sus- tained by 25,000 men against 6000. It became urgent to put an end to so perilous an engagement. General Dupont, having fa- tigued the Austrians by an obstinate fight of five hours, hastened to take advantage of the night to retire upon Albeck. Thither he inarched in good order, preceded by 4000 pri- soners. If General Dupont, in fighting this extra- ordinary battle, had not stopped the Austrians, they would have fled into Bohemia, and one of Napoleon's most splendid combinations would have been completely frustrated. It is a proof that great generals ought to have great soldiers ; for the most illustrious captains often need their troops to repair by their heroism either the hazards of war or the errors which genius itself is liable to commit. This rencounter with a part of the French army produced stormy deliberations at the head-quarters of the Austrians. They were informed of the presence of Marshal Soult at Landsberg; they supposed that General Du- pont was not alone at Albeck, and they began to believe that they were surrounded on all sides. General Mack, on whom the Austrians have endeavoured to throw all the shame of their disaster, had fallen into a perturbation of mind easily to be conceived. Whatever judges who have reasoned after the event may say, it would have required nothing less to save him than an inspiration from Heaven, to reveal to him all at once the weakness of the corps v/hich was before him, and the possibility, by crushing it, of retiring to Bohemia. The un- fortunate general, who knew not what has since become known, and who had no reason to think that the French were so weak on the left bank, fell to deliberating with the illustri- ous companion of his melancholy fate, the Archduke Ferdinand. He wasted precious time in agitations of mind, and could not re- solve either to flee towards Bohemia by cutting his way through Dupont's division, or to re- treat towards the Tyrol by forcing a passage at Memmingen. The measure which to him appeared the safest was to establish himself still more solidly in the position of Ulm, to concentrate his army there, and there await, in a large mass difficult to be carried by as- sault, the arrival of the Russians by Munich, or of the Archduke Charles by the Tyrol. He said to himself that General Kienmayer with 20,000 Austrians, General Kutusof with 60,000 Russians, would soon appear on the road from Munich ; that the Archduke John, with the corps of the Tyrol, and even the Archduke Charles, with the army of Italy, could not fail to hasten to his succour by way of Kempten, and that then it would be Napoleon who would be in danger, for he would be pressed between 80,000 Austro-Russians, coming from Austria, 25,000 Austrians descending from the Tyrol, and 70,000 Austrians encamped below Ulm, which would make 175,000 men. But it would have been necessary that all these different junctions should be effected in spite of Napo- leon, placed in the centre, with 160,000 French accustomed to conquer. In misfortune, one catches eagerly at the slightest glimmer of hope ; and General Mack believed even the false reports made to him by the spies sent by Napoleon. These spies told him sometimes that a landing of English at Boulogne would recall the French immediately to the Rhine, sometimes that the Russians and the Archduke Charles were debouching by the Munich roacL In difficult situations, subordinate persons become bold and talkative ; they censure their superiors and form opinions of their own. General Mack had about him subordinates, who were nobles of high distinction, and who were not afraid to raise their voices. Some were for making off into Tyrol, others into Wurtemberg, and others into Bohemia. These last, who were right by accident, adduced the battle of Haslach to prove that the route to Bohemia was open. The usual effect of con- tradiction on an agitated mind is to weaken it still more, and to produce half-measures, always the most fatal of any. General Mack, in order to grant something to the opinions which he combated, took two very singular resolu- tions for a man who had decided to remain at Ulm. He sent Jellachich's division to Mem- mingen, to reinforce that post which General Spangen w&s guarding with 5000 men, with the intention of thus keeping himself in com- munication with the Tyrol. He despatched General Riesc to occupy the heights of Elch- ingen, with an entire division, in order to ex- tend himself on the left bank, and to attempt a strong reconnaissance on the communica- tions of the French. To remain at Ulm and wait for succours, and to fight a defensive battle there in case of emergency, he ought to have remained there en masse, and not to have sent corps to the two extremities of the line which he oc- cupied, for that was the way to expose them to be destroyed one after another. Be this as it may, General Mack directed General Riesc to occupy the convent of Elchingen, which is situated on the heights of the left bank, quite close to Haslach, where the fight of the llth had taken place. At the foot of these heights, and below the convent, was a bridge whjch Murat had sent a French detachment to occu- 1) 38 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. py. The Austrians had previously attempted ' to destroy it. Murat's detachment, in order to ' cover itself on the approach of the troops of General Riesc, completed its destruction by burning it. There were still left, however, the piles driven into the river, and which the wa- ter had saved from the conflagration. Thus the French army was without communication with the left bank otherwise than by the bridges of Giinzburg, situated far below Elchingen. Dupont's division had retired to Langenau. Retreat was, therefore, open to the Austrians. Luckily they were ignorant of that. It was during these transactions that Napo- leon, leaving Augsburg in the night of the 12th of October, reached Ulm on the 13th. No sooner had he arrived than he visited on horseback, in terrible weather, all the posi- tions occupied by his lieutenants. He found them extremely irritated against one another, and maintaining totally different opinions. Lannes, whose judgment was sound and per- spicacious in war, had concluded, like Mar- shal Ney, that, instead of intending to accept battle on the Iller, the Austrians were rather meditating an escape into Bohemia, on the left bank, by fighting their way through Du- pont's division. If Napoleon could entertain any doubts when at a distance from the spot, he had none whatever when on the spot itself. Besides, in ordering the left bank to be watched, and Dupont's division to be placed there, he went away without saying that One ought not to leave this division there without support, without securing, above all things, the means of passing from one bank to the other, for the purpose of succouring it if it were attacked. Thus the instructions of Na- poleon had not been better understood than the situation itself. He coincided, therefore, entirely with Marshals Ney and Lannes against Murat, and gave instructions for re- pairing immediately the egregious blunders committed during the preceding days. He resolved to re-establish the communications of the right bank with the left bank by the bridge nearest to Ulm, that of Elchingen. One might have descended as far as Giinz- burg, which belonged to us, repassed the Da- nube there, and ascended again, with Dupont's division reinforced, to Ulm. But this would have been a very lengthened movement, which would have left the Austrians abun- dant time to escape. It was far preferable, at break of day on the 14th, to re-establish by main force the bridge of Elchingen, which was close at hand, and to cross in sufficient 1 LOISON, OLIVER. A native of Domvilliers, the son of an attorney. He entered the French guards and was one of the first in that regiment who deserted the king. On the formation of the National Guard, he desired to be nominated an officer, but being refused by Lafayette, in consequence of his inability to read or write, he accused him at the Jacobins. On the 10th of Augnst, 1792, he led the mob which attacked tlu Tuileries. In 1795, he was general of brigade, and served Napoleon in the affair of the Sections. He subsequently joined Massena's army in Switzerland and was made general of division. In the campaign of 1805, he distinguished himself so much that he was made governor of Munster and Osnabruck, in A liirh office he greatly enriched himself. In 1808, he number to the left bank, while General Du- pont, instructed to that effect, should ascend from Langenau towards Albeck and Ulm. Napoleon gave his orders in consequence for the next day, the 14th. Marshal Soulthad been moved to the extremity of the line of the Iller towards Memmingen ; General Marmont advanced intermediately on the Iller. Lannes, Ney, and Murat, united below Ulm, were to place themselves a cheval on both banks of the Danube, in order to give a hand to Dupont's division, alone on the left bank. But for this purpose it was requisite to re-establish the bridge of Elchingen. For Ney was reserved the honour of executing, in the morning of the 14th, the vigorous operation which was to put us again in possession of both banks of the river. This intrepid marshal was deeply mortified by some indiscreet expressions used by Murat in the recent altercation which he had with him. Murat, as if impatient of too long argu- ments, had told him that he understood nothing of all the plans that were explained to him, and that it was his own custom not to make his till he was facing the enemy. This was the proud answer which a man of action might have addressed to an empty babbler. Marshal Ney, on horseback early in the morning of the 14th, in full uniform, and wearing his decora- tions, laid hold of Murat's arm, and shaking him violently before the whole staff, and be- fore the Emperor himself, said haughtily, "Come, prince, come along with me and make your plans in face of the enemy." Then, gal- loping to the Danube, he went, amidst a shower of balls and grape, having the water up to his horse's bdly, to direct the perilous operation ! assigned to him. This operation consisted in repairing the bridge, of^vhich nothing was left but the piles without flooring, passing it, crossing a small meadow that lay between the Danube and the) foot of the eminence, then making himself master of the village with the convent of El- chingen, which rose amphitheatrically, and was guarded by 20,000 men and a formidable artillery. Marshal Ney, undaunted by all these ob- stacles, ordered an aide-de-camp of General Loison's, 1 Captain Coisel, and a sapper to lay hold of the first plank and carry it to the piles of the bridge, for the purpose of re-establish- ing the pas'sage, under the fire of the Aus- trians. The brave sapper had a leg carried away by a grape-shot, but his place was im- mediately supplied. One plank was first thrown in the form of flooring, then a second and a served under Junot in his invasion of Portugal, in which he distinguished himself equally by his ability and by his atrocious barbarity and shameful rapacity. The massa- cre of Evora, in which 8000 Portuguese men, women, and children, and thirty-eight priests were butchered in cold blood, will never be forgotten. In 1813, he was em- ployed under Davout in Hamburg, where his cruelty and his skill were equally apparent. In 1814, he was serving under Soult, and with that marshal gave in his adhesion to Louis. He served Napoleon zealously during the hun- dred days, and after Waterloo fled to Liege, near which town he had a valuable estate on which he died in 1816. Court and Camp of JVajioleon. B. Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 30 third. Having finished one length, they pro- ceeded to the next, till they had covered the last piles under a murderous fire of small arms, poured upon our labourers by skilful marksmen on the opposite bank. Immediately the voltigeurs of the 6th light, the grenadiers of the 30th, and a company of carabineers, without waiting for the bridge to be made com- pletely firm, threw themselves to the other side of the Danube, dispersed the Austrians who guarded the left bank, and cleared a sufficient space for Loison's division to come to their assistance. Marshal Ney then ordered the 39th and the 6lh light to cross to the other bank of the river. He directed General Villatte to put himself at the head of the 39th, and to extend himself on the right in the meadow, in order to make the Austrians evacuate it, while he himself, with the 6th light, would take the convent. The 39th stopped while passing the bridge by the French cavalry, which rushed across it with ardour, was prevented from getting over entire. The 1st battalion alone of that regiment was able to execute the order which it had received. It had to sustain the charges of the Austrian cavalry and the attack of three hostile bat- talions; it was even forced back for a mo- ment, after an obstinate resistance, to the head of the bridge. But, being soon succoured by its second battalion, joined by the 69th and the 76th of the line, it recovered the lost ground, remained master of the whole of the meadow on the right, and obliged the Aus- ! trians to regain the heights. Meanwhile Ney, ; at the head of the 6th light, was pushing on through the steep and crooked streets of the ! village of Elchingen, under a downward fire from the houses, which were full of infantry. , He wrested the village, house by house, from the hands of the Austrians, and stormed the convent, which is on the summit of the height. Arrived at this place, he had before him the undulateu plateaux, interspersed with wood, on which Dupont's division had fought on the 1 1th. These plateaux extend to the Michaels- berg, above the very city of Ulna. Ney re- solved to establish himself there, lest he might he tumbled into the Danube by an offensive return of the enemy. A large patch of wood came 10 the margin of the height, close 'up to the convent and the village of Elchingen. Ney determined to make himself master of it, in oider to appuy his left there. He purposed, his left being well secured, to revolve upon it and to move forward his right. He threw into the wood the 69th of the line, which plunged into it in spite of a brisk fire of musketry. While a furious fight was kept up in that quarter, the rest of the Austrian corps was formed into several squares of two or three thousand men each. Ney ordered them to be attacked by the dragoons, followed by the infantry in column. The 18th dragoons made so vigorous a charge upon one of them as to break it and to compel it to lay down its arms. At this sight, the Austrians retired in great haste, and fled at first towards Haslach, and then proceeded to rally on the Michaels- berg. Meanwhile, General Duo< nt. marching from Langenau towards Albeck, had fallen in with the corps of Werneck, one of those which had left Ulm on the preceding day, with the inten- tion of pushing reconnaissances on the left bank of the Danube, and seeking means of retreat for the Austrian army. On hearing the cannon on his rear, General Werneck had turned back and proceeded to the Michaels- berg by the road from Albeck to Ulm. He ar- rived there at the very moment when Dupout's division was repairing thither on its side, and when Marshal Ney was taking the heights of Elchingen. A new combat ensued at this point between General Werneck, who wished to get back to Ulm, and General Dupont, who wished, on the contrary, to prevent him. The 32d and the 9th light rushed in close column upon the infantry of the Austrians and re- pulsed it, while the 96th received in square the charges of their cavalry. The day closed amidst this fray, Marshal Nay having glori- ously reconquered the left bank, and General Dupont having cut off the retreat of Wer- neck's corps to Ulm. Three thousand pri- soners and a great quantity of artillery had been taken. But what was still more import- ant, the Austrians were definitively shut up in Ulm, and this time without any chance of escape, should even the happiest inspiration visit them at this last moment. During these occurrences on the left bank, Lannes had approached Ulm on the right bank, General Marmont had advanced towards the Iller, and Marshal Soult, pressing the extremity of the position of the Austrians, had taken Memmingen. The enemy was still engaged in palisading that city when Marshal Soult arrived there. He had rapidly invested it, and obliged General Spangen to lay down his arms with 5000 men, the whole of his artillery, and a great number of horses. General Jellachich, hastening up, but loo late, to the relief of Mem- mingen with his division, finding himself in face of a corps-d'armee of 30,000 men, retired, not upon Ulm, fearing that he should not be able to regain it, but upon Kempten and the Tyrol. Marshal Soult immediately proceeded towards Ochsenhausen, to complete on all sides the investment of the fortress and the en- trenched camp of Ulm. Such was the situation at the close of day on the 14th of October. After the departure of General Jellachich and the different actions which had been fought, General Mack was re- duced to 50,000 men. From this must be de- ducted Werneck's corps, separated from him by Dupont's division. That unfortunate general found himself, therefore, in a desperate posi- tion. There was no elegible course for him to pursue. His only resource was to rush sword in hand upon one of the points of the circle of iron in which he had been enclosed, and to perish or to open an outlet for himself. To throw himself upon Ney and Dupont would still have b-en the least disastrous step to take. To a certainty he would have been beaten, for Lannes and Murat would have hastened by the bridge of Elchingen to the assistance of Ney and Dupont, and there needed not such an assemblage of forces to conquer disheart- ened soldiers. Still the honour of the arms 40 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. would have been saved, and, next to victory, that is the most important result that one can obtain. But General Mack persisted in his resolution of concentrating himself in Ulm, and waiting there for the succour of the Rus- sians. He had to endure violent attacks from Prince Schwarzenberg and the Archduke Fer- dinand. The latter, in particular, was deter- mined to escape at any risk the misfortune of being made prisoner. General Mack produced the powers of the Emperor, which, in case of difference of opinion, conferred on him the su- preme authority. This was enough to render him responsible, not to make him be obeyed. The Archduke Ferdinand resolved, thanks to his less dependent position, to withdraw him- self from the authority of the general-in-chief. When night came on, he chose that gate of Ulm which exposed him to the least risk of encountering the French, and started with six or seven thousand horse and a corps of infan- try, with the intention of joining General Wer- neck and escaping through the Upper Palati- nate to Bohemia. By uniting General Wer- neck's corps to the detachment which accom- panied him he took from General Mack about 20,000 men, and left him in Ulm with 30,000 only, blockaded on all sides and forced to lay down his arms in the most ignominious man- ner. It has been falsely alleged that the depar- ture of the prince proved the possibility of es- caping from Ulm. In the first place, it is most improbable that the whole army, with its artillery and its matdriel, could slip away like a mere detachment, composed for the greater part of horse soldiers. But what happened a few days afterwards to the Archduke Ferdi- nand proves that the army itself would have plunged into ruin in this flight. The grand fault lay in dividing itself. It ought to have remained or gone forth altogether remained to fight an obstinate battle with 70,000 men ; gone forth to rush with these 70,000 men upon one of the points of the investment, and there to find either death or the success which fortune sometimes grants to despair. But to divide, some to flee with Jellachich to the Ty- rol, others to escort the flight of a prince into Bohemia, others again to sign a capitulation at Ulm, was of all modes of proceeding the most deplorable. For the rest, experience teaches that, in these situations, the dejected human mind, when it has begun to descend, descends so low that among all courses it takes the worst. It is right to add that General Mack has since invariably asserted that he disap- proved of this division of the Austrian forces and of these separate retreats.' Napoleon passed the night between the 14th and 15th in the convent of Elchingen. On the morning of the 15th, he resolved to bring the affair to a close, and gave orders to Mar- shal Ney to storm the heights of Michaelsberg. These heights, situated in advance of Ulm when you go along the left bank, overlook that city, which, as we have said, is seated at their foot, on the very margin of the Danube. Lannes had passed with his corps by the bridge of Elchingen, and flanked the attack of Ney. He was to take the Frauenberg, a neighbouring height to the Michaelsberg. Na- poleon was on the ground, having Lannes near him, observing, on the one hand, the positions which Ney was going to attack at the head of his regiments, and on the other, casting his eyes down on the city of Ulm, situated in the bottom. All at once, a battery ! unmasked by the Austrians poured its grape- shot upon the imperial group. Lannes abruptly seized the reins of Napoleon's horse, to lead him out of the galling fire. Napoleon, who did not seek the fire, neither did he shun it, who approached it no nearer than was neces- sary in order to judge of things by his own eyes, placed himself in such a manner as to see the action with less danger. Ney set his columns in motion, climbed the entrench- ments raised on the Michaelsberg, and carried them with the bayonet. Napoleon, fearing that Ney's attack would be too prompt, wished to slacken it, in order to give Lannes time to assault the Frauenberg, and thus to divide the enemy's attention. " Glory is not to be divided," was Ney's answer to General Dumas, who brought him the order to wait for the assist- ance of Lannes, and he continued his march, surmounted all obstacles, and reached with his corps the back of the heights just above the city of Ulm. Lannes, on his part, carried the Frauenberg, and, joining, they descended together to approach the walls of the place. In the ardour which hurried away the attack- ing columns, the 17th light, under the com- mand of Colonel Vedel, of Suchet's division, scaled the bastion of the place nearest to the river, and established itself there. But the Austrians, perceiving the hazardous position of that regiment, fell upon it, repulsed it, and took from it some prisoners. Napoleon thought it right to suspend the combat, and to defer till the morrow the busi- ness of summoning the place, and, if it re- sisted, to take it by assault. In the course of 1 The Austrians have never published any account of their operations in this first part of the compaign of 1805. Many works, however, have appeared in Germany, the writers of which have made a point of abusing General Mack and extolling the Archduke Ferdinand, in order to account by the silliness of a single individual for the disaster of the Austrian army, and to diminish at the same time the glory of the French. These works are all inaccurate and unjust, a,nd are grounded for the most part on false circumstances, the impossibility of which even is demonstrated. I procured with great difficulty one of the scarce copies of the defence presented by General Mack to the council of war, before which he was summoned to appear. This defence, of a singular form, in a tone of constraint, especially in what relates to the Archduke Ferdinand, fuller of declamatory reflections than facts, has nevertheless furnished me with the meane of ascer- taining what were the intentions of the Austrian general, and rectifying a great number of absurd conjectures. I think, therefore, that I have arrived in this narrative at the truth, at least as nearly as one can reasonably hope to do in regard to occurrences which have not been veri- fied in writing, even in Austria, and of which there are now scarcely any living witnesses. The principal per- sonages arc actually dead, and in Germany there has been a very natural, very excusable, motive for disfiguring the truth, that of sparing the national self-love by sacrificing a single man. Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 41 this day, General Dupont, who had been ever since the preceding day in face of Werneck's corps, had again engaged him, to prevent his gelling back to Ulm. Napoleon had sent Mural to see what was passing in that quarter, for he was extremely puzzled to conjecture, ignorant of the departure of a portion of the Austrian army. It soon became evident to him that several detachments had succeeded in stealing off by one of the gates of Ulm, the one that was the least exposed to the view and the action of the French. He immediately directed Murat, wilh the reserve cavalry, Du- pont's. division, and Oudinot's grenadiers, to pursue to the utmost that part of the enemy's army which had escaped from the place. Next day, the 16th, he ordered a few shells to be thrown into Ulm, and in the evening he enjoined M. de Segur, one of the officers of his staff, to go to General Mack and summon him to lay down his arms. Obliged to pro- ceed in the dark, and in very bad weather, he had the greatest difficulty to get into the place. He was led, blindfold, before General Mack, who, striving to conceal his profound anxiety, was nevertheless unable to dissemble his sur- prise and his grief on learning the whole ex- tent of his disaster. He was not fully ac- quainted with it, for he knew not yet that he was encompassed by 100,000 French, that 60,000 more occupied the line of the Inn, that the Russians, on the contrary, were at a great distance, and that the Archduke Charles,-de- tained on the Adige by Marshal Massena, could not come. Each of these pieces of in- telligence, which at first he would not believe, but which he was soon obliged to admit on the repeated and solemn assertion of M. de Segur, cut him to the heart. After much exclamation against the proposal to capitulate, General Mack began by degrees to endure the idea, on condition of waiting a few days for the suc- cour of the Russians. He would be ready, he said, to surrender in eight days, if the Rus- sians should not make their appearance be- fore Ulm. M. de Segur had orders to grant him no more than five, or, at the utmost, six. In case of refusal, he was to threaten him with an assault, and the most rigorous treat- ment for the troops under his command. This unfortunate general thought that it concerned his honour, already lost, to obtain eight days instead of six. M. de Segur retired to carry his answer to the Emperor. The par- leys continued, and at length Berlhier, having introduced himself into the place, agreed with General Mack to the following conditions. If, on the 25th of October, before midnight, an Austro-Russian corps capable of raising the blockade of Ulm did not make its appearance, the Austrian army was to lay down its arms, the men to be prisoners of war and to be con- ducted to France. The Austrian officers were to be at liberty to return to Austria, on condi- tion of never again serving against France. Horses, arms, ammunition, colours, were all to belong to the French army. This agreement was concluded on the 19th of October, but the convention was to be dated the 17th, which gave in appearance to General VOL. II. 6 Mack the eight days demanded. That un- fortunate man, having arrived at the Emperor's head-quarters and been received with the at- tentions due to adversity, affirmed repeatedly that he was not to blame for the disasters of his army, that he had established himself at Ulm by order of the Aulic Council, and that since the investment his force had been divided contrary to his express desire. This, it will be seen, was a new convention of Alexandria, without the dreadful bloodshed of Marengo. Meanwhile Murat, at the head of Dupont's division, Oudinot's grenadiers, and the cavalry reserve, atoned for his recent fault by pursu- ing the Austrians with truly prodigious rapidity. He followed General Werneck and Prince Fer- dinand unremittingly, swearing not to let a single man escape. Setting out on the morn- ing of the 16th of October, he had a rear- guard action with General Werneck in the evening and took from him 2000 prisoners. Next day, the 17th, he took the road to Heiden- heim, striving to harass the enemy's flanks by the rapid march of his cavalry. General Werneck and the Archduke Ferdinand, having joined, made their retreat together. In the course of the day, the French passed Heiden- heim and arrived at Neresheim at night, at the same time as the rear-guard of Werneck's corps. It was thrown into disorder and ob- liged to disperse in the woods. On the follow- ing day, the 18th, Murat, marching without intermission, followed the enemy towards Nordlingen. The regiment of Stuart, being enveloped, surrendered entire. General Wer- neck, finding himself surrounded on all sides, and unable to advance further with a harassed infantry, having no longer any hope, or even any wish, to escape, offered to capitulate. The capitulation was accepted, and this general laid down his arms with 8000 men. Three Austrian generals, taking with them part of the cavalry, resolved to escape, in spite of the capitulation. Murat sent an officer to them to summon them to execute their engagement. They would not listen to him, and went off to rejoin Prince Ferdinand. Murat, intent on punishing such a breach of faith, pursued them with still greater activity on- the follow- ing day. In the night, the great park, com- posed of 500 carriages, fell into the hands of the pursuers. This route presented a scene of unparalleled confusion. The Austrians had thrown them- selves upon our communications; they had taken a great number of our carriages, of OUT stragglers, and part of Napoleon's treasure. All that they had conquered for a moment was retaken from them, besides their artillery, their equipages, and their own treasure. There were to be seen soldiers and employes of both armies, running away in disorder, without knowing whither they were going, ignorant which was the victor and which the vanquished. The peasants of the Upper Palatinate ran after the fugitives, stripped them, and cut the traces of the Austrian artillery, to possess themselves of the horses. Murat, continuing his pursuit, arrived on the 19th at Gunzenhauscn, the D 2 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. Prussian frontier of Anspach. A Prussian officer had the boldness to come and insist upon the neutrality, though the Austrian fugi- tives had obtained permission to pass through the country. Murat's only answer was to enter Gunzenhausen by main force, and to fol- low the archduke beyond it. Next day, the 20th, he passed through Nuremberg. The enemy, finding his strength exhausted, at length halted. An action ensued between the two cavalries. After numerous charges re- ceived and returned, the squadrons of the archduke dispersed, and the greater part of them laid down their arms. Some infantry that was left also surrendered. Prince Ferdi- nand was indebted for the advantage of saving his person to the attachment of a subaltern, who gave him his horse. He gained, with two or three thousand horse, the road to Bo- hemia. Murat thought that he ought not to push on any further. He had marched four days with- out resting, at the rate of more than ten leagues a day. His troops were harassed with fatigue. This pursuit, prolonged beyond Nu- remberg, would have carried him beyond the circle of the operations of the army. Besides, all that Prince Ferdinand had left was not worth an additional march. In this memora- ble expedition, Murat had taken 12,000 pri- soners, 120 pieces of cannon, 500 carriages, 11 colours, 200 officers, 7 generals, besides the treasure of the Austrian army. He had, therefore, his ample share in this glorious campaign. The plan of Napoleon was completely re- alized. It was the 20th of October, and in twenty days, without giving battle, by a series of marches and some combats, an army of 80,000 men was destroyed. None had escaped but General Kienmayer. with about a dozen thousand men, General Jellachich, with five or six thousand, Prince Ferdinand, with two or three thousand horse. At Wertingen, Gunzburg, Haslach, Munich, Elchingen, in the pursuit conducted by Murat, about 30,000 prisoners had been picked up.' There were left 30,000, who would soon be found in Ulm. These made a total of 60,000 men taken, with their artillery, consisting of 200 pieces of cannon, with four or five thousand horses, well adapted for remounting our cavalry, together with all the materiel of the Austrian army, and 80 colours. The French army had a few thousand lame, in consequence of forced marches, and it numbered at most 2000 men bars de combat. Napoleon, satisfied respecting the Russians, had not been displeased to halt four or five days before Ulm, to give his soldiers time to rest themselves, and particularly to rejoin their colours; for the last operations had been so rapid that a certain number of them had been left behind. Our Emperor, said they, has found out a new way of making war; he no longer makes it with our arms but with our legs. 1 Here is an approximated enumeration, but rather re duced than exaggerated, of these prisoners : Taken at Wertingen, 2000; at GUnsburg, 2000; at Haslach, 4000 ; Napoleon, however, would not wait any longer, and he was desirous to gain the three or four days which were yet to run, in virtue of the capitulation signed with General Mack. He sent for him, and pouring some consola- tions into his heart, obtained from him a new concession, which was to deliver the place on the 20th, on condition that Ney should remain below Ulm till the 25th of October. General Mack conceived that he had performed his last duties by paralyzing a French corps till the eighth day. In truth, in the situation to which he was reduced, all that he could do was very little. He consented, therefore, to leave the place on the following day. Accordingly, on the next day, October the 20th, 1805, an ever-memorable day, Napoleon, placed at the foot of the Michaelsberg, facing Ulm, saw the Austrian army file away before him. He occupied an elevated slope, having behind him his infantry, drawn up in semicir- cle on the hill side, and, opposite, his cavalry deployed in a right line. The Austrians filed ofF between the two, laying down their arms at the entrance of this sort of amphitheatre. A large watch-fire had been made, near which Bonaparte posted himself to witness the cere- mony. General Mack first came forward and delivered his sword to him, exclaiming with grief, "Here is the unfortunate Mack!" Napo- leon received him, himself and his officers, with the greatest courtesy, and directed them to be ranged on either side of him. The Austrian soldiers, before they came into his presence, flung down their arms with a vexation honour- able to them, and that feeling gave way only to the curiosity which seized them on approach- ing Napoleon. All devoured with their eyes that terrible conqueror, from whom their co- lours had received, for the last two years, such cruel affronts. Napoleon, conversing with the Austrian offi- cers, said to them loud enough to be heard by all, "I know not why we are at war. It was not my wish. I thought only of warring with the English, when your master came to pro- voke me. You see my army: I have 200,000 men in Germany; your soldiers who are pri- soners will see 200,000 more, traversing France to come in aid of the first I need not, you well know, have so many to conquer. Your master ought to think of peace, otherwise the fall of the house of Lorraine may possibly arrive. It is not new territories on the continent that I desire, it is ships, colonies, and commerce that I wish to possess, and this ambition is as pro- fitable to you as to myself." These words, delivered with some haughti- ness, were met by silence only from those offi- cers, and sorrow to think that they were de- served. Napoleon afterwards conversed with the most noted of the Austrian generals, and watched for five hours this extraordinary sight. Twenty-seven thousand men filed away before him. From three to four thousand wounded were left in the place. On the following day, according to his cus- at Munich, 1000; at Elchingen, 3000 ; at Memminpen, 5000 ; in the pursuit by Murat, 12 to 13,000. Total, 29 or 30,000. 0;* 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 43 torn, he addressed a proclamation to his sol- diers. I> tfas couched in the following terms. "Imperial head-quarters, Elehingen, " 29 Vendemiaire, year XIV (21 October, 1805). " Soldiers of the Grand Army. "In a fortnight we have made a campaign: we have accomplished what we intended. We have driven the troops of the house of Austria out of Bavaria, and reinstated our ally in the sovereignty of his dominions. That army, which, with equal ostentation and imprudence, came and placed itself on our frontiers, is an- nihilated. But what cares England 1 her object is attained ; we are no longer at Boulogne ! . . . * " Out of the hundred thousand men who com- posed that army, sixty thousand are prisoners ; they shall go and replace our conscripts in the labours of our fields. Two hundred pieces of cannon, ninety colours, all the generals, are in our power; not fifteen thousand men of that army have escaped. Soldiers, I had announced to you a great battle; but, thanks to the vi- cious combinations of the enemy, I have been enabled to obtain the same success without running any risk; and, what is unexampled in the history of nations, so great a result has diminished our force by no more than fifteen hundred men hors de combat. " Soldiers, this success is owing to your un- bounded confidence in your Emperor, to your patience in enduring fatigues and privations of every kind, and to your extraordinary intre- pidity. " But we shall not stop there ; you are im- patient to commence a second campaign. That Russian army, which the gold of England has brought from the extremities of the earth, shall share the same fate. " In this new struggle the honour of the in- fantry is more especially concerned. Here is to be decided, for the second time, that ques- tion which has already been decided in Swit- zerland and Holland, whether the French infan- try is the second or the first in Europe. There are no generals here against whom I can have any glory to acquire : all my care will be to obtain victory with the least possible effusion of your blood. My soldiers are my children." The day after the surrender of Ulm, Napo- leon set out for Augsburg, with the intention of reaching the Inn before the Russians, march- ing to Vienna, and, as he had resolved, frus- trating the four attacks which were directed against the Empire by the single march of the grand army for the capital of Austria. Wherefore are we obliged to follow up im- mediately this glorious recital with one that is so afflicting! In the very same days of the month of October, 1805, for ever glorious for France, Providence inflicted on our fleets a cruel compensation for the victories of our ar- mies. History, on which is imposed the task of recording alternately the triumphs and the disasters of nations, and of imparting to curi- ous posterity those same emotions of joy or grief which were felt in their time by the gene- rations whose vicissitudes she relates History 1 THE SWIFTSURE, "4, commanded by Captain (after- wards Sir Benjamin) Hallowell, fell in on the 24th of June, must make up her mind to describe, after the marvels of Ulm, the terrific scene of destruction that was passing, at the same moment, oflf the coast of Spain, in sight of Cape Trafalgar. The unfortunate Villeneuve, in leaving Fer- rol, was agitated by the desire of proceeding to the Channel, in conformity with the grand schemes of Napoleon ; but he was urged by an irresistible impulse towards Cadiz. The news of the junction of Nelson with Admirals Cal- der and Cornwallis had filled him with a sort of terror. This intelligence, true in some re- spects, for Nelson, on his return to England, had visited Admiral Cornwallis ofTBrest, was false in the most important point, for Nelson had not stopped off Brest but had sailed for Portsmouth. Admiral Calder had been sent alone to Ferrol, and had not appeared there till after the departure of Villeneuve. They were, therefore, running after one another in vain, as is often the case on the wide expanse of the ocean; and Villeneuve, if he had persisted, would have found Cornwallis, separate both from Nelson and Calder, off Brest. He thus lost the grandest of opportunities, and caused France to lose it ; though, indeed, it is impos- sible to say what would have been the result of that extraordinary expedition, if Napoleon had been at the gates of London, while the Aus- trian armies would have been on the frontiers of the Rhine. The rapidity of his blows, usually swift as lightning, would alone have decided whether forty days, from the 20th of August to the 30th of September, were sufficient for subjugating England, and for giving to France the conjoined sceptres of earth and ocean. On leaving Ferrol, Villeneuve had not dared to tell Lauriston that he was going to Cadiz; but, when once at sea, he no longer concealed from him the apprehensions by which he was tormented, and which urged him to get away from the Channel, and to steer for the furthest point of the Peninsula. On the earnest remonstrances of General Lauriston, who endeavoured to represent to him the full magnitude of the designs, of the miscarriage of which he would be the cause, he resumed for a moment the intention of steering for the Channel, and put the head of the ship to the north-east. But the wind, being right in his teeth, blowing precisely from the north-east, forbade this route, and he resolved definitively to steer for Cadiz, his heart ha- rassed by a new apprehension, that of incur- ring the anger of Napoleon. He came in sight of Cadiz about the 20th of August. An English squadron of moderate force usually blockaded that port. Arriving at the head of the combined fleet, he might have taken this squadron, had he come rapidly upon it with his united strength. But, still haunted by the same terrors, he despatched an advanced guard, to ascertain whether there was not oft' Cadiz a naval force capable of giving battle; the English ships, taking the alarm, had time to sheer off. Admiral Ganteaume, in 1801, having failed in the object of his expedition to Egypt, at least took the Swiftsure. 1 Ville- 1801, between the coast of Africa and the Isle of Candia, with Ganteaume's squadron, consisting of L'Indomptable, 44 HISTORY OF THE [Oct 180& neuve had not even the slight consolation to enter Cadiz bringing with him two or three English ships, as some indemnification for his useless campaign. He naturally expected a violent explosion of anger on the part of Napoleon, and he passed some days in deep despair. Nor was he mistaken. Napoleon, on receiving from Lauriston, his aide-de-camp, a detailed report of all that had taken place, regarding as an act of duplicity the double language held on leav- ing Ferrol, and as a sort of treason the igno- rance in which Lallemand had been left of the return of the fleet to Cadiz, which ex- posed the latter to the danger of presenting himself singly before Brest, above all, imput- ing to Villeneuve the frustration of the grand- est design that he had ever conceived, applied to him, in the presence of the minister De- cres, the most disparaging expressions, and even called him a coward and a traitor. He was a good soldier and a good citizen ; but too much discouraged by inexperience of the French naval service and by the imperfection of his materiel, and frightened at the complete disorganization of the Spanish navy, he anti- cipated only certain defeat in any rencounter with the enemy, and he was inexpressibly grieved at the pan of the vanquished to which he was necessarily doomed by Napoleon. He had not thoroughly comprehended that what Napoleon required of him was not to conquer, but to devote himself to destruction, provided that the Channel was opened. Or, very likely, if he had comprehended this terrible destination, he might not have been able to make up his mind to it. We shall presently see how soon he was to be led to the same sacrifice, and this time without any result that could shed lustre on his de- feat. Napoleon, in the torrent of great things which hurried him along, soon lost sight of Admiral Villeneuve and his conduct. Never- theless, before he set out for the banks of the Danube, he cast a last look at his navy, and on the way in which he should think fit to employ it. He gave orders for the separation of the Brest fleet, and for the division of that fleet into several squadrons, agreeably to the plan of M. Decres, which consisted in avoid- ing great naval engagements, and meanwhile undertaking distant expeditions composed of a few ships, more likely to escape the English, and as injurious to their commerce as advan- tageous for the instruction of our seamen. He determined, moreover, to give General St. Cyr, who occupied Tarento, the support of the Cadiz fleet and the land-troops which it had on board. He calculated that this fleet, amounting to forty and even forty-six ships, after it should have rallied the Carthagena division, would for some time have the mas- tery of the Mediterranean, as that of Bruix had formerly had, take the weak English squadron stationed off Naples, and furnish General St. Cyr with the useful aid of the 4000 soldiers whom it had been carrying about over all the seas. He ordered it, there- fore, to leave Cadiz, to enter the Mediterra- nean, to call for the Carthagena division, then to proceed to Tarento, and, in case the Eng- lish squadrons should have united off" Cadiz, not to let itself be shut up there, but to get out if it should be superior in number, for it was better to be beaten than disgraced by pusilla- nimous conduct. These resolutions being taken by Napoleon, under the impression produced upon him by the timidity of Villeneuve, not sufficiently matured, and above all not sufficiently con- tested by the minister Decres, who durst no longer repeat what he feared he had gone too far in saying, were immediately transmitted to Cadiz. Admiral Decres did not report to Villeneuve all the expressions of Napoleon, but, suppressing only the contumelious lan- guage, he repeated to him the animadversions made on his conduct from his leaving Toulon till his return to Spain, intimating that he must perform great things before he could recover the esteem of the Emperor. Inform- ing him of his new destination, he ordered him to sail, and to proceed successively to Carthagena, Naples, and Tarento, to execute there the instructions which we have just de- tailed. Without enjoining him to sail at all hazards, he told him that the Emperor desired that the French navy, when the English were inferior in force, should never refuse to fight. There he stopped short, not daring to declare the whole truth to Villeneuve, or to renew his remonstrances with the Emperor to prevent a great naval engagement, which then had no longer the excuse of necessity. Thus all parties contributed their share to produce a great disaster, Napoleon by his anger, the minister Decres by his concealment, and Vil- leneuve by his despair. When on the point of setting out for Stras- burg, Napoleon gave M. Decres a last order relative to the naval operations "Your friend Villeneuve," said he, " will probably be too cowardly to venture out of Cadiz. Despatch Admiral Rosilly to take the command of the squadron, if it has not already sailed, and or- der Admiral Villeneuve to come to Paris to account to me for his conduct." M. Decres had not the courage to acquaint Villeneuve with this new misfortune, which deprived him of all means of redeeming his character, and merely informed him of the departure of Ro- silly, without communicating the motive for it. He did not advise Villeneuve to sail before Admiral Rosilly should reach Cadiz, but he hoped that this would be the case; and, in his embarrassment between an unfortunate friend, whose faults he was aware of, and the Emperor, whose resolutions he deemed impru- dent, he too frequently committed the error of 90; Le Formidable, 80; I.' Indivisible, 80; La Constitution, 74 ; Le Dix Aofit, 74 ; Le Dessaix, 74 ; Le Jean Bart, 74 ; La Brivoure, 40; La Creole, 40; Le Vanteur lugger. rrecit des Kucncmcns Militairt*. She engaged the squadron in close action for one hour, when, finding further resistance vain, he surrendered. Ganteaume received his prisoner with a nobleness that 1 wa creditable to both parties. Brtnton't Jfaval Hut. H. Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. leaving things to themselves, instead of tak- ing upon him the responsibility of directing them. 1 Villeneuve, on receiving the letters of M. Decres, guessed all that was not told him, and was as miserable as he had reason to be on account of the reproaches which he had in- curred. What touched him most was the im- putation of cowardice, which he well knew th.t he had never deserved, and which he fan- cied that he could perceive in the very reser- vations of the minister, his patron arid his friend. He wrote in answer to M. Decres : "The seamen of Paris and the departments will be very unworthy and very silly if they cast a stone at me. Let them come on board our squadrons, and then they will see with what elements they are liable to have to fight. For the rest, if the French navy has been deficient in nothing but courage, as it is alleged, the Emperor skull soon be satisfied, and he may reckon upon the most splendid success." These bitter words contained the prognostic of what was soon to happen. Villeneuve made preparations for sailing again, landed the troops that they might rest themselves, and the sick that they might get well. He availed himself of the very reduced means of Spain to refit his ships, which had suffered from a long navigation ; to procure at least three months' provisions: lastly, to re-organize the various departments of his fleet. Admiral Gravina, by his advice, got rid of his bad ships, and exchanged them for the best in the dockyard of Cadiz. The whole month of Sep- tember was devoted to these duties. The fleet gained much in materiel : the personnel remained as it was. The French crews had acquired some experience during a navigation of nearly eight months. They were full of ardour and zeal. Some of the captains were excellent. But among the officers there was too great a number borrowed recently from commerce, and having neither the spirit nor skill of the im- perial navy. Instruction, especially in regard to the artillery, was far too much neglected. Our seamen were not then such skilful gun- ners as in these later times, thanks to the spe- cial attention bestowed on this part of their military education. What our navy also wanted was a system of naval tactics adapted to the new mode of fighting the English. In- stead of placing themselves in order of battle in two opposite lines, as formerly, of ad- vancing methodically, each ship keeping her rank, and taking for her antagonist the ship facing her in the opposite line, the English, directed by Rodney 1 in the American war, and by Nelson in the war of the Revolution, had contracted the habit of advancing boldly, with- 1 Abundance of conjectures have been made respecting the causes which led tn the sailing en masse of the fleet from Cadiz and the battle of Traf ilgar. On this subject nothing is true hut what is here stated. Our account is taken from the authentic correspondence of Napoleon and th.it of Admirals Dei res and Villeneuve. All lint can be said concerning that melancholy event U here given. 2 UODNB-Y, GEORGE BKYDGES. Born in 171", the son of a captain in the royal navy. He had his first ship in 1M-.J. In 1749, wag governor of Newfoundland. In 1759, was out observing any order but that which result- ed from the relative swiftness of the ships, of dashing upon the enemy's fleet, breaking the line, and cutting off a portion to place it be- tween two fires; in short, of not shrinking from the fray at the risk of sending their shot into one another. The experience, the skill of their crews, the confidence which they owed to their successes, always insured to them in these rash enterprises the advantage over their adversaries, less agile, less confi- dent, though having as much bravery, and often more. The English, then, had affected at sea a revolution very much like that which Napoleon had effected on land. Nelson, who had contributed to this revolution, was not a superior and universal genius like Napoleon; far from it: he was even narrow-minded in things foreign to his art; but he had the ge- nius of his profession; he was intelligent, resolute, and possessed in a high degree the qualities suited to offensive war, activity, hardihood, and judgment. Villeneuve, who was endowed with spirit and courage, but not that firmness ef mind which befits a military chief, was perfectly acquainted with the defects of our mode of fighting. On this subject he had written let- ters, full of good sense, to M. Decres, who agreed with him in opinion, as all seamen did. But he thought it impossible to prepare, while on active service, new instructions, and to render them sufficiently familiar to his cap- tains for them to be able to apply them in any speedy encounter. At the battle of Ferrol, however, he had opposed to the English, as the reader will no doubt remember, an unex- pected manoeuvre, highly approved by Napo- leon and by M. Decres. Admiral Calder, ad- vancing in column upon the end of his line, with the intention of cutting it off, he had had the art to withdraw it with great promptness. But, when the battle had once begun, he had not known how to manoeuvre ; he had left part of his force inactive, and, when a forward movement of his whole line would have been sufficient for retaking the two disabled Spa- nish ships, he had not ventured to order it. Villeneuve, nevertheless, displayed in that battle real talents, in the judgment of Napo- leon, but not decision equal to the intelligence which he possessed. Subsequently, he ad- dressed no other instructions to his captains but to obey the signals which he should make in the moment of action, if the state of the wind admitted of manoeuvring, and, if it did not, to do their best to get into the fire, and to seek an adversary. " You must not wait," said he, " for the signals of the admiral, who, in the confusion of a sea-fight, frequently cannot see admiral, and commanded the expedition which success fully bombarded H.ivre. In 1701, he reduced Martinique and was made a baronet. In 1780, he utterly defeated the Spanish Admiral L.iugare in the famous action of Cape St. Vincent. In 1782, he obtained a complete victory over al IV Grasse, capturing five and sinking vessels. He was created a baron, and the French Admi one of his larges pensioned, and a said by some wri practised the ma his death buried in St. Paul's. He 'a era to have been the firM admiral wno ceuvre of breaking :he lire; to wuich M. Ttiiers here makes allusion. Encyc. 46 HISTORY OF THE [Oct 180J. what is passing, nor give his orders, nor, above all, find means to transmit them. Each must listen only to the voice of honour, and press on into the hottest of the fight EVERY CAPTAIX IS AT HIS POST IF HE IS I3C THE FIRE." Such were his instructions, and, for the rest, Admiral Bruir himself, so superior to Ville- neuve, had not addressed any others to the officers whom he commanded. If, in our great sea-fights, every captain had followed these simple directions, dictated by honour as much as by experience, the English would have numbered fewer triumphs, or paid dearer for them. What particularly alarmed Admiral Villne- neuve was the state of the Spanish fleet It was composed of fine large ships, one of them especially, the Santissima Trinidad, of 1 40 guns, the largest ever built in Europe. But these vast machines of war, which reminded one of the ancient splendour of the Spanish mo- narchy under Charles III., were, like the Turk- ish ships, superb in appearance, useless in danger. The penury of the Spanish arsenals had not allowed them to be properly rigged, and the weakness of the crews was distressing. They were manned by an assemblage of peo- ple of all sorts, picked up at random in the maritime towns of the Peninsula, untrained, unaccustomed to the sea, and incapable in all respects of coping with the old sailors of Eng- land, though the generous Spanish blood flowed in their veins. The officers, for the most part, were no better than the seamen. Some of them, however, such as Admiral Gra- vina, Vice-admiral Alava, Captains Valdez, Churruca, and Galiano, were worthy of the most glorious times of the Spanish navy. Villeneuve, most determined to prove that he was not a coward, employed the month of September and the first days of October in introducing some system and better order into this compound of the two navies. He formed two squadrons, the one for battle, the other of reserve. He assumed himself the command of the squadron of battle, composed of twenty- one ships, and formed with it three divisions of seven ships each. He had under his im- mediate command the centre division ; Ad- miral Dumanoir, whose flag was hoisted in the Formidable, commanded the rear-division ; Vice-admiral Alava, who had his flag in the Sjnta Anna, commanded the van. The reserve squadron was composed of twelve ships, and formed into two divisions of six ships each. Admiral Gravina was the commander of this squadron, and had under him, to direct the second division, Rear-admiral Magon, in the dlgesiras. It was with this squadron of re- serve, detached from the line of battle and acting apart, that Villeneuve intended to parry any unforeseen manoeuvres of the enemy, that is, if the wind permitted himself to manoauvre. In the contrary case, he trusted to the duty of honour imposed on all his captains to press into the fire. The combined fleet, therefore, was com- posed of thirty-three ships, five frigates, and two brigs. In his impatience to sail, Ville- neuve resolved, on the 8th of October, (16 Vendemiaire,) 10 take advantage of an east wind to get out of the road, for, to work out of Cadiz, you require winds from north-east to south-east But three of the Spanish ships had just left the basin, and their crews had embarked on the preceding day : these were the Santa Anna, the Rayo, and the San Justo. Fit, at most, to sail with the fleet, they were incapable of keeping their place in a line of battle. This remark was urged by the Spa- nish officers. Villeneuve, to cover his respon- sibility, resolved to assemble a council of war. The bravest officers of the two fleets declared that they were ready to go wherever it was required, to second the views of the Emperor Napoleon, but that to rush into the immediate presence of the enemy, in the state in which most of the ships were, would be a most peril- ous imprudence ; that the fleet, on quitting the road, having had scarcely time to manoauvre for a few hours, would fall in with the Eng- lish fleet, of equal or superior force, and would be infallibly destroyed ; that it would be better to wait for some favourable opportunity, such as a separation of the English forces, pro- duced by any cause whatever, and till then to complete the organization of the ships which had been last manned. Villeneuve sent the result of this delibera- tion to Paris, adding to the opinion of the council his own, which was contrary to any great battle, in the actual state of the two fleets. But he sent these useless documents, as if to make his quiet resignation the more conspicuous ; and he added that he had taken the resolution to sail with the first east wind that should allow him to get out of the road with the fleet. He waited therefore with impatience for the propitious moment for quitting Cadiz at all risks. He had at length before him that formi- dable Nelson, whose image, pursuing him over all the seas, had caused him to fail of fulfilling the most important of missions through fear of meeting with him. And now he no longer feared his presence, though it was more to be dreaded than ever, because his mind, worked up by despair, longed for dan- ger, almost for defeat, in order to prove that he was right in avoiding an encounter with the British fleet Nelson, after touching for a moment at the British shores, which he was never to behold again, had sailed for Cadiz. He took with him one of the fleets which the Admiralty, pene- trating, after the lapse of two years, the de- signs of Napoleon, had collected in the Chan- nel. He was naturally conducted to Cadiz by the report spread over the ocean of the return of Villeneuve to the extremity of the Penin- sula. Nelson had at his disposal a naval force of about the same strength as Villeneuve, that is to say, 33 or 34 ships, but all seasoned by long cruises, and having that superiority over the combined fleet of France and Spain which blockading squadrons always have over block- aded squadrons. Not doubting, from the pre- parations of which he was accurately informed by Spanish spies, that he should soon catch Villeneuve on the passage, he observed his Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 47 movements with the greatest attention, and ad- dressed to the English officers, preparatory to the engagement which he foresaw, instructions made public since, and admired by all sea- men. He described to them his favourite manoeu- vre, taking care to explain the motives for it. To form in line, he said, occasioned a loss of too much time, for all the ships were not alike affected by the wind, and then a squadron would have to regulate its movements by those of the worst sailers. An enemy who wished to avoid a battle would thus be allowed time to slip away. On this occasion, care must be taken not to let the combined French and Spanish fleet escape. Nelson supposed that Villeneuve had been joined by Lallemand's division and perhaps by that of Carthagena also, which would have composed a squadron of 46 ships. He hoped himself to have 40, including those whose speedy arrival was an- nounced; and the more numerous his fleet should be, the less would he attempt to draw it up in line. He therefore ordered two co- lumns to be formed, one immediately under his own command, the other under the command of Vice-admiral Collingwood, 1 to bear down briskly on the enemy's line, without observing any order but that of swiftness, and to cut through that line in two places, at the centre and towards the rear, and then to envelop the portions so cut off and to destroy them. That part of the enemy's fleet which you will have excluded from the fight, he added, grounding himself on the numerous experiences of the age, will scarcely be able to succour the part attacked, and you will have conquered before it arrives. It was impossible to foresee with greater sagacity and accuracy the conse- quences of such a mano3uvre. Nelson had previously impressed the idea upon the mind of each of his officers, and he expected from one moment to another the opportunity for realizing it. That he might not intimidate his adversary too much, he had even taken care not to blockade Cadiz too closely. He merely stationed frigates to watch the road, and, for his own part, cruised with ships of-the line in the wide mouth of the Strait, tacking from west to east far out of sight of the coast. Being informed of the real state of the forces of Villeneuve, who had not been joined either by Salcedo or Lallemand, he had not scrupled to leave four ships of the line at Gibraltar, to give one to Admiral Calder, who had been re- called to England, and to send another to Gib- raltar to take in water. This circumstance, known at Cadiz, confirmed Villeneuve in his resolution to sail. He conceived the English to be stronger, for he supposed them to have 33 or 34 ships, and he was rejoiced to learn that they had not so many. He even believed that they numbered fewer than they really had, that is to say 23 or 24. 1 COLLINGWOOD, CUTHBERT. He was a native of New- castle-upon-Tyne, and was educated in the same school with Lord Eldon. Ho entered the navy in 1761, and in the action of June 1, 1794, was flag-captain of the Prince. To enumerate his services would require three times the pace that can be spared here. Wherever BritUh squa- Meanwhile, the last despatches from Paris, announcing the coming of Admiral Ro>sily, arrived at Cadiz. At first this gave Vilie- neuve no great concern. The idea of serving honourably under an officer, his superior in age and rank, and behaving like a valiant lieu- tenant at his side, soothed his mind, oppressed by the weight of too great a responsibility. But Admiral Rosilly was already at Madrid, and no despatch from the minister had ex- plained to Villeneuve the lot reserved for him under the new admiral. Villeneuve soon be- gan to think that he was purely and simply dis- placed from the command of the fleet, and that he should not have the consolation of redeem- ing his character by fighting in the second rank in a conspicuous manner. Anxious to escape this dishonour, and availing himself of his instructions, which authorized him, nay, even made it a duty for him, to sail when the enemy should be inferior in force, he con- sidered the advices recently received as an authorization to weigh. He immediately made the signal for so doing. On the 19th of Oc- tober (27 Vendemiaire), a slight breeze from the south-east having sprung up, he sent Rear- admiral Magon out of the road with a division. Magon gave chase to a ship of the line and some frigates of the enemy's, and came to an anchor for the night outside the road. Next day, the 20th (28 Vendemiaire), Villeneuve himself weighed, with the whole fleet. The light and variable winds came from the east quarter. He put the ship's head to the south, having the reserve squadron under Admiral Gravina ahead and somewhat to larboard. The combined fleet consisted, as we have said, of 33 sail of the line, 5 frigates, and 2 brigs. It made a fine appearance. The French ships manoeuvred well, but the Spanish, most of them at least, very ill. Though the enemy was not yet in sight, the movement of his frigates gave reason to be- lieve that he was not far off. One ship, the jlrhille, at length perceived him, but descried and signalled only 18 sail. For a moment the French flattered themselves that they should meet the English in far inferior force. A spark of hope glimmered in the mind of Villeneuve the last that was to cheer his- life. He gave orders in the evening for the ships to get into line in order of swiftness, forming the line from the ship most to leeward, which signified that each ship was to take her place according to her speed, not according to her accustomed rank, and to get into line from that which had given way most to the wind. The breeze had varied. The heads of the ships were to the south-east, that is, towards the entrance of (he Strait. The signal for battle was given on board all the ships of the fleet. During the whole night there were seen and heard the signals of the English frigates, drons fought or ftVited, here he served with indefatigable energy, and almost unequalled skill and courage. After Nelson onlv, he was the best and greatest of English ad- mirals, and was distinguished not more for his excellence as a commander than for his admirable virtues as a man. Brenton't JVaval History. 48, HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 180 which, by rockets and cannon, acquainted Nelson with the direction of our. course. At daybreak the wind was west, still light and variable, with a rolling sea, high waves but no breakers, the sun bright; the enemy was at length perceived formed into several groups, which appeared to some to be two in number, to others three. He was steering towards the French fleet, and still five or six leagues dis- tant. Villeneuve immediately ordered the line to be regularly formed, each vessel retaining the place which she had taken in the night, keep- ing as close as possible to her neighbour, and being on the starboard tack, a disposition in which the wind was received on the right, which was natural, since they had west winds to sail to the south-east from Cadiz to the Strait. The line was very ill-formed. The waves ran high, the breeze light, and the ships manoeuvred with difficulty, a circumstance which rendered the inexperience of part of the crews the more to be regretted. The reserve squadron, composed of twelve ships, sailed apart from the principal squadron. It had kept constantly to windward before the latter, which was an advantage, for by going with the wind it could always rejoin the other, taking such a position as was suitable for it to take, as for instance to place the enemy between two fires, when he should be occupied in fighting us. If ever there was a sufficient motive for the creation of a squadron of reserve, it was on this occasion. Admiral Gravina, whose mind was prompt and clear in the midst of action, made a signal to Villeneuve, apply- ing for leave to manoeuvre in an independent manner. Villeneuve refused it, for what rea- sons it is difficult to conceive. Perhaps he feared that the reserve squadron might be compromised by its advanced position, and despaired of being able to succour ii, since he was to leeward of it. This reason itself was not sufficient, for, if he was not sure that he should be able to go to it, he was at least sure that he could bring it to him; and, by making it return immediately into line, he deprived himself irretrievably of a movable detachment very usefully placed for manoeuvring ; he lengthened without advantage his line already too long, since it consisted of 21 ships, and was about to be increased to 33. He never- theless ordered Admiral Gravina to rejoin and range himself in the line of the principal fleet. These signals were visible to the whole squa- dron. Real-admiral Magon, who was not less happily endowed than Admiral Gravina, des- crying the question and the answer on the masts of the two admirals, exclaimed that it was a blunder, and warmly expressed his vexa- tion in such a manner as to be heard by all his officers. About half-past eight o'clock, the intention of the enemy became more manifest. The different groups of the English squadron, less difficult to distinguish as they approached, now appeared to form but two. They clearly revealed Nelson's intention of breaking our line at two points. They advanced, with all sail hoisted, before the wind, peculiarly fa- voured in their plan of throwing themselves across our course, since they came with a west wind upon us, who formed a long line from north to south, a little inclined to east. The first column, placed to the north of our position, consisting of 12 ships commanded by Nelson, threatened our rear. The second, placed to the southward of the former, compre- hending 15 ships commanded by Admiral Collingwood, threatened our centre. Ville- neuve, by that instinctive movement which always causes us to screen a threatened part, wished to go to the succour of his rear-guard, and at the same time to keep himself in com- munication with Cadiz, which was behind him to the north, that he might have a secure re- fuge in case of defeat. He therefore made the signal to wear all at once, each vessel by this manoeuvre revolving upon herself, the line remaining as it was, long and straight, but ascending to the north, instead of descending to the south. This manoeuvre would not have any other advantage than that of bringing him nearer to Cadiz. Our fleet, ascending in a column to- wards the north, instead of descending towards the south, was to be assailed at two different points, but still assailed by two hostile columns, which were coming to break through it. It was a case to excite more regret than ever for the loss of the independent position, and to wind- ward, which the squadron of reserve had shortly before occupied, a position which, at this moment, would have permitted it to ma- noeuvre against one of the two groups of the English fleet. In this state of things, all that could be done was to close the line, to render it regular, and, if possible, to bring back to their post the ships which, having fallen to lee- ward, left gaps through which the enemy could pass. But it was no easy matter for the ships that were out of line to get into it again, especially in the state of the wind, and with the inexpe- rience of the crews. They might all have gone before the wind together for the purpose of trying to get into line with the leeward ships, which would have occasioned a general change of position and fresh irregularities greater than those which it was designed to correct. It was not deemed right to make it. The line, there- fore, remained ill-formed, the distance not be- ing equal between all the ships, several being either on the right, or astern of their post. The variable breeze, having acted more upon the rear and the centre, had produced a slight cur- vature in those divisions. Villeneuve had or- dered the head-sails to be crowded with a view to enable the curved parts to straighten them- selves. In this manner he multiplied signals for the purpose of bringing each ship into her place, and could scarcely succeed, notwith- standing the universal alacrity and obedience. The frigates, ranged on the starboard and to leeward of the squadron, each opposite to her admiral's ship, were rather too distant to ren- der any other service than that of repeating signals. At length, about eleven o'clock in the fore- noon, the two hostile columns advancing, with the wind and all sail crowded, came up to our fleet. They followed each other in the order of Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 49 swiftness, with the single precaution of putting their three-deckers at the head. They had seven and we four only, unfortunately Spanish, that is, less capable of rendering their superi- ority serviceable. Thus, though the English had but 27 ships and we 33, they had the same number of guns and consequently they were nearly equal in force. They had on their side experience of the sea, the habit of conquering, a great commander, and on that day even the favours of Fortune, since the advantage of the wind was for them. We lacked all these con- ditions of success, but we had a virtue, which can sometimes control Fate, the resolution to fight to the death. The fleets were within cannon-shot. Ville- neuve, by a precaution frequently ordered at sea, but far from desirable on this occasion, had given directions not to fire till the enemy was within good range. The English columns presenting a great accumulation of ships, each shot would have done considerable damage. Be this as it may, about noon, the southern column, commanded by Admiral Collingwood, outstripping a little the northern, commanded by Nelson, reached the centre of our line at the position of the Santa Anna*, a Spanish three- decker. The French ship Fougueux hastened to fire at the Royal Sovereign, the leading ship of the English column, carrying 120 guns, and the flag of Admiral Collingwood. The whole French line followed this example, and opened a heavy fire upon the enemy's squadron. The damage done to it afforded reason to regret that the firing had not commenced before. The Royal Sovereign, continuing her movement, attempted to get between the S.inta Anna and the Fougueux in order to pass between these two vessels, which were not sufficiently close to each other. The Fougueux crowded sail to fill the gap, but did not arrive in time. The Royal Sovereign, passing astern of the Santa Anna and ahead of the Fougueiuc, poured into the Santa Anna a broadside from her larboard guns, double-shotted with ball and grape, rak- ing her fore and aft, which made great havoc in the Spanish vessel. At the same moment she sent her starboard broadside into the Fou- gueux, but without much effect, while she re- ceived considerable damage from the latter. The other English ships of that column, which had closely followed their admiral, fell upon the French line from north to south, sought to cut it, by penetrating into the intervals, and to place it between two fires by proceeding to- wards its extremity. They were fifteen, and were engaged against sixteen. If then every one had done his duty, these 16 French and Spanish ships would have made head against the 15 English, independently of any succour from the van. But several ships, ill-managed, had already suffered themselves to be carried away from their post. The Bahama, the Mon- tanez, the Argonauta, all of them Spanish, were either on the right, or astern of the place which they should have occupied in the line of battle. L'Argonau'e, a French ship, did not follow a better example. On the contrary, the Fougueux, the Plu'nn, and the Algesiras were fighting with extraordinary vigour, and by their energy had drawn upon themselves the greater number of VOL. II. 7 the enemy's ships, so that each of them was engaged with several at once. The Algerirat in particular, in which was Rear-admiral Magon, was engaged hand to hand wilh the Tonnant, which he cannonaded with extreme violence, and made preparations for boarding. The Prince of the Asturias, commanded by Admiral Gravina, terminated our line, and surrounded by enemies, avenged the honour of the Span- ish flag for the misconduct of most of her com- panions. Scarcely half an hour had elapsed from the commencement of the action, and the smoke which the subsiding breeze ceased to carry away, already enveloped the two fleets. From this dense cloud issued tremendous and con- tinual thunders, while all around floated wrecks of masts and numbers of horribly mangled corpses. The north column, commanded by Nelson, came up twenty or thirty minutes after that of Collingwood, to our centre, athwart the Uucen- taure. There were at this part seven ships ranged in the following order: the Santiuima \ Trinidad, having on board Vice-admiral Cisne- 1 ros, next to the Bucentaure, bearing the flag of I Admiral Villeneuve, both in line, and so close i that the bowsprit of the latter touched the stern j of the former; the Neptune, a French ship, the 1 San Leandro, Spanish, both fallen to leeward, and having left a double vacancy in the line ; the Redoutable, precisely at her post and in the waters of the Bucentaure, but placed in regard to the latter at the distance of two ships ; lastly the San Juslo and the Indomptalk, fallen to lee- ward, and leaving two more posts vacant be- tween this group and the Santa Anna, which was the first of the group attacked by Colling- wood. Of these seven ships, then, the Santitst- ma Trinidad and the Bucentaure alone were in line, very close to each other, and the Redouta- ble, having two vacant posts ahead of her and two astern. Fortunately, not for the success of the battle but for the honour of our arms, there were here men whose courage was supe- rior to all dangers. It was these three ships which alone, out of seven, remained at their posts, that had to bear the brunt of Nelson's entire column, composed of twelve ships, seve- ral of them three-deckers. The Victory, in which Nelson had his flag, | was to have been preceded by the Temeraire. The English officers, expecting to see their j first ship furiously attacked, besought Nelson ! to permit the Temeraire to precede the Victo- ' ry, that so invaluable a life as his might not be too much exposed. " By all means," re- plied Nelson, " let the Temeraire go first if she can." He then crowded all sail in the ! Victory, and thus kept at the head of the co- 1 lumn. No sooner was the Victory within cannon-shot than the Santittima Trinidad, the Bucentaure, and the Redoutable, opened a tre- mendous fire upon her. In a few minutes they carried away one of her top-masts, cut up her rigging, and killed and wounded fifty of her crew. Nelson, who was seeking the French admiral's ship, imagined that he had discover- ed her, not in the gigantic Spaniard, the Sun- tissima Trinidad, but in the Bucentaure, a French , 80-gun ship ; and he endeavoured f> luru her E 00 HISTORY OF THE [Ocl. 1805. by passing between her and the Redoutable. But an intrepid officer commanded the Re- doutable : it was Captain Lucas. Compre- hending Nelson's intention from the manner of his ship, he had bent all his sails to catch the least breath of wind, and had been fortu- nate enough to come up in time, so that with his bowsprit he dashed against and shattered the ornamental work which crowned the stern of the Bucentaure. Nelson, therefore, found the space closed. He was not a man to draw back. He persisted, and unable to part with his prow, the two ships so strongly locked to- gether, he let the Victory fall with her side against that of the Redoutable. From the shock, and a relic of the breeze, the two ships were carried out of the line, and the way was again clear astern of the Eucentaure. Several English ships came up at once to surround the Bucentaure and the Santissima Trinidad. Others ascended along the French line, where ten ships were left without antagonists, fired a few broadsides at them, and immediately fell upon the French ships of the centre, three of which made an heroic resistance against their assailants. The ten French ships of the van became therefore nearly useless, as Nelson had fore- seen. Villeneuve ordered the flags signifying that any captain was not at his post if he was not in the fire, to be hoisted on his fore and mizen-mast. The frigates, according to rule, repeated the signal, which was more visible Irom their masts than from the admiral's, still shrouded in a cloud of smoke ; and, agreeably to the same rule, they added to the signal the numbers of the vessels which had remained out of fire, till those which were thus desig- nated responded to the voice of honour. While those were thus called to danger whom Nelson's manoeuvre had separated from it, an unexampled contest was going on at the centre. The Redoutable had to fight not only the Victory, laid along her larboard side, but also the Temeraire, which had placed herself a little astern of her starboard side, and kept up a furious combat with these two foes. Captain Lucas, after several broadsides from his larboard guns, which had made terrible havoc on board the Victory, had been obliged to give up firing "his lower tier, because in this part the protruding sides of the ships meeting prevented the use of those guns. The men who had thus becpme disposable he sent up into the tops and shrouds, to pour a destruc- tive fire of grenadoes and musketry upon the deck of the Victory. At the same time, all his starboard guns were employed against the Temeraire, placed at some distance. To finish the contest with the Victory, he had given or- ders to board ; but, his ship having only two decks and the Victory three, there was the height of one deck to climb, and a sort of ditch to cross in passing from one to the other ; for the receding form of the ships left a vacancy between them, though they touched at the water line. Captain Lucas immediately ordered his yards to be brought to form a bridge for passing from ship to ship. JVIean- while the firing was continued from the tops and shrouds of the Redoutable upon the deck of the Victory. Nelson, dressed in an old frock coat which he wore on days of battle, having Captain Hardy, his flag-captain by his side, would not withdraw himself from the danger for a moment. His secretary had already been killed near him; Captain Hardy had had a shoe-buckle carried away: and a chain-shot had swept off eight men at once. This great seaman, a just object of our hate and of our admiration, unmoved upon his quarter-deck, was observing this horrible scene, when a ball from the tops of the Re- doutable struck him on the left shoulder and lodged in his loins. Sinking upon his knees, he fell upon the deck, making an effort to support himself with his only hand. In fall- ing, he said to Captain Hardy, " They have done for me at last, Hardy." " I hope not," replied the captain. " Yes," rejoined Nelson, "I have but a short time to live." He was conveyed to the place to which the wounded are carried, but he was almost insensible: he had, indeed, but a few hours to live. Rallying at times, he inquired how the battle went, and gave a piece of advice which soon proved his profound foresight. " Anchor," said he, " bring the fleet to an anchor." His death produced extraordinary agitation on board the Victory. The moment was fa- vourable for boarding. The gallant Lucas, at the head of a band of picked men, had already mounted upon the yards laid from one ship to the other, when the Temeraire, never ceasing to second the Victory, fired a tremendous broadside of grape. Nearly two hundred French fell dead or wounded. These were almost all that were about to make the attempt to board. There were not hands enough left to persist in it. The men returned to the star- board guns and renewed an avenging fire against the Temeraire, which dismasted and did her prodigious damage. But, as if it was not enough to have two three-deckers to fight a ship of two decks, a new enemy came to join the former in crushing the Redoutable. The English ship Neptune, attacking her at the stern, poured into her broadsides which soon reduced her to a deplorable condition. Two masts of the Redoutable had fallen upon the deck; part of her guns were dismounted; one of her sides, nearly demolished, formed but one vast aperture; the helm was rendered unserviceable; while several shot-holes, just at the surface of the water, let it into the hold in torrents. The whole of the officers were wounded; ten midshipmen out of eleven were killed. Out of a crew of 640 men, 522 were hors de combat ; 300 killed, 222 wounded. In such a state, this heroic ship could no longer defend herself. Her flag was hauled down, but, before she struck, she avenged on the person of Nelson the disasters of the French navy. The Victory and the Redoutable having been carried out of the line in meeting, the way was clear for the enemy's ships, which came to surround the Eucentaure and the Santissima Trinidad. These two ships were still strongly linked together, for the Eucentaure had her bowsprit jammed in the stern gallery of the Santissima Trinidad. Ahead of them, Oet 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 51 which was the nearest of the ten ships that had remained inactive, had at first lent them some succour; but, after receiving a violent cannonade, she suffered herself to drive before the wind, and left the Santissima Trinidad and the Bucentaure to their deplorable fate. The Bucentaure, at the commencement of the action, had received from the Victory some broad- sides, which, raking her from the stern, had done her much mischief. Soon afterwards she was surrounded by several English ships, which took the place of the Victory. Some laid themselves abaft the stern, others, turning the line, on her starboard side. She was thus attacked in rear and on the right by four ships, two of which were three-deckers. Villeneuve, as firm amidst the fire as irresolute under the anxieties of command, remained on his quar- ter-deck, hoping that, among so many French and Spanish ships that surrounded him, some one would come forward to succour their ad- miral. He fought with the utmost energy, and not without some hope. Having no ene- mies on the left, and several astern and on the right, in consequence of the movement which the English had made in passing within the line, he would have changed his position, to withdraw his stern, as well as his starboard tier of guns, which had sustained great dam- age, and turn his larboard side to the enemy. But, his bowsprit being fast in the gallery of the Santissima Trinidad, he could not stir. He directed the Santissima Trinidad to be ordered, by word of mouth, to let herself drive, in order to produce a separation of the two ships. The order was not executed, because the Spanish ship, having lost her masts, lay ab- solutely immovable on the water. The Bucentaure, nailed to her position, was therefore obliged to endure a raking fire astern and on the right, without being able to use her starboard guns. However, nobly supporting the honour of the flag, she replied by a fire quite as active as that which she received. This combat had lasted an hour, when the flag-captain Magendie was wounded. Lieu- tenant Daudignon, taking his place, was wounded also, and succeeded in his turn by Lieutenant Fournier. Before long the main- mast and the mizen-mast went by the board, and produced frightful confusion on deck. The flag was hoisted upon the fore-mast. Buried in a thick cloud of smoke, the admiral could not distinguish what was passing in the rest of the fleet. The smoke clearing off a little, he perceived the ships of the van still motionless, and ordered them, by hoisting his signals on his oniy remaining mast, to wear all at once, and to come into the fire. Enve- loped afresh in that murderous cloud, which launched forth death and destruction, he con- tinued the fight, foreseeing that he should be obliged in a few moments to quit his flag-ship, ir\l to prosecute his duties in another. About three o'clock his third mast went by the board, and the deck was completely encumbered with wrecks. The Bucentaure, with her starboad side torn to pieces, her stern demolished, her masts gone, was reduced to a sheT hulk. " My part in the Bucentaure is finished I" exclaimed the hapless Villeneuve ; " I will try to charm fortune on board another ship." He purposed then to get into a boat and go to the van to bring it himself to the fight. But the boats, placed on the deck of the Bucentaure, had been dashed to pieces by the successive fall of all the masts, and those which were on the bows had been riddled by balls. The Santissima Trinidad was hailed, and a boat applied for. Vain efforts ! no human voice could be heard amidst this confusion. The French admiral, there- fore, found himself confined to the hull of his ship, which was ready to sink, no longer able to give orders or to make any attempt to save the fleet committed to his charge. His frigate, F Hortense, which ought to have come to his assistance, never stirred, whether prevented by the winds or terrified by this appalling sight. The admiral had nothing left him but death, and more than once he had made up his mind to it. The chief of his staff, M. de Prigny, had just been wounded by his side. Nearly the whole of his crew were hors de com- bat. The Bucentaure, completely dismasted, riddled with balls, unable to use her guns, which were dismounted or obstructed by the wrecks of the rigging, had not even the cruel satisfaction of returning one of the blows which she received. It was a quarter past four; no assistance arriving, the admiral was obliged to strike his flag. An English pin- nace came to fetch him and to carry him on board the Mars. There he was received with the attentions due to his rank, his misfortunes, and his bravery a slender compensation for so severe a calamity. He had at length found that disastrous fate which he had dreaded meeting, sometimes in the West Indies, some- times in the Channel. He found it at the very spot where he expected to avoid it, at Cadiz, and he submitted to it, without the consolation of perishing for the accomplishment of a great design. During this engagement, the Santissima. Tri- nidad, surrounded by enemies, had been taken. Thus, of the seven ships of the centre attacked by Nelson's column, three, the Redoutable, the Bucentaure, the Santissima Trinidad, had been overpowered without receiving assistance from the four others, the Neptune, the San Leandro, the San Justo, and the Indomptable. These lat- ter, having fallen to leeward at the commence- ment of the action, could not get back into the fight. They had, therefore, no other means of being serviceable than to descend within the line, under the impulsion of a slight breeze, which continued to blow from the west, and to join the sixteen ships attacked by Colling- wood. One only, the French ship, the Nep- tune, commanded by a good officer, Captain Maistral, executed this manosuvre, keeping al- ways close to danger. He gave broadsides successively to the Victory and to the Royai Sovereign, and endeavoured to afford some as- sistance to the rear, engaged with Colling- wood's column. The three others, the San Leandro, the San Jutto, and the Indomptable, permitted themselves to be carried by the ex- piring breeze far away .Vom the field of battle. There were, however, still left the ten ships of the van, which, after exchanging a few shoU HISTORY OF THE i [Oct. 1805. with Nelson's column, had remained without antagonists. The signal which called them to the post of honour had found them already drifted to leeward, or unable to stir from the lightness of the breeze. VHeros, placed near- est to the centre, after having supported for a moment, as we have seen, her two neighbours, the Eurentaure and the Santisnma Trinidad, had suffered herself to drift by the slight breath of air which still prevailed, and the impulsion of which unluckily served to carry her only out of the fight. At any rate, blood had flowed upon the deck of that ship; but her gallant captain, Poulain, killed at the first onset, had taken away with him the spirit by which he was animated. The San Augustino, placed above the Heros, having Isst her post very early, had been followed and taken by the English conquerors of the Bucentaure. The San Francisco fared no better. Ascending this line of the van, there came successively the Mont Blanc, the Duguny-Trouin, the Formidable, the Kayo, the Intrepirfe, the Scipion, and the Neptune. Admiral Dumanoir had repeated to them the signal to wear and to bear down upon the centre. Most of them had continued mo- tionless, from want of knowing how to ma- noeuvre, or for want of the ability or the will to comply. At length, there were four which obeyed the signal of the commander of the di- vision, by hoisting all their boats and employ- ing them in assisting to wear. These were the Mont Elanr, the Duguay-Trouin, the Formi- dable, and the Scipion. Rear-admiral Duma- noir had prescribed to them a good manoeuvre ; this was, instead of wearing before the wind, which must carry them within the line, to wear against the wind, which, on the contrary, must carry them outside, and enable them, by letting themselves drift before it, to join in the fight whenever they thought proper. Rear-admiral Dumanoir, on board the For- midable, which had won so much glory in the battle of Algesiras, with the Sripion, the Du- guay-Trouin, and the Mont Blanc, prepared therefore to descend from north to south, along the line of battle. At that pajt to which he was proceeding, he should have it in his power to place the English between two fires. But it was late, three o'clock at least. He perceived almost everywhere disasters con- summated, and not having the resolution to share the general fate of the French fleet, he could be at no loss for good reasons for not involving himself inextricably. Having ar- rived opposite to the centre, he saw the Bu- centaure in the possession of the enemy, the Kantissima Trinidad taken, the Redoutable con- quered long before, and the English, though tney had themselves suffered severely, run- ning after the ships which had fallen to lee- ward. In his progress he sustained a very brisk fire, which damaged his four ships and rendered them less fit for action. Warmly received by Nelson's victorious column, and seeing nothing to assist, he continued his course, and came to the rear, where the six- .een French and Spanish ships engaged with Collingwood's column were fighting. There, by devoting himself, he might have saved some ships or added glorious deaths to those which were to console us for a great defeat. Disheartened by the fire which had just da- maged his division, consulting prudence ra- ther than despair, he did nothing of the kind. Treated by Fortune like Villeneuve, he was soon doomed, for having endeavoured to avoid a glorious catastrophe, to be overtaken else- where by a useless disaster. At this extremity of the line, which had been engaged the first with Collingwood's co- lumn, the French ships, the Argonaute alone excepted, fought with a courage worthy of im- mortal glory. And as for the Spanish ships, two, the Santa Anna and the Prince of the Aslu- n'as, gallantly seconded the conduct of the French. After a conflict of two hours, the Santa Anna, which was the first of the rear, having lost all her masts, and inflicted on the Royal Sovereign almost as much damage as she had received, struck her flag. Vice-admiral Alava, severely wounded, had behaved nobly. The Fougueux, next neighbour to the Santa Anna, after making great efforts to assist her by preventing the Royal Sovereign from forcing the line, had been deserted by the Monarca, the ship astern of her. Being then turned and attacked by two English ships, the Fougueux had disabled both of them. Engaged afterwards, side by side with the Temeraire, she had had to repel several attempts at boarding, and had lost about 400 out of 700 men. Captain Beau- doin, who commanded her, having been killed, Lieutenant Bazin had immediately taken his place, and resisted two assaults of the English as valiantly as his predecessor. The enemy, returning to the charge, and having gained possession of the forecastle, the gallant Bazin, wounded and covered with blood, having but a few men left about him, and confined to the quarter-deck, found himself compelled to sur- render the Fougueux after the most glorious re- sistance. Astern of the Fougittux, on the very spot abandoned by the Monarca, the French ship, ' the Pluton, commanded by Captain Cosmao, manoeuvred with equal daring and dexterity. Hastening to fill the space left vacant by the Monarca, she had stopped short an enemy's ship, the Mars, which attempted to pass there, riddled hec with shot, and was preparing to carry her by boarding, when a three-decker came up astern and cannonaded her. She had cleverly slipped away from this new adver- sary, and, turning her bows instead of her stern, had avoided the enemy's fire while- sending into her several furious broadsides. Returning to her first antagonist, and contriving to get the weathergage, she had succeeded in raking her astern, carrying away two of her masts, and -putting her hors de combat. Having got rid of these two assailants, the Pluton I sought to hasten to the assistance of the French, who were overwhelmed by numbers, owing to the retreat of the ships unfaithful to their duty. Astern of the Pluton, the Algesiras, bearing the flag of Rear-admiral Magon, was engaged in a memorable fight, worthy of that which the Redoutable had sustained, and quite as san- guinary. Rear-admiral Magon, born in the Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 53 Isle of France, of a family from St. Malo, was still young, and as handsome as he was brave. At the commencement of the action, he had called together his crew, and promised to give the man who should be first to head the board- ers, a splendid shoulder-belt, presented to him by the Philippine Company. All were eager to earn such a reward from his hand. Be- having as the commanders of the Redoutable, the Fougutux, the P/uto,had done, Rear-admiral Magon first carried the Jllgesiras forward to close the way against the English, who in- tended to cut the line. In this movement, he fell in with the Tonnant, an 80-gun ship, for- merly French, taken by the English at Aboukir, and commanded by a courageous officer, Cap- tain Tyler. He approached very near to her, fired, and then, wearing, ran his bowsprit to a great depth into the shrouds of the enemy's ship. The shrouls, as everybody knows, are those ladders of ropes, which, binding ihe masts to the hull of the ship, serve to steady and to ascend them. Thus locked to his an- tagonist, Magon collected around him the stoutest of his crew, to lead them to board. But the same thing happened to them that had befallen the crew of the Redoutabk. Already assembled on the deck and on the bowsprit, they were about to rush upon the Tonnant, when another English ship, lying athwart the dlgesiras, poured into her several rounds of grape, which mowed down a great number of the boarders. It was then necessary, before prosecuting the attempt, to reply to the new enemy that had fallen upon her, and also to a third which had just joined the two others in cannonading the already shattered sides of the jllgesirat. While thus defending himself against three ships, Magon was boarded by Captain Tyler, who resolved, in his turn, to show him- self on the deck of the Jllgesiras. He received him at the head of his crew, and he himself, with a boarding-axe in his hand, setting the example to his men, they repulsed the English. Thrice they returned to the charge, and thrice were they driven off the deck of the dlgesiras. His flag-captain, Leiourneur, was killed by his side. Lieutenant Plassan, who took the com- mand, was immediately wounded also. Magon, whose brilliant uniform rendered him a con- spicuous mark to the enemy, received a ball in the arm, which bled profusely. He took no heed of this wound, and continued at his post. But a second struck him on the thigh. His strength then began to fail him. As he could scarcely support himself on the deck of his ship, covered with wrecks and corpses, Jhe officer who, after the death of all the others, had become flag-captain, M. de la Bretonniere, begged him to go down for a moment to the cockpit, at least to have his wounds dressed, that he might not lose his strength along with his blood. The hope of being able to return to the combat decided Magon to listen to the solicitations of M. de la Bretonniere. He went down to the lower deck, supported by two sailors. But the sides of the ship being shat- tered, afforded a free passage to the grape-shot Magon received a ball from a musketoon in his chest, and dropped dead immediately. This event filled his crew with consternation. They fought with fury, to avenge a commander whom hey had alike loved and admired. But the three masts of the Jllgesiras were gone, and the uns dismounted or obstructed by the wrecks of the masts. Out of 641 men, 150 were killed, and 180 wounded. The crew, cooped up on the quarter-deck, held possession of only part of the ship. They were without hope, without resource: they poured a last discharge into the enemy, and surrendered that rear- admiral's flag which had been so valiantly defended. Astern of the jllzesiras, others were still en- gaged, though the day was far advanced. The Bahama had withdrawn, but the Jligle fought gallantly, and did not surrender till after severe losses and the death of her commander, Cap- tain Gourrege. The Stciftsure, which the ene- my made a particular point of retaking, be- cause she had been English, behaved with equal bravery, and yielded only to numbers, having seven feet water in her hold. Beyond the Swiftsurc, the French ship the Jlrgonau'e, after receiving some damage, sheered off. The Berwirk fought honourably in her place. The Spanish ships, Jlrgonauta, San Nejtomureno, and San Ildefonso, had quitted the field of battle. On, the contrary, Admiral Gravina, in the Prince of the Jlsturias, surrounded by the English ships which had doubled the extremity of the line, defended himself alone against them with ex- traordinary energy. Encompassed on every side, riddled with shot, he held out stoutly, and must have been overpowered, had he not been assisted by the Neptune, which we have seen exerting herself to get to windward to make herself useful, and by the Pluton, which, hav- ing succeeded in getting rid of her adversaries, had come to seek fresh dangers. Unfortu- nately, at the end of this fight, Admiral Gra- vina received a mortal wound. Lastly, at the extremity of this long line, marked by flames, by floating wrecks of ships, by thousands of mutilated bodies, a last scene occurred to fill the combatants with horror, and our very ene- mies with admiration. The dchille, attacked on several sides, defended herself with obsti- nacy. Amidst the cannonade, a fire broke out in the ship. It would have been but natural to leave the guns and hasten to the fire, which already began to spread with alarming activity. But the sailors of the dchtllc, fearing that while they were extinguishing it, the enemy might profit by the inaction of their artillery to gain the advantage, chose rather to be invaded by the flames than to forsake their guns. Pre- sently, volumes of smoke, issuing from the hull of the ship, frightened the English, and decided them to move away from this volcano, which threatened every moment to explode and to engulph alike assailants and defenders. They left it, therefore, all alone amidst the abyss, and began to contemplate this spectacle, which, from one moment to another, must ter- minate in a horrible catastrophe. The French crew, already much thinned by the grape-shot, finding themselves delivered from their ene- mies, directed all their efforts to the extinction of the flames which were consuming theii ship. But it was too lale: they were forced to think of saving their lives, they threw into s ? 54 HISTORY OF THE [Oct 1805. the sea every thing capable of floating, casks, masts, yards, and sought upon them a preca- rious refuge from the explosion expected every minute. Scarcely had a few of the sailors committed themselves to the sea, when the fire, having reached the powder, caused the Jlchille to blow up with a tremendous crash, which terrified the conquerors themselves. The English hastened to send off their boats to pick up the unfortunate men who had so nobly defended themselves. A very small number found means to save their lives. Most of them, remaining on board, were hurled into the air along with the wounded who encumbered the ship. It was five o'clock. The fighting was over almost everywhere. The line, broken at first in two places, and presently in three or four, from the absence of the ships which had not been able to keep in their positions, was ravaged from one extremity to the other. At the sight of that fleet, either destroyed or in flight, Admiral Gravina, extricated by the Neptune and the Pluton, and having become commander-in-chief, gave the signal for re- treat. Besides the two French ships which came to his assistance, and the Prince of the Jlsturias, which he was on board of, he was able to rally eight more, three French; the Hcros, the Indomptuble, and the Jlrgonaute, and five Spanish, the Rayo, the San Francisco de dssisi, the San Justo, the Montanez, and the Leandro. These latter, we must confess, had saved themselves much rather than their honour. These were eleven which escaped from the disaster, besides the four with Rear- admiral Dumanoir, which made a separate retreat in all, fifteen. To this number must be added the frigates, which, placed to leeward, had not done what might have been expected of them to assist the fleet. Seventeen French and Spanish ships had been taken by the English; one had blown up. The combined fleet had lost six or seven thousand men, killed, wounded, drowned, or prisoners. Never had so vast a scene of horror been beheld upon the seas. The English had obtained a complete vic- tory, but a sanguinary, a dear-bought victory. Of the twenty-seven ships composing their fleet, almost all had lost masts; some were unfitted for service, either for ever, or till they had received considerable repairs. They had to regret the loss of about 3000 men, a great number of their officers, and the illustrious Nelson, more to be regretted by them than an army. They took in low seventeen ships, al- most all dismasted or near foundering, and an admiral prisoner. They had ihe glory of skill, of experience, combined with incontestable bravery. We had the glory of a heroic de- feat, unequalled perhaps in history for the devotedness of the vanquished. At nightfall Gravina stood away for Cadiz with eleven ships and five frigates. Rear- admiral Dumanoir, fearful of finding the ene- my between him and France, steered towards the Sirait. Admiral Collingwood assumed the signs of mourning for his deceased commander, but he did not think proper to follow the injunction of that dying officer, and resolved, instead of anchoring the fleet, to pass the night under sail. The coast and the disastrous cape of Trafalgar, which has given name to the battle, were in sight. A dangerous wind began to spring up, the night to become dark, and the English ships, manreuvring with difficulty, on account of their damages, were obliged to tow or to escort seventeen captured ships. The wind soon increased in violence, and the hor- rors of a bloody battle were succeeded by a tremendous storm, as if Heaven had designed to punish the two most civilized nations of the globe, and the most worthy to rule it bene- ficially by their union, for the fury in which they had just been indulging. Admiral Gra- vina and his eleven ships had a secure and speedy retreat in Cadiz. But Admiral Col- lingwood, too far distant from Gibraltar, had but the bosom of the ocean whereon to rest from the fatigues and the sufferings of victory. In a few moments, night, more cruel than the day itself, mingled conquered and conquerors, and made them all tremble beneath a hand mightier than that of victorious man, the hand of Nature in wrath. The English were obliged to throw off the ships which they were towing, and to give up watching those which they had under their escort. Singular vicissi- tudes of naval warfare ! Some of the prison- ers, overjoyed at the terrific aspect of the tempest, conceived a hope of reconquering their ships and their liberty. The English who guarded the Bucentaure, finding themselves without assistance, gave up of their own ac- cord our admiral's ship to the remnant of the French crew. These, delighted at being de- livered by an appalling danger, set up jury- masts in their dismasted ship, fastened to them fragments of sails, and steered for Cadiz, pro- pelled by the hurricane. The Jilgesiras, wor- thy of the unfortunate Magon, who^e corpse she carried, resolved also tc rwe her deliver ance to the storm. Seventy English officers and seamen guarded this noble prize. Shat- tered as she was, the jilgesiras, recently built, bore herself up on the waves, in spite of her extensive damages. But her three masts were cut down; the mainmast fifteen feet from the deck, the fore, nine, and the mizen, five feet. The ship which towed her, flung off the cable that held her prisoner. The English left in charge of her had fired guns to demand assist- ance, but obtained no answer. Then, address- ing themselves to M. de la Bretonniere, they begged him to assist them with his crew in saving the ship, and with the ship the lives of all on board. M. de la Bretonniere, struck at this application by a gleam of hope, desired to confer with his countrymen shut up in the 1 hold. He went to the French officers, and communicated to them his hope of wresting the jilgesiras from her conquerors. They unanimously agreed to comply with the pro- posal that was made to them, and, when once in possession of the ship, to fall upon the English, to disarm them, to fight them to the last extremity amidst the horrors of that night, and afterwards to provide as they best could for their own safety. There were left 270 French, disarmed, but ready for any attempt Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 55 to recover their ship from the hands of the enemy. The officers went about among them, and imparted their plan, which was received with transport. It was agreed that M. de la Bretonniere should first summon the English, and that, if they refused to surrender, the French, at a given signal, should fall upon them. The terrors of the tempest, the fears of the coast, which was not far off, were all forgotten : nothing was thought of but this new fight, a species of civil war, in presence of the incensed elements. M. de la Bretonniere went back to the Eng- lish, and told them that the state of neglect in which the ship was left amidst so great a dan- ger had dissolved all their engagements; that from that moment the French looked upon themselves as free ; and that, if their guards conceived their honour interested in fighting, they could do so; that the French crew, though unarmed, would rush upon them at the first signal. Two French seamen, in their impatient ardour, actually fell upon the Eng- lish sentinels, and received large wounds from them. M. de la Bretonniere repressed the tumult, and gave the English officers time for reflection. The latter, after deliberating for a moment, considering their small number, the cruelty of their countrymen, the common danger threatening the conquered and the conquerors, surrendered to the French, on condition that they should be again free as soon as they should reach the shore of France. M. de la Bretonniere promised to demand their liberty from his government, if they succeeded in getting into Cadiz. Shouts of joy rang through the ship : all hands fell to work: topmasts were sought out from among the spare stores; they were hoisted, fixed upon the stumps of the large masts, sails were fitted to them, and in this state the ship stood for Cadiz. Daylight appeared, but, instead of bringing any improvement in the weather, it was worse than before. Admiral Gravina had returned to Cadiz with the remnant of the combined fleet. The English fleet was in sight of that port, accompanied by some of its prizes, which it kept at the muzzle of its guns. After struggling the whole day against the storm, the commanding officer. La Breton- niere, though without a pilot, but assisted by a seaman who was familiar with the waters of Cadiz, arrived at the entrance of the road. He had but a single bower anchor left and one thick cable, to resist the wind which blew with violence towards the coast. He threw out that anchor, and trusted himself to it, a prey at the same time to keen anxiety ; for, if that gave way, the Algesirus must perish on the rocks. Unacquainted with the road, he had anchored near a formidable reef called Diamond Point. The night was passed in the most painful apprehension. At length day returned and shed a fearful light on that deso- late beach. The Bucentavre, always unfortu- nate, had gone ashore there. Part of her crew had, indeed, been saved by the Indompt- able, anchored not far off. The latter, which had sustained little damage, because she had fought but little, was secured by good anchors and good cable.*. During the whole day the Mgesiras fired signals of distress, to claim as- sistance. A few boats perished before they could reach her. One only succeeded in bringing to her a very small grapnal. The JHgesirax remained at anchor near thelndompt- able, applying to the latter to tow her, which she promised to do as soon as it was possible to get in.io Cadiz. Night again shrouded the sea and the two ships anchored one beside the other : it was the second since the fatal battle. The crew of the dlgesiras looked with terror on the two weak anchors on which their salvation depended, and with envy on those of the Indomptablc. The violence of the tempest increased, and all at once a thrilling shriek was heard. The Indomptable, her strong anchors having given way, came on suddenly, covered with her lanterns, having on deck her crew in despair, passed within a few feet of the Jllgesiras, and struck with a horrible crash upon Diamond Point. The lanterns which lighted her, the cries which rang, were buried in the billows. Fifteen hundred men perished at once, for the In- domptable had on board her own crew nearly entire, that of the Bucentaure, sound and wounded, and part of the troops embarked in the admiral's ship. After this afflicting sight and the painful re- flections which it occasioned, the Jllgcs-irus saw day return and the storm abate. She entered at last the road of Cadiz, and, proceeding at random, grounded in a bed of mud, where she was thenceforward out of danger. Just reward of the most admirable heroism! While these tragic adventures marked the miraculous return of the Jilgesiras, the Redout' able, the ship which had so gloriously fought the Victory, and from which proceeded the bullet that had killed Nelson, foundered. Her stern, undermined by the balls, had suddenly fallen in, and there had been scarcely time to take out of her 119 Frenchmen. The Fougufux, disabled, struck on the coast of Spain and was lost. The Monarca, abandoned in like manner, had gone to pieces off the rocks of San Lucar. The English had but few of their prizes left, and with the least damaged of their ships they kept at sea, within sight of Cadiz, constantly struggling against contrary winds, which had prevented them from regaining Gibraltar. At this sight the brave commander of the Pluton, Captain Cosmao, could not repress the zeal with which he was animated. His ship was riddled, his crew reduced to half, but none of these reasons could stop him. Borrowing some hands from the Hermione frigate, he re- paired his rigging in haste, and, exercising the command which belonged to him, for all the admirals and rear-admirals were dead, wound- ed, or prisoners, he made a signal to the ships capable of putting to sea to weigh, in order to take from Collingwood's fleet the French whom it was dragging away with it. The intrepid Cosmao accordingly sailed in company with the Neptune, which during the battle had done her best to get into the fire, and with thre other French and Spanish ships, which ) not had the honour of taking parr j 7 the 56 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. of Trafalgar. They were five in all, accom- panied by five frigates, which had also to make amends for their recent conduct. In spite of the foul weather, these ten ships approached the English fleet. Collingwood, taking them for so many ships of the line, immediately sent ten of his least damaged ships to meet them. In this movement some of the prizes were abandoned. The frigates availed them- selves of the opportunity to seize and take in tow the Santa Jlnna and the Neptune. Cosmao, who had not sufficient force, and had against him the wind blowing towards Cadiz, returned, carrying off with him the two reconquered ships, the only trophy that he could gain after such disasters. That was not the only result of this effort. Admiral Collingwood, apprehen- sive that he should not be able to keep his prizes, sunk or burned the Santissima Trinidad, the Jlrgonauta, the San Augustine, and the In- trepide. The Mgle escaped from the English ship, the Defiance, and ran aground off Port St. Mary. The Eenrick was lost by an act of de- votedness similar to that which had saved the Mgcsiras. Among the ships which accom- panied Captain Cosmao, there was one which could not get back: that was the Spanish ship, the Eayo, which perished between Rota and San Lucar. The English admiral at length reached Gib- raltar, carrying with him but four prizes out of seventeen, one French, the Swiftsure, and three Spanish; and he was afterwards obliged to sink the Swiftsure also. Such was that fatal battle of Trafalgar. In- experienced seamen, allies still more inex- perienced, a lax discipline, a neglected materiel, everywhere precipitation, with its conse- quences ; a commander too deeply impressed with these disadvantages, conceiving from them sinister presentiments, carrying these with him over all the seas, suffering their in- fluence to thwart the great plans of his sove- reign; that irritated sovereign underrating material obstacles, less difficult to surmount on land than at sea, mortifying by the bitter- ness of his reproaches an admiral whom he ought rather to have pitied than blamed; this admiral fighting from despair, and Fortune, cruel to adversity, refusing him even the ad- vantage of the wind; half of a fleet paralyzed by ignorance and by the elements, the other half fighting with fury; on one side a bravery founded on calculation and skill, on the other an heroic inexperience, sublime deaths, a frightful carnage, an unparalleled destruction ; after the ravages of men, the ravages of the tempest; the abyss ingulphing the trophies of the conqueror; lastly, the triumphant chief buried in his triumph, and the vanquished chief projecting suicide as the only refuge from his affliction such was, we repeat it, that fatal battle of Trafalgar, with its causes, its results, its tragic aspects. From this great disaster there could, how- ever, be drawn useful consequences for our navy It was requisite to relate to the world what had happened. The combats of the Re- doubtable, the Mgesiras, the jlchille, deserve to be recorded with pride, beside the triumphs of Ulm. Unsuccessful courage is not less admi- rable than successful courage: it is more touching. Besides, the favours of Fortune to us were great enough to permit us to avow publicly some of her severities. Then liberal rewards ought to have been bestowed on the men who had so worthily done their duty, and those to have been brought before a council of war, who, daunted by the horror of the scene, had kept out of the fire. And, had they even behaved well on other occasions, it would have been right to sacrifice them to the neces- sity of establishing discipline by terrible ex- amples. Above all, government ought to finf which the latter had undertaken to dis- charge, for the cargoes of corn sent to the dif- erent ports of the Peninsula, for the supplies furnished for the Spanish fleets and armies the court of Madrid had just had recourse in its distress to a disastrous measure. Being obliged to suspend the payments of the Chest f Consolidation, a species of bank dedicated to rhe service of the public debt, it had given a :brced currency as money to the notes of that chest. Such a measure must necessarily cause all the specie to disappear. M. Ouvrard, who, till he could bring over the piastres of Mexico, assigned to him by the court of Madrid, had no other means of supplying the wants of his partners but the cash which he was to draw t'rom the Chest of Consolidation, found him- self suddenly stopped short in his operations. There had been promised in particular to M. Desprez four millions of piastres, which he had promised in his turn to the bank of France, in order to obtain from it the assist- ance that he needed. These four millions were no longer to be depended upon. On the sums to be drawn from Mexico, a loan of ten millions had been negotiated with the house of Hope, of which two at most could be hoped for, in time to be useful. These unfortunate circumstances had increased beyond measure the embarrassments of M. Desprez, who was charged with the operations of the Treasury, -inr 3 of M. Vanlerberghe, who was charged with the supply of provisions, and the embar- rassments of both had fallen back upon the bank. We have already explained how they induced the bank to discount either their own paper or the obligations of the receivers-general. The bank gave them the amount in notes, the issue of which was thus increased in an im- moderate manner. This would have been only an evil very speedily reparable if the promised piastres had arrived to bring back the metallic reserve of the bank to a suitable rate. But things had come to such a point that the bank had not more than fifteen mil- . lion francs in its coffers, against seventy-two millions in notes issued, and twenty millions in running accounts, that is to say against ninety-two millions demandable immediately. A strange circumstance, which had recently come to light, greatly aggravated this situa- tion. M. de Marbois, in his unlimited confi- dence in the company, had granted a faculty entirely unexceptionable, which he had at first viewed only as a facility of service, and which had become the cause of a great abuse. The company having in its possession the greater part of the obligations of the receivers-general, since it discounted them to the bank, having to pay itself for services of all kinds which it executed in different parts of the territory, found itself obliged to draw incessantly upon the chests of the Treasury ; and, for the great- er convenience, M. de Marbois had ordered the receivers-general to pay the funds which came into their hands to the mere receipt of M. Desprez. The company had immediately made use of this faculty. While, on the one hand, it endeavoured to procure cash at Paris by discounting with the bank the obligations of the receivers-general of which it was possessed, on the other, it took from the chest of the re- ceivers-general the money destined for the discharge of those same obligations, and the bank, when they became due, on sending them to the receivers-general, found in payment nothing but receipts of Desprez's. Thus the bank received paper in payment of other pa- per. In this manner it was led to so great an issue of notes with so small a reserve. A treacherous clerk, betraying the confidence of M. de Marbois, was the principal cause of the compliances of which such a deplorable use was made. This situation, unknown to the minister, not duly appreciated even by the company, which, in its embarrassment, not measuring either the extent of the operations in which it had been induced to engage, or the gravity of the acts which it committed this situation re- vealed itself gradually by a universal scarcity of money. The public, in particular, eager after metallic specie, apprised of its rarity at the Bank, thronged to its offices to convert notes into cash. Malevolent persons joining those who were alarmed, the crisis soon be- came general. Circumstances so aggravated produced avowals long delayed and distressing elucida- tions. M. Vanlerberghe, to whom any thing that there was blamable in the conduct of the company could not be imputed, for he was solely occupied with the corn-trade, without knowing to what embarrassments he was ex- posed by his partners M. Vanlerberghe went to M. de Marbois, and declared to him that it was impossible for him to provide both for the service of the Treasury and for the victualling service, and that it was quite as much as he could do to continue the latter. He did not disguise from him that the supplies furnished for Spain, and still unpaid for, were the prin- cipal cause of his straitened situation. M. de Marbois, dreading lest the victualling service should be at a stand, encouraged, moreover, by some expressions of the Emperor, who, satisfied with M. Vanlerberghe, had intimated an intention of supporting him, granted to that contractor an aid of 20 millions. He placed them to the account of former supplies which the administrations of war and the navy had not yet paid for, and he gave them by return- ing to M. Vanlerberghe personal engage- ments of his to the amount of 20 millions, contracted on account of the service of the Treasury. But no sooner was this aid granted than M. Vanlerberghe came to apply for a second. This contractor had at his back a multitude of sub-contractors, who usually gave him credit, but who, no longer obtaining the confidence of the capitalists, could not make any further advances. He was, therefore, re- duced to the last extremity. M. de Marbois, alarmed at these communications, soon re- ceived others still more serious. The bank sent to him a deputation to acquaint the go- vernment with its situation. The piastres promised by M. Desprez were not forthcoming, Oct. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. and yet he applied for further discounts ; the Treasury, on its part, -wanted discounts, and the bank had not two millions of crowns in its coffers against an amount of 92 millions demandable. What was it to do in such a predicament? M. Desprez declared, on his part, that he was at the end of his resources, especially if the bank refused its assistance. He, too, confessed that it was the counter- check given by the affairs of Spain which threw him into these distressing embarrass- ments. It became unfortunately evident to the minister that M. Vanlerberghe, supported on M. Desprez, M. Desprez upon the Treasury, and the bank bore the burden of the affairs of Spain, which was thus transferred to France herself by the rash combinations of M. Ouv- rard. It was too late to recede, and quite useless to complain. It was requisite for the govern- ment to extricate itself from this peril, and to that end to extricate those who had impru- dently involved themselves in it ; for to leave them to perish would be to run the risk of perishing with them. M. de Marbois did not hesitate in deciding to support Messieurs Van- lerberghe and Desprez; and he did right. But he could no longer venture to act on his sole responsibility, and a council of government, summoned at his instigation, met under the presidency of Prince Joseph. Prince Louis, the Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, and all the ministers attended. Some of the superior employes in the finances were sent for, and among others M. Mollien, director of the Sinking Fund. The council deliberated long on the subject. After much general and idle discussion, it was necessary to come to a con- clusion, and each hesitated, in presence of a responsibility equally great, whatever course should be adopted, for it was as serious a matter to let the contractors sink as to support them. The Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, who had sense enough to comprehend the exigen- cies of this situation, and influence enough to induce the Emperor to admit them, led a majority to decide in favour of an immediate aid to M. Vanlerberghe, to the amount of ten millions at first, and afterwards of ten more, when an approving answer should be received from head-quarters. As for M. Desprez, it was a question to be settled with the bank, for that alone could assist the latter, by continuing to discount for him. But the means proposed by it to parry the exhaustion of its coffers and to keep up the credit of its notes, without which the establishment must fall, were taken into con- sideration. Nobody was of opinion that it was possible to give them a forced cash currency, both on account of the impossibility of esta- blishing a paper money in France, and on ac- count of the impossibility of prevailing upon the Emperor to consent to such a resolution. But certain measures, designed to render pay- ments slower and the drain of specie less rapid, were adopted. The ministry of the Treasury and the prefect of the police were left to arrange the detail of these measures with the bank. M. de Marbois had some very warm discus- sions with the council of the bank. He com- plained of the manner in which it had managed its affairs a very unjust reproach ; for if it had been embarrassed, it was solely through the fault of the Treasury. Its portfolio con- tained nothing but excellent commercial paper, ' the regular payment of which became for the moment its only effective resource. It had . even diminished its discounts to individuals I so far as to reduce its portfolio below the ordi- nary proportions. It had nothing in dispro- 1 portionate quantity, but M. Desprez's paper and obligations of the receivers-general, which brought back no money. It was suffering, therefore, for the sake of the government itself. But the bankers who directed it were in general so ' devoted ro the Emperor, in whom they loved, if not the glorious warrior, at least the restorer i of order, that they allowed themselves to be treated by the agents of power with a harsh- ness which at this day the most vulgar com- panies cf speculators would not endure. On their part, it is true, this was the effect of patriotism rather than of servility. To sup- \ port the government of the Emperor was in their eyes an imperative duty to France, whom i he alone preserved from anarchy. They would not feel irritated at very undeserved reproaches, and they showed a devotedness to the cause 1 of the Treasury worthy of serving for an ex- ample under similar circumstances. The fol- lowing measures were adopted as most capable of alleviating the crisis. M. de Marbois was to send off post, into the departments nearest to the capital, clerks with orders to the paymasters to give up all the funds which were not indispensably required for the seryice of the rentes, of the pay of the salaries of the functionaries, and to transmit these funds to the bank. It was hoped that ia | this manner five or six millions in specie I would be brought in. Orders were given to the receivers-general who had not delivered to M. Desprez all the sums in their chests, to pay them immediately into the bank. The clerks sent out were likewise directed to ascertain whether some of these accountable persons were not employing the funds of the Treasury for their private interest. To these means of bringing in cash were added others for pro venting the drain of it. Notes beginning to fall in value, the public hurried to the bank, impatient to convert them into money. Had not stock-jobbers and ill-disposed persons in terfered, a loss of 1 or 2 per cent., which notes were sustaining, would have been sufficient to induce the mass of holders to demand their conversion into specie. The bank was author- ized not to convert into money more than five or six hundred thousand francs' worth of notes per day. This was all the specie that was needed when confidence existed. Another pre- caution was taken in order to retard pay- ments: this was to count the money. The applicants for payment would gladly have dispensed with this formality, for they were not afraid that the bank would cheat the public by putting a piece short in a bag of a thousand francs. The cashiers, with an affectation ol accuracy, nevertheless took the trouble tr count them. It was decided, moreover, that cash should be given for a single note only to 60 HISTORY OF THE [Oct. 1805. one and the same person, and that each should be admitted in turn. At length, the concourse increasing every day, a last expedient was de- vised, that of distributing numbers to the holders of notes, in the proportion of five or six hundred thousand francs, which were in- tended to be paid per day. These numbers, deposited at the mairies of Paris, were to be distributed by the maires among persons no- toriously unconnected with the commerce in money, and having recourse to the payment of their notes merely for the purpose of satis- fying real wants. These measures put an end at least to the material disturbance about the offices of the bank, and reduced the issue of specie to the most urgent wants of the population. Jobbers, who sought to extract specie from the bank, to make the public pay 6 or 7 per cent, for it, were thwarted in their manoeuvres. It was nevertheless a real suspension of payment, under the guise of a more cautious system. It was unfortunately inevitable. Under these circumstances, it is not the measure itself which is to be blamed, but the anterior con- duct which rendered it necessary. The clerks sent out procured the remittance of two millions at most. The daily expiry of commercial effects brought more notes than crowns, for traders paid in specie only when they had sums of less than 500 francs to pay. The bank resolved therefore to buy piastres at any price in Holland, and thus take to its own account part of the costs of the crisis. Thanks to these conjoint means, the embarrassment would soon have been surmounted, had not M. Desprez suddenly come to plead still greater necessities, and to solicit further aid. This banker, charged by the company to furnish the Treasury with the funds necessary for the service, and for this purpose to discount the obligations of the receivers-general, the bills at sight, &c., had engaged to do this discount at a half per cent, per month, that is to say, at 6 per cent, per annum. The capitalists having refused to discount them for him at less than 1 per cent, per month, that is at 12 per cent, per annum, he was exposed to ruinous losses. He had devised a scheme for sparing himself these losses, which was to pledge the obliga- tions and the bills at sight to lenders, and to borrow on these securities instead of getting them sub-discounted. The speculators, de- sirous to make an advantage of the circum- stance, had at last refused to renew this species of operations, in order to oblige him to give up the securities of the Treasury, and thus to obtain them at a low price. " The embarrass- ments of the place," wrote M. de Marbois to the Emperor, " afford many people a pretext for employing them like corsairs towards the United Merchants, and I know great patriots who have withdrawn 12 or 14 hundred thousand francs from the agent of the Treasury, in order to make a better bargain." (Letter of the 28th of September Depot of the Secretary of State's office.) M. Desprez, who had already received an aid of 14 millions from the bank, wished to obtain 30 immediately, and 70 in the month of Bru- maire: consequently, he wanted a sum of 100 millions. This situation, avowed at the bank caused an absolute consternation there, and produced an explosion of complaints on the part of men who were not disposed to espouse the fortune of the government, be it what it might. They asked what M. Desprez was, and by what title such great sacrifices were claimed for him. The commercial world was ignoram of the partnership subsisting between him ann the company of contractors, which was la bouring at once for Spain and for France. Bu r the directors of the bank, though ignorant o, his real situation, proposed to oblige the minis ter to avow him as tha agent of the Treasury were it only to have one security the more The minister, apprized of their intention, hac sent a note in hi? O-^R handwriting to the pre- sident of the regency to say that M. Despre- was acting oiJy on benalf of the Treasury From an over.ight, M. de Marbois had neglected to sign this rclt. He wa.', required to sign it He complieJ and it was impossible to denj that they v sacrifice.) And it would be much better to receive so valuable a gift from the legitimate owner, as the price of the salvation of all, thav. from a usurper giving away the property of another as a reward for treachery. To these representations was added a new influence; this was the presence of the Arch- duke Anthony, who had travelled in the utmost haste from Vienna to Berlin. That prince came to report the disasters of Ulin, the rapid progress of the French, the perils of the Aus- trian monarchy, too great not to be common to all Germany, and he earnestly solicited the reconciliation at any price of the two principal German powers. This diplomatic machination was too well planned for the unfortunate King of Prussia to esca-pe from it. Nevertheless, he and M. de Haugwitz made an obstinate resistance, as if they had had a presentiment of the disasters that were soon to befall the Prussian mo- Ihough he somewhat sullied these high characteristics by debauchery and dissipation. He died fighting gallantly at Jena, in defence of his native kingdom, on the lOtu ol October, 1806. million's Europe. B 64 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. narchy. There were many interviews, many controversies, many bitter complaints. The king and his minister declared that the two emperors were bent on the ruin of Prussia, that they would ruin her to a certainty, for all Europe, were it united, would be incapable of withstanding Napoleon ; that, if they did yield, it was because violence was done to their reason, their prudence, their patriotism, and they should not fail to recriminate against the plan which had been laid to hurry them away, either with their good will or by force, a plan of which the Russian army collected on the frontier of Silesia was to be the instru- ment. To this the Emperor Alexander replied, by giving up his minister Prince Czartoryski. Swayed by his natural inconstancy, he began already to listen much to the Dolgoroulds, who went about asserting everywhere that Prince Czartoryski was a perfidious minister, betraying his Emperor for the sake of Poland, of which he intended to make himself king, and striving, with this object, to set Russia upon Prussia. Alexander, who had not suffi- cient firmness for the plan that had been pro- posed to him, was alarmed, even at Pulawi, at the idea of marching against France, by pass- ing over the body of Prussia, were even the crown of Poland to be the reward of that te- merity. Enlightened by M. de Alopeus, ex- cited by the Dolgoroukis, he said that an at- tempt had been made to lead him to commit a great fault, and he even keenly reproached Prince Czartoryski, whose grave and austere character began to be annoying to him, be- cause, with the freedom of a friend and an independent minister, he sometimes blamed his sovereign for his foibles and his fickleness. By dint of application, of disavowals, and above all of accessory influences, such as the solicitations of the queen, the language of Prince Louis, the cries of the young Prussian staff, the king was at length appeased, M. de Haugwitz overcome, and both led to enter into the views of the coalition. But, swayed as Frederick William was, he determined to re- serve for himself a last resource for escaping from these new engagements ; and, by the ad- vice of M. de Haugwiiz, he adopted a plan which could still hold forth some illusion to his vanquished integrity, and which consisted in a project of mediation, a grand hypocrisy employed at that time by all the powers to dis- guise the plan of coalition against France. It was the form which Prussia had thought of employing three months before, when the ques- tion of allying herself with France at the price of Hanover was under discussion; it was the form which she employed now when discuss- ing the question of allying herself with Alex- ander; and, unluckily for her honour, again at the price of Hanover. It was agreed that Prussia, alleging the im- possibility of living at peace between impla- cable adversaries, who did not even respect her territory, should decide to intervene for the purpose of forcing them to peace. So far, so good; but what were to be the conditions of this peace 1 Therein lay the whole ques- tion. If Prussia conformed to the treaties signed with Napoleon, and by which she had guarantied the present state of the French em- pire, in exchange for what she had received in Germany, there was nothing to be said. But she was not firm enough to stop at this limit, which was that of honour. She agreed to pro- pose as conditions of peace anew demarcation of the Austrian possessions in Lombardy, which would extend the latter from the Adige to the Mincio, (which must lead to a dismem- berment of the kingdom of Italy,) an indemnity for the King of Sardinia, and, besides these, the conditions usually admitted by Napoleon himself, in case of a general pacification, that is to say the independence of Naples, of Swit- zerland, of Holland. This was a formal viola- tion of the reciprocal guarantees which Prussia had stipulated with France, not in plans of al- liance which had miscarried, but in authentic conventions signed on occasion of the German indemnities. The Russians and the Austrians would have desired more, but, as they knew that Napoleon would never consent to these conditions, they were certain, even with what they had obtained, to drag Prussia into the war. There was another difficulty, which also they passed over, in order to remove all ob- stacles. Frederick William would not pre- sent himself to Napoleon in the name of all his enemies, especially England, after so much confidential communication with him against that power. He expressed, therefore, a desire to say not a single word relative to Great Bri- tain in the declaration of mediation, intending, he said, to interfere only in regard to the peace of the continent. This again was assented to, as it was still thought that there was sufficient in what had been agreed upon to plunge him into the war. Further, he required a last pre- caution, the most captious and the most im- portant of all, the postponement for a month of the term at which Prussia should be obliged to act On the other hand, the Duke of Bruns- wick, always consulted, always heard without appeal, when the matter in hand related to military affairs, declared that the Prussian army would not be ready till the first days in December, and on the other M. de Haugwitz recommended delay, to see how things went on the Danube between the French and the Russians. With a captain such as Napoleon, events could not lag, and, in gaining a month only, there was a chance of being extricated from embarrassment by some unforeseen and decisive solution. It was settled, therefore, that, at the expiration of a month, reckon- ing from the day on which M. de Haugwitz, commissioned to propose the mediation, should have left Berlin, Prussia should be required to take the field, if Napoleon had not returned a satisfactory answer. It would be easy to add a few days to that month, by retarding the departure of M. de Haugwitz upon various pre- texts, and, besides, Frederick William trusted to that negotiator, to his prudence and his ad- dress, that the first words exchanged with Na- poleon should not render the rupture inevitable and immediate. These conditions, unworthy of Prussian honour, for they were contrary, we repeat it, to formal stipulations, the price of which Prus Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 65 sia had received in fine territories, contrary especially to an intimacy which Napoleon must have believed to be sincere these con- ditions were inserted in a double declaration, signed at Potsdam on the 3d of November. The text of it has never been published, but Napoleon found means subsequently to learn its purport. This declaration has retained the title of treaty to Potsdam. No doubt Napo- leon had committed faults in regard to Prus- sia: while caressing her and benefiting her much, he had let slip more than one occasion to bind her irrevocably. But he had loaded her with solid favours, and he had always be- haved honourably in his transactions with her. Alexander and Frederick William were re- siding at Potsdam. It was in this beautiful retreat of the great Frederick, that they recipro- cally heightened each other's enthusiasm, and concluded that treaty so contrary to the policy and the interests of Prussia. The able Count de Haugwitz was deeply grieved at it, and ex- cused himself in his own eyes for having signed it, solely in the 'hope of eluding its con- sequences. The king, bewildered, confounded, knew not whither he was going. To complete his perturbation of mind, Alexander, in con- cert it is said with the queen, and probably in consequence of her fondness for studied scenes, desired to see the little vault which contains the remains of the great Frederick in the Pro- testant church of Potsdam. There, at the bot- tom of this vault, hollowed out of a pillar of the church, narrow, simple even to negligence, lay two wooden coffins, the one that of Frede- rick William I., the other the great Frederick's. Alexander went thither with the young king, shed tears, and, clasping his friend in his arms, swore to him and begged him to swear an oath of everlasting friendship on the coffin of the great Frederick. Never were they to separate either their cause or their fortunes. Tilsit was destined ere long to show the solidity of such an oath, probably sincere at the moment when it was taken. This scene, related in Berlin, published throughout all Europe, confirmed the opinion that there existed a close alliance between the two young monarchs. England, apprised of the change of things in Prussia, and of the negotiations so happily conducted with that court, regarded it as a capital event, which might decide the fate of Europe. She despatched immediately Lord Harrowby himself, the minister for foreign affairs, to negotiate. The cabinet of London was not difficult with the court of Berlin; it accepted its accession, no matter at what price. It consented that England should not even be mentioned in the negotiation which Count de Haugwitz was about to undertake in the camp of Napoleon, and it kept subsidies ready for the Prussian army, not doubting that she would take part in the war at the end of a month. With respect to the aggrandizements of territory promised to the house of Branden- burg, it was disposed to concede much, but it did not depend on the English cabinet to give up Hanover, the highly-prized patrimony of George III. Mr. Pitt would cheerfully have sacrificed it, for the British ministers have al- VOL. II. 9 ways taken it into their heads to regard Han- over as a burden to England. But they would sooner have persuaded King George to re- nounce the three kingdoms than Hanover. To make amends, an offer was made of some- thing not so contiguous, it is true, to the Prus- sian monarch, but more considerable Holland itself." That Holland, which all the courts declared to be the slave of France, and whose independence they claimed with such energy, was flung at the feet of Prussia to attach her to the coalition and to release Hanover. It is for the illustrious Dutch nation to judge what value it ought to set on the sincerity of Euro- pean affections in regard to it. These were so many points to be settled afterwards between the courts of Prussia and England. In the interim it was requisite to draw from the treaty of Potsdam its essential consequence, that is to say, the accession of Prussia to the coalition. The Austrians and the Russians urged the departure of M. de Haugwitz, and, while he was making his pre- parations, the Emperor Alexander set out on the 5th of November, after a stay of ten days at Berlin, for Weimar, to see his sister, the grand-duchess, a princess of high merit, who lived in that city surrounded by the greatest geniuses of Germany, happy in that noble intercourse which she was worthy to enjoy. The parting of the two monarchs was, like their first meeting at the gales of Berlin, mark- ed by embraces and demonstrations of friend- ship; which one of the parties at least seemed to wish to render conspicuous. Alexander set out for the army surrounded by the inte- rest which usually attaches to such a depar- ture. People saluted in him a young hero, ready to confront the greatest dangers, for the triumph of the common cause of kings. Meanwhile, M. de Laforest, minister of France, Duroc, grand-marshal of the imperial palace, were totally forsaken. The court con- tinued to treat them with affronting coldness. Though the most profound secrecy had been promised between the Russians and the Prus- sians relative to the stipulations of Potsdam, the Russians, unable to conceal' their satisfac- tion, had told everybody that Prussia was irrevocably bound to them. Their joy, indeed, revealed this plainly enough, and, joined to the military preparations which were making, to the bustle, rather unsuited to his age into which the old Duke of Brunswick put himself, it attested the success which Alexander's pre- sence at Potsdam had obtained. M. de Har- den berg, who shared with M. de Haugwitz the direction of the foreign affairs, scarcely show- ed himself to the French negotiators, but M. de Haugwitz had more frequent interviews with them. Being asked by them what im- portance ought to be attached to the Russian indiscretions, he defended himself against all the suppositions that were publicly circulated. He avowed a project, which, he said, could have nothing new for them, that of a media- tion. When they wished to learn whether that mediation was to be an armed one, which sig- 1 It is on authentic documents that I found this aswr tioo. r 2 C6 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. nified imposed, he evaded the question, saying that the representations of his court to Napo- leon would be proportioned to the urgency of the moment. When, at last, they asked what were to be the conditions of this mediation, he replied that they would be just, discreet, con- formable to the glory of France, and of this he had given the best proof by undertaking himself to carry them to Napoleon. He could not, the first time of his visiting that great man, expose himself to the hazard of being roughly repulsed. Such were the explanations obtained from the cabinet of Berlin. The only thing which was evident was that Silesia was open to the Russians, as a punishment for the passage of our troops through the territory of Anspach, and that Hanover was about to be occupied by a Prussian army. As France had a garri- son of 6000 men in the fortress of Hameln, M. de Haugwitz, without saying whether or- ders would be given for besieging that place, promised the greatest civility to the French, adding that he hoped for the same from them. The Grand-marshal Duroc, seeing nothing further to do in Berlin, set out for Napoleon's head-quarters. At this period, the end of Oc- tober, and the beginning of November, Napo- leon, having finished with the first Austrian ar- my, was preparing to fall upon the Russians, according to the plan which he had conceived. When he learned what was passing in Ber- lin, he was confounded with amazement, for it was in perfect good faith, and believing in the maintenance of the former custom, that he had ordered troops to pass through the pro- vinces of Anspach. He could not think that the irritation of Prussia was sincere, and he was convinced that it was assumed to cover the weaknesses of that court towards the coali- tion. But nothing that he could conjecture on that subject was capable of shaking him, and on this occasion he displayed all the greatness of his character. The reader is already acquainted with the general plan of his operations. In presence of four attacks directed against the French Empire, one in the north, by Hanover, the second in the south, by Lower Italy, the two others from the east, by Lombardy and Bava- ria, he had taken account of the last two only. Leaving to Massena the task of parrying that from Lombardy, and detaining the archdukes for a few weeks, he had reserved for himself the most important, that which threatened Bavaria. Taking advantage, as we have seen, of the distance which separated the Austrians from the Russians, he had by an unexampled march enclosed the former, and sent them prisoners to France. Now he was about to march upon the second, and' to hurl them back upon Vienna. By this movement Italy would be released, and the attacks prepared in the north and south of Europe would be- come insignificant diversions. It was, however, in the power of Prussia to give serious obstructions to this plan by throw- ing herself, by way of Franconia or Bohemia, upon the rear of Napoleon, while he was marching upon Vienna. An ordinary general, on the news of what was passing in Berlin, would have stopped short and fallen back, to take a position nearer to the Rhine, so as not to be turned, and would have awaited in this position, at the head of his collected forces, the consequences of the treaty of Potsdam. But, in acting thus, he would have rendered certain the dangers that were only probable; he would have given the two Russian armies of Kutusof and Alexander time to effect their junction, the Archduke Charles time to pass from Lombardy into Bavaria, to join the Rus sians, the Prussians time and the courage to make unacceptable proposals and to enter the lists. He might in a month have had upon his hands 120,000 Austrians, 100,000 Rus- sians, 150,000 Prussians, assembled in the Upper Palatinate or Bavaria, and been over- whelmed by a mass of forces double his own. To persist more than ever in his ideas, that is to say to march forward, to fling back to one extremity of Germany the principal armies of the coalition, to listen in Vienna to the complaints of Prussia, and to give her his triumphs for an answer such was the wisest, though apparently the rashest, determination. Let us add that these great resolutions are made for great men, that ordinary men would sink under them; that, moreover, they require not only a superior genius but an absolute authority; for, to have the power of advancing or falling back according to circumstances, it is requisite to be the centre of all movements, of all intelligence, of all wills ; it is requisite to be general and head of the empire; it is requisite to be Napoleon and Emperor. The language of Napoleon to Prussia was conformable to the resolution which he had just taken. So far from offering excuses for the violation of the territory of Anspach, he merely referred to anterior conventions, saying that, if these conventions had been set aside, he should have been informed of it; that, for the rest, these were mere pretexts; that his enemies, he clearly perceived, had the ascend- ency in Berlin: that it no longer became him to enter thenceforward into friendly explana- tions with a prince for whom his friendship seemed to be of no value; that he should leave to time and events the business of answering for him, but that on a single point he should be inflexible, that of honour; that never had his eagles put up with an affront; that they were in one of the fortresses of Hanover, that of Hameln : that if any attempt should be made to drag them out of it, General Barbou would defend them to the last extremity, and should be succoured before he would yield; that it was no new or alarming thing for France to have all Europe upon her hands; that he, Napoleon, would soon come, if he was called thither, from the banks of the Danube to the banks of the Elbe, and force his new enemies to repent, like the old ones, of having insulted the dignity of his empire. The order given to General Barbou, and communicated to the Prussian government, was as follows: " To THE GEXERAL OF DIVISION, BARBOU. " Augsburg, October 21. " I know not what is preparing, but whatever may be the power whose armies should attempt Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 87 to enter Hanover, were it even a power that has not declared war against me, you must op- pose it. Not having forces sufficient to with- stand an army, shut yourself up in the for- tresses, and let nobody approach within gun- shot of those fortresses. I shall come to the relief of the troops shut up in Hameln. My eagles have never yet put up with an affront. I hope that the soldiers whom you command will be worthy of their comrades, and that they will know how to preserve honour, the best and most valuable property of nations. "You must not surrender the place without an order from me, which shall be brought to you by one of my aides-de-camp. " NAPOLEON." Napoleon had gone from Ulm to Augsburg, and from Augsburg to Munich, to make there his dispositions for the march. Before we follow him into that long and immense valley of the Danube, surmounting all the obstacles thrown in his way by winter and the enemy, let us cast our eyes for a moment on Lom- bardy, where Massena was charged to make head against the Austrians till Napoleon had nullified their position oh the Adige by ad- vancing upon Vienna. Napoleon and Massena were both thoroughly acquainted with Italy, since both had acquired glory there. The instructions given for this campaign were worthy of both. Napoleon had first laid it down as a principle that 50,000 French, appuyed on a river, had nothing to fear from 80,000 enemies whoever they might be; that, at any rate, he should only ask them to guard the Adige till, penetratinginto Bavaria, (which forms the northern slope of the Alps, as Lombardy forms the southern) he had turned the position of the Austrians and obliged them to fall back ; that for this it was necessary to keep together on the upper part of the river, the left wing to the Alps, according to the ex- ample which he had always given, to hurl back the Austrians into the mountains, if they should come by the gorges of the Tyrol; or, if they should pass the lower Adige, to let them do so, and only to keep themselves concen- trated, and when they should have entered the marshy country of the lower Adige and of the Po, from Legnago to Venice, to rush upon their flank and drown them in the lagoons ; that, by remaining thus in a mass at the foot of the Alps, they would have nothing to fear either from above or below; but that, if the enemy appeared to renounce the offensive, they must take it against him, carry by night the bridge of Verona over the Adige, and then proceed to the attack of the heights of Caldiero. The campaigns of Napoleon would furnish models for every mode of acting on this part of the theatre of war. Massena was not a man to hesitate between the offensive and the defensive. The first sys- tem of war was alone suited to his character and genius. He had arrived at such a degree of confidence that he did not conceive himself to be doomed to keep the defensive before 80,000 Austrians, even though commanded by the Archduke Charles. In consequence, in the tiight between the 17th and the 18th of October, after bavin? received news of the first move- ments of the grand army, he had advanced in. silence towards the bridge of ChSteau-Vieur, situated in the interior of Verona. That city, as the reader knows, is divided by the Adige into two parts. One belonged to the French, the other to the Austrians. The bridges were cut, and the approaches defended by palisades and walls. Having blown up the wall which barred the approach to the bridge of Chateau- Vieux, Massena, on reaching the bank of the river, had despatched a party of brave volti- geurs in boats, some to ascertain whether the piles of the bridge were undermined, the others to throw themselves on the opposite bank. Certain that the piles were not under- mined, he had caused a sort of passage to be made with thick planks, and then, crossing the Adige, had fought, the whole of the 18th, with the Austrians. The secrecy, the vigour, the promptness of this attack, had been worthy of Napoleon's first lieutenant in the campaigns of Italy. Massena found himself, by this ope- ration, master of the course of the Adige, able, in case of need, to operate on both banks, and having scarcely any fear of being surprised by a passage by main force, for he was strong enough to interrupt such an operation at what- ever point it might have been attempted. Be- fore he took a determined offensive and ad- vanced definitively into the Austrian territory, he wished to receive decisive tidings from the banks of the Danube. These tidings arrived on the 28th of Octo- ber, and filled the army of Italy with joy and emulation. Massena caused them to be com- municated to his troops, accompanied with the discharge of the artillery, and resolved to march forward immediately. On the follow- ing day, the 29th of October, he took three of his divisions, Gardanne's, Duhesme's, and Molitor's, 1 beyond the Adige, beat back the Austrians, and extended himself in the plain called St. Michael's, between the citadel of Verona and the entrenched camp of Caldiero. His design was to attack that formidable camp, though he had before him an army far supe- rior in number, and appuyed on posiiions which nature and art had rendered extremely strong. The archduke, on his 'part, informed of the extraordinary successes of the French grand army, presuming that he should soon be obliged to retreat and march to the relief of Vienna, thought that he ought not to give up the ground as if vanquished. He purposed to gain a decisive advantage, which should enable him to retire quietly, and to take that route which was best suited to the general situation of the allies. The two adversaries, then, were about to fall upon each other with the greater violence, since they met* both with the same resolution to fight to extremity. Massena had before him the last steegs of the Tyrolese Alps, subsiding gradually into the plain of Verona, near the village of Cal- diero. On his left the heights, called the I GARDAMNE MOLITOR DUHESME ; all three French generals of division of ability. Their names will occur continually hereafter in the accounts of the various war of the empire. H - 68 [Nov. 1805. heights of Colognola, were covered with en- trenchments, regularly constructed, and armed with a numerous artillery. In the centre, and in the plain, was the village of Caldiero, through which ran the high road of Lombardy, leading through the Friule into Austria. At this point an obstacle presented itself, in grounds enclosed and built on, occupied by a great part of the Austrian infantry. Lastly, on his right, Massena saw spread out before him the flat and marshy banks of the Adige, tra- versed in all directions by ditches and dykes bristling with cannon. Thus, on the left, en- trenched mountains; in the centre, a high-road bordered with buildings, marshes, and the Adige ; everywhere works adapted to the ground, covered with artillery, and 80,000 men to defend them such was the entrenched camp which Massena was to attack with 50,000 men. Nothing was capable of intimi- dating the hero of Rivoli, of Zurich, and of Genoa. On the morning of the 30th, he ad- vanced in column on the high-road. On his left, he directed General Molitor to take the formidable heights of Colognola; with Du- hesme's and Gardanne's divisions, he under- took himself the attack of the centre, along the high-road; and, as he judged that, to dis- lodge an enemy superior in number and posi- tion, it was necessary to threaten him with a serious danger on one of his wings, he directed General Verdier to proceed to the extreme right of the French army, there to cross the Adige with 10,000 men, to turn the left wing of the archduke, and then fall upon his rear. If this operation was well executed, it would be worth such a detachment, but it was hazard- ous to commit the passage of a river to a lieutenant; and those 10,000 men, if they were not well employed on the right, would be sorely missed at the centre. At break of day, Massena, marching vigo- rously upon the enemy, ovenhrew him at all points. General Molitor, one of the ablest and firmest officers of the army, advanced coolly to the foot of the heights of Colognola, and ascended the first steeps in spite of a tremend- ous fire. While Colonel Teste, advancing at the head of the 5th of the line, was ready to climb them, Count de Bellegarde, sallying from the redoubts with all his forces, came forward to overwhelm that regiment. General Molitor, instantly aware of the seriousness of the dan- ger, without stopping to count the enemy, rushed upon General Bellegarde's column with the 6th of the line, the only regiment that he had at hand. He attacked that column with such violence, that he surprised it, and obliged it to halt. Meanwhile, Colonel Teste had en- tered one of the redoubts and hoisted there the colours of the 5th, the eagle *of which was carried away by a ball. But the Austrians, nshamed to see their positions wrested from tihem by so small a number of men, returned to the charge and retook the redoubt. The French, at this point, remained opposite to the enemy's entrenchments, without being able to take them. It was miraculous to have dared so much with so few men, and without sus- taining a defeat. At the centre, Prince Charles had placed the bulk of his forces. He had pul at the head a reserve of grenadiers, in whose ranks fought three archdukes. General Duhesme and Gard- anne, sweeping the high-road, and carrying, one after another, the enclosures that bordered it, had already arrived near Caldiero. The Archduke Charles chose this moment for tak- ing the offensive. He repulsed the assailants, and marched along the road in close column, at the head of the best Austrian infantry. This column continuing to advance, as did of old that of Fontenoy, had already passed the de- tachments of French troops spread on the right and left in the enclosures, came on to possess itself of Vago, which was to the French what Caldiero was to the Austrians, the appui of their centre. But Massena hastened to the spot. He rallied his divisions, placed all his disposable artillery in the road, and, facing the enemy, poured the grape-shot at point-blank range, upon the brave Austrian grenadiers, then ordered them to be charged with the bayonet and attacked on the flank, and, after an obstinate fight, in which he was continually in the midst of the fire, like a common soldier, he forced the column to re- treat. He pushed it beyond Caldiero, and gained so much ground as to penetrate into the first Austrian entrenchments. If, at this moment, General Verdier, accomplishing his mission, had crossed the Adige, or even had Massena had the 10,000 men uselessly em- ployed at his extreme right, he would have taken the formidable camp of Caldiero. But General Verdier, mismanaging his operation, had thrown one of his regiments beyond the river, without having it in his power to sup- port it, and had completely failed in his de- sign of passing. Night alone parted the com- batants, and covered with its shades one of the bloodiest fields of battle of the age. It required the character of Massena to undertake and to come off from such a conflict without check. The Austrians had lost 3000 men, killed and wounded, and 4000 of them had been taken prisoners. The French had not lost more than 3000, killed, wounded, and prisoners. They bivouacked on the field of battle, mingled the one with the other, amidst terrible confusion. But, in the night, the archduke sent off his baggage and his artil- lery, and next morning, occupying the French by means of a rear-guard, he commenced his retrograde movement. A corps of 5000 men, commanded by General Hillinger, was sacri- ficed to the interest of this retreat. It had been ordered down from the heights to alarm Ve- rona, on the rear of our army, while the arch- duke was setting himself in march. General Hillinger had not time to return from this de- monstration, perhaps pushed too far, and was taken with his whole corps. Thus, in these three days, Massena had deprived the enemy of eleven or twelve thousand men, 8000 of whom were prisoners, and 3000 left hors de combat. He immediately set out in close pursuit of the archduke. But the Austrian prince had in his favour the best soldiers of Austria, to the number of 70,000, his experience, his talents, winter, over-flowed rivers, the bridges over which he broke down, in retiring. Massena Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 69 could not flatter himself with the hope of in- volving him in a catastrophe ; nevertheless, he occupied him sufficiently by pursuing him, not to leave him the facility of manoeuvring at pleasure against the grand army. This other part of Napoleon's plan was therefore accomplished as punctually as the preceding; the Archduke Charles, falling back upon Austria, was obliged to maintain a run- ning fight while going to the succour of the threatened capital. Napoleon had not lost a moment at Munich in making his dispositions. He was anxious to cross the Inn, to fight the Russians, and to disconcert the underhand manoeuvres of Ber- lin by fresh successes as prompt as those of Ulm. The corps of General Kutusof, which he had before him, numbered scarcely 50,000 men on taking the field, though it was to have been far more numerous according to the pro- mises of Russia. From Moravia to Bavaria this corps had left behind five or six thousand stragglers and sick, but it had been joined by the Austrian detachment of Kienmayer, which had escaped from the disaster of Ulm, before the investment of that place. M. de Meerfeld 1 had added some troops to this detachment, and taken the command of it. The whole together might amount to about 65,000 soldiers, Rus- sian and Austrian. This was but little for saving the monarchy against 150,000 French, 100,000 of whom at least were marching in a single mass. General Kutusof commanded this army. He was an elderly man, had lost the sight of one eye in consequence of a wound on the head, very corpulent, indolent, dissolute, greedy, but intelligent ; as active in mind as he was heavy in body, lucky in war, a clever courtier, and capable enough of commanding in a situation that required prudence and good fortune. His lieutenants were men of mode- rate talents, excepting three, Prince Bagration 2 and Generals Doctorow and Miloradovich.3 Prince Bagration was a Georgian, of heroic courage, making amends by experience for the j lack of early instruction, and always charged, j whether at the advanced-guard or at the rear- guard, with the most difficult duty. General Doctorow was a discreet, modest, firm, and well-informed officer. General Miloradovich was a Servian, of brilliant valour, but absolu- tely destitute of military knowledge, dissolute in manners, uniting all the vices of civiliza- tion with all the vices of barbarism. The character of the Russian soldiers corresponded with that of their generals. They had a sa- vage, ill-directed bravery. Their artillery was clumsy, their cavalry indifferent. Altogether, generals, officers, and soldiers, composed an ignorant army, but singularly formidable from its devotedness. The Russian troops have since learned the art of war by waging it with us, and have begun to add knowledge to courage. General Kutusof had been ignorant till the 1 MEERFELD. An Austrian general of some distinc- tion. He served throughout the war, and distinguished himself, although repulsed and made prisoner at Leipsic. Alison's History. H. 2 BAORATION, PRINCE. A Russian general of the first class, and of one of the noblest families of the empire. In point of ability and bravery he was second to scarce last moment of the disaster of Ulm ; for the Archduke Ferdinand and General Mack, the day before their catastrophe, announced to him nothing but successes. The truth was no: known till the arrival of General Mack, who came in person to report the destruction of the principal Austrian army. Kutusof, then despairing with reason of saving Vienna, did not disguise from the Emperor Francis, who had hastened to the Russian head-quarters, that it was necessary to make a sacrifice of that capital. He would fain have withdrawn as speedily as possible from the danger wnich threatened himself, by passing to the left bank of the Danube, in order to join the Russian reserves coming through Bohemia and Mo- ravia. The Emperor Francis and his council, however, made a point of not sacrificing Vienna till at the last extremity, and nattered themselves that, by retarding the march of Napoleon by all the means which defensive war was capable of furnishing, time might be given to the Archduke Charles to reach Aus- tria, to the Russian reserves to arrive on the Danube, and to effect a general junction of the allied forces, for the purpose of fighting a battle, which might perhaps prove the salva- tion of the capital and of the monarchy. General Kutusof, in compliance with the de- sires of the principal ally of his master, pro- mised to oppose to the French every resist- ance that did not go so far as to involve a general action ; and, to slacken their move- ment, he determined to avail himself of all the tributaries of the Danube coming from the Alps and throwing themselves into that great river. For this purpose, it was sufficient to break down the bridges, and to obstruct by strong rear-guards the passages by main force which the French should attempt, passages difficult in a season when all the waters were high, and laden with flakes of ice. Napoleon had made the following disposi- tions for his march : He was obliged to direct his course between the Danube and the chain of the Alps, by a route cramped between the river and the mountains. To advance with a numerous army by this narrow route would have been attended with difficulty of subsist- ing and danger for marching, for, besides the Archduke Charles, who might pass from Lom- bardy into Bavaria, and throw himself upon our flank, there were in Tyrol about 25,000 men under the Archduke John. Napoleon, therefore, took the wise precaution to commit to Ney's corps the conquest of the Tyrol. He directed the marshal to leave Ulm, to ascend by Kempten, and to penetrate into the Tyrol, in such a manner as to cut in two the troops scattered through that long country. Those which -were to the right of Marshal Ney were to be flung back upon the Vorarl- berg and the Lake of Constance, where Auge- reau's corps would arrive, after traversing the any in the service of Alexander. He died fighting nobly at Borodino on the 7th of September, 1812. JUiton't En- rope. a - 3 DocTOBOMrMiLOBADovicH Russian general* of distinction. Both acquired great renown for their con- duct at Borodino, and subsequently during the disastrous retreat of the French to the Beresina. Ibid. 70 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. whole extent of France from Brest to Huningen. ' quiring the speedy execution of them, and Ney, deprived of Dupont's division, which had : paying for the articles, of which those made concurred with Murat in the pursuit of the up were to be collected at Augsburg. As that Archduke Ferdinand, was reduced to about ! city became the principal point of the route 10,000 men. But Napoleon, trusting to his of the army, all the detachments were to pass vigour and to the 14,000 men, whom Augereau ! through it in order to supply themselves with was bringing, believed that he would have j what they needed. These precautions taken, force enough for the task which he had to perform. The Tyrol thus occupied, he des- tined Bernadotte to penetrate into the country of Salzburg. He directed the latter to proceed from Munich towards the Inn, and to cross it either at Wasserburg or Rosenheim. General Marmont was to support Bernadotte. In this manner Napoleon ensured two advantages, Napoleon set out to follow his corps, which preceded him by one or two marches. The movementsof his army were executed as prescribed by him. On the 26th of October, the whole of it was advancing towards the Inn. The Austro-Russians had not left a single bridge standing. But the soldiers, throwing themselves everywhere into boats, and crossing in large de- that of covering himself completely towards j tachments, under musketry and grape, forced the the Alps, and that of gaining possession of the j enemy to evacuate the opposite bank, and set upper course of the Inn, which would prevent j about repairing the bridges, seldom totally de- the Austro-Russians from defending its lower | stroyed, owing to the precipitation of his retreat, course against the main body of our army. Bernadotte, meeting with but few obstacles, As for himself, with the corps of Marshals passed the Inn on the 28th of October, at Was- Davout, Soult, and Lannes, with the reserve serburg. Marshals Soult, Murat, and Davout cavalry and the guard, he should take in front . passed it at Muhldorf and Neu-Oettingen. the great barrier of the Inn, with the intention i Lannes proceeded towards Braunau, and, find- of crossing from Muhldorf to Braunau. Mu- ing the bridge broken down, sent a detachment rat had orders to set off on the 26th of October, with the dragoons of Generals Walther and Beaumont, General d'Hautpoul's heavy ca- valry, and a bridge equipage, to proceed direct to Muhldorf, following the high road from Mu- to the other bank by means of some craft which had been seized. This detachment crossed the river and appeared at the gates of Braunau. What was the astonishment of our soldiers to find that place open, though in a perfect state nich through Hohenlinden, and thus travers- of defence, completely armed, and provided with ing the scenes of Moreati's glory. Marshal considerable resources! Immediate possession Soult was to support him at the distance of one march in rear. Marshal Davout took the route on the left, through Freisingen, Dorfen, and Neu-Oettingen. Lannes, who had con- tributed with Murat to the pursuit of the Arch- duke Ferdinand, was to march still more to wastaken, and from a fact so extraordinary it was inferred that the enemy was retreating with a precipitation bordering on disorder. Napoleon, delighted with such an acquisi- tion, hastened in person to Braunau, to ascer- tain the strength of the place and what bene- the left than Davout, through Landshut, Wils- fit he might derive from it. Having inspected burg, and Braunau. Lastly, Dupont's divi- it, he ordered a great portion of the resources sion, which had proceeded far in the same ' which he meant at first to collect at Augs- direction, descended the Danube, for the pur- pose of going to take Passau. Napoleon, with the guard, followed Murat and Soult on the high-road from Munich. Before he left Augsburg, Napoleon pre- scribed there a system of precautions to which we shall find him paying more and burg, to be removed thither ; judging it to be preferable for the use to which he destined it He left a garrison there, and gave the com- mand of it to his aide-de-camp Lauriston, who had returned from the naval campaign which he had made with Admiral Villeneuve. It was not the mere command of a fortress that he more attention, in proportion as the sphere I committed to him ; it was a government, com- of his operations increased, and in which he j prising all the rear of the army. The wounded, has never been equalled for the extent of his ! the ammunition, the prisoners, the recruits, foresight and the activity of his care. The ' coming from France, the prisoners who were object of this system of precautions was to going thither, were all to pass through Brau- create upon his line of operation points of i nau, under the superintendence of General support, which should serve him alike to ad- ' Lauriston. vance or to fall back, if he should be com- I From the 29th to the 30th of October, the pelled to the latter course. These points of j army had crossed the Inn, left Bavaria behind, support, besides the advantage of presenting and invaded Upper Austria. It was no longer a certain force, were to have that of contain- i a burden to allies, but to the. hereditary States ing immense stores of all kinds, very useful of the imperial house. It was marching for- to an army marching forward, indispensable j ward, covered against any movement of the lor a retreating army. He chose in Bavaria, archdukes by Bernadotte and Marmont at on the Lech, Augsburg, which afforded some Salzburg, by Ney in the Tyrol. Napoleon, means of defence and the resources suited to j not losing a moment, resolved to proceed from a great population. He gave directions for ; the line of the Ion to that of the Traun. the works necessary to secure it against a coup de main, and desired that corn, cattle, cloth, shoes, ammunition, and, above all, hospitals, should be found there. He ordered commis- sion'? for cloth and shoes to be given at Nuremberg, at Ratisbon, and at Munich, re- From the Inn to the Traun, you have, as everywhere in this country, the Danube on the left, the Alps on the right It is a magni- ficent country, resembling Lombard}', only more stern, because it is to the north instead of to the south of the Alps, and would be as Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. level as a plain, but for a large mountain called the Hausriick which rises abruptly in the midst of it. This mountain is peaked, totally detached from the Alps, and would form an island, if the country were covered with water. But having passed the Haus- rJlck, you have nothing before you but an un- dulating and wooded plain, extendin^-to the bank of the Traun and called the plain of Wels. The Traun runs over gravel and among fine trees, and throws itself into the Danube near Linz, the capital of the province, militarily as important as the city of Ulm, and for that reason, bristling, since our great wars, with fortifications on a new system. Napoleon directed Lannes by Efferding, upon Linz, Marshals Davout and Soult, by the road to Ried and Lambach, upon Wels, along the foot of the Hausriick. Murat always pre- ceding them with his cavalry. The guard fol- lowed with the head-quarters. Apprehending, however, that the plain of Wels might be chosen by the enemy for a field of battle, he directed Marmont to leave Bernadotte at Salz- burg, and to rejoin the main body of the army, by passing behind the Hausriick, along the road through Strasswalchen and Wocklabriick to Wels, so as to take the Austro-Russians in flank, if they should be disposed to halt with the intention of fighting. The 1st chasseurs came up with them in advance of Ried, charged them gallantly, and put them to the rout. The French marched upon Lembach, which the enemy made a show of defending, solely to gain time to save their baggage. Davout overtook them and had a brilliant rear-guard action with them, but pre- parations for a battle were nowhere perceived. The enemy covered himself with the Traun in passing it at Wels. We entered Linz without striking a blow. Though the Austri- ans had made use of the Danube for evacuat- ing their principal magazines, they neverthe- less left us valuable resources. Napoleon arrived and established his head-quarters at Linz on the 15th of November. Being established in this town, Napoleon moved forward his corps-d'armee from the Traun to the Ens, which is easy, for the coun- try between these two tributaries of the Da- nube offered no position of which the enemy could be tempted to avail himself. This country presents a slightly elevated plain, in- tersected by ravines, covered with wood, hav- ing two steep slopes, one forward, which you must ascend when you have passed the Traun, the other at the further extremity, which you must descend, if you mean to pass the Ens. Not having defended it on the side next to the Traun, the Austro-Russians could not think of defending it on the side next to the Ens, since they would have been everywhere com- manded. The Ens was therefore passed with- out obstacle. Having his head-quarters at Linz and his advanced guards on the Ens, Napoleon made new dispositions for the continuation of this offensive march, performed, as we have said, upon a narrow road between the Danube and the Alps. The difficulty of advancing thus in a long column, the tail of which could never come to the assistance of the head, if it were surprised by the enemy, with the dangers always to be apprehended of an attack in flank, if the archdukes should suddenly leave Italy and march into Austria this difficulty, further increased by the scarcity of provisions, already consumed or destroyed by the Russians, re- quired great precautions before reaching Vi- enna. The most serious inconvenience of this march was certainly the possibility of a sud- den appearance of the archdukes. The two belligerent masses, acting in Austria and in Lombardy, were moving from west to east, the one under Napoleon and Kutusof to the north of the Alps, the other to the south of them un- der Massena and the Archduke Charles. Was it possible that the Archduke Charles, suddenly stealing away from Massena, and leaving be- fore him a mere rear-guard to delude him, should cross the Alps, pick up by the way his brother John with the corps in the Tyrol, and penetrate into Bavaria, either to join the Aus- tro-Russians behind one of the defensive posi- tions which are met with on the Danube, or merely to throw himself on the flank of the French grand army? Though possible, this was scarcely probable. The Archduke Charles had two routes : the first, by the Tyrol, Verona, Trent, Inspruck, would have led him behind the Inn ; the second, more circuitous, through Carinthia and Styria, by Tarvis, Leoben, and Lilienfeld, would have led him to the well- known position of St. PGlten, in advance of Vienna. With respect to the first, supposing that the archduke had decided at the very mo- ment of Mack's capitulation, which took place on the 20th, which was not known at Verona by the French till the 28th, which could not be known by the Austrians before the 25th or the 26th supposing that, before leaving Italy, the archduke had not chosen to fight a battle for the purpose of restraining the French army, he would have had from the 25th to the 28th to traverse the Tyrol and arrive upon the Inn, which Napoleon passed on the 28th and 29th. He would evidently not have time enough for such a march. As for the route through Sty- ria, which he would have had it in his power to take after the battle of Caldiero. he would have had to traverse the Friule, Carinthia, and Styria, and to march a hundred leagues in the Alps, between the 30th of October, the day of the battle of Caldiero and the 6th or'th of November, the day on which Napoleon crossed the Ens to move forward. He would not have had time for such an operation either. If the Archduke Charles could not anticipate Napo- leon, upon one of the defensive positions of the Danube, for the purpose of opposing to him 150,000 united Austrians and Russians, he might, without anticipating him, suffer himself to be outstripped, on the contrary, and cross the chain of the Alps, to attempt a flank attack upon the grand army. No doubt, with soldiers accustomed to conquer, prepared for daring enterprises, capable of clearing their way any- where, he would have had it in his power to make such an attempt, and to produce a sud- den and serious derangement in the march of Napoleon, perhaps even to change the face of 72 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. events, but running the risk himself of being! enclosed between two armies, that of Massena and that of Napoleon, as had formerly happen- ed to Suwarow in the St. Gothard. This would have been one of the most hazardous of reso- lutions, and one does not take such resolutions when one has in one's hands an army, which is the last resource of a monarchy. Napoleon, nevertheless, conducted himself as if such a resolution had been probable. The only position which the enemy could occupy for covering Vienna, whether the army of Ku- tusof was there alone, or whether the arch- dukes were there with it, was that of St. Polten. This position is well known. The Alps of Styria, pushing the Danube to the north, from Mulk to Krems, throw out a spur which is called the Kahlenberg, and which subsides only at the very brink of the river, where it leaves scarcely room for a road. As the Kahlenberg covers with its mass the city of Vienna, you must cross it breadthwise to reach that capital. In advance of this spur, half-way up, is a very spacious position, which has received its name from a large village situated near it, that of St. Polten, and upon which a retreating Austrian army might fight a defensive battle with ad- vantage. A branch of the high road from Italy to Vienna, running through Lilienfeld, termi- nates near St. Polten and might bring the arch- dukes thither. A vast wooden bridge over the Danube, that of Krems, placed this position in communication with the two banks of the river, and would have permitted the Prussian and Austrian reserves to hasten thither through Bohemia. It was there consequently that Na- poleon must have met with the conjoined forces of the allies, if such a junction of forces had been possible in advance of Vienna. He there- fore took, in approaching this point, the pre- cautions which might be expected of a general who has combined calculation and daring in a superior degree to any celebrated captains. Having General Marmont's corps on his right, he resolved to send him to Leoben by a road passable for carriages, which runs from Lintz to Leoben, through Styria. General Marmont, if he received intelligence of the approach of the archdukes, was to fall back upon the grand army and to become the extreme right, or, if the archdukes proceeded directly from the Friule into Hungary, to establish himself in Leoben in order to give a hand to Massena. Between this road, which Marmont was to take, and the high road along the Danube, which the bulk of the army was following, there was a moun- tain road, which, running through Waidhofen and St. Gaming, descended to Lilienfeld, be- yond the position of St. Polten, and thus fur- nished the means of turning it. This Napo- leon directed Marshal Davout's corps to pursue. The corps of Bernadotte was no longer neces- sary at Salzburg, since Ney occupied the Ty- rol. Napoleon enjoined him to draw nearer to the army, detaching the Bavarians towards Ney's corps, which could not fail to be par- ticularly gratifying to these latter, always ex- tremely ambitious to possess the Tyrol. He reserved for himself, for the direct attack of the position of St. Polten, the corps of Marshals 8oult, Lannes, and Bernadotte, besides Murat's cavalry and the guaM; these were sufficient, the corps of Davout being sent to turn that po- sition. Napoleon did not stop there, but resolved to take some precautions on the left bank of the Danube. So far he had marched on the right bank only, taking no heed of the left bank. There as talk, however, of an assemblage of troops in Bohemia, formed by the Archduke Ferdinand, who escaped from Ulm with some thousand horse. There was also a rumour of the approach of the second Russian army, conducted into Moravia by Alexander. It was necessary, therefore, to guard himself on this side also. Napoleon, who had detached the division of Dupont to Passau, ordered him to advance upon the left bank of the Danube, keeping up with the army, and sending out reconnaissances upon the roads from Bohe- mia to learn what was passing there. The Dutch, who had left Marmont, were to join Dupont's division. Judging th-is not to be sufficient, Napoleon detached Gazan's division from the corps of Lannes, and made it march with Dupont's division on the left bank. He placed both under the command of Marshal Mortier, and, not to leave them cut off from the grand army, which continued to occupy the right bank, he conceived the idea of form- ing, with the craft collected on the Inn, the Traun, the Enns, and the Danube, a numerous flotilla, into which he put provisions, ammu- nition, all the fatigued men, and which, de- scending the Danube with the army, could in an hour throw ten thousand men on the right or on the left, connected the two banks, and served at once for a medium of communica- tion and of conveyance. At the head of this flotilla he put Captain Lostanges, an officer of the seamen of the guard. It was by such a combination of precautions that Napoleon provided against the inconve- nience of that offensive march, performed up- on a long and narrow road between the Alps and the Danube. He had thus on the summit of the Alps Marmont's corps, half-way up Da- vout's corps, at their foot, along the Danube, the corps of Soult, Lannes, and Bernadotte, and the cavalry of Murat; on the other side of the Danube Mortier's corps, and, lastly, a flo- tilla to connect all the forces marching on both banks of the river, and to carry whatever it was difficult to drag along with them. It was with this imposing train that he approached Vienna. At the moment when he was about to leave Linz, an emissary from the Emperor of Ger- many arrived at the head-quarters. This was General Giulay, one of the officers taken at Ulm, since, released, and who, having heard Napoleon speak of his pacific dispositions, had so represented the matter to his master as to make some impression upon him. In con- sequence, the Emperor Francis sent him to propose an armistice. General Giulay did not explain himself clearly, but it was evident that he wished Napoleon to halt before entering Vienna; yet he offered in return no guarantee of a speedy and acceptable peace. Napoleon consented, indeed, to treat of peace imme- diately with a plenipotentiary sufficiently ac- Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. credited, and authorized to consent to the ne- cessary sacrifices; but to grant an armistice without guarantee to obtain what was due to him as an indemnification for the war, was giving the second Russian army time to join the first, and the archduke time to join the Russians under the walls of Vienna. Napo- leon was not the man to commit such a fault. He declared, therefore, that he would stop at the very gates of Vienna, and not pass them, if an envoy should come to him with sincere proposals of peace, but that otherwise he should proceed direct to his goal, which was the capital of the empire. M.deGiulay alleged the necessity of consulting with the Emperor Alexander, before conditions acceptable by all the belligerent powers could be fixed. Napo- leon replied, that the Emperor Francis, who was in danger, would be wrong to make his resolutions dependent on the Emperor Alex- ander, who was not there ; that he ought to think of saving his monarchy, and to that end to arrange with France, leaving it to the French army to send the Russians home. Napoleon had not entered into any explanation respect- ing the conditions capable of satisfying him ; still everybody knew that he wanted the Ve- netian states. Those states formed the com- plement of Italy ; he would not have provoked a war to acquire them ; but, war having been raised by Austria, it was natural that he should claim this the legitimate price of his victories. He delivered, moreover, to M. de Giulay a mild and polite letter for the Empe- ror Francis, at the same time sufficiently ex- plicit, relative to the conditions of peace. Before he set off", Napoleon received also a visit from the Elector of Bavaria, who, unable to join him at Munich, came to Linz to express his gratitude, his admiration, his joy, and, above all, his hopes of aggrandizement. Napoleon had stayed at Linz but three days, that is to say, precisely the time necessary for giving his orders. But his corps had never ceased marching; for, after passing the Inn on the 28th and 29th of October, the Traun on the 3lst, the Ens on the 4th and 5ih of November, they advanced the same day upon Amstetten and St. Pollen. At Atnsletten, the Russians determined to have a rear-guard action in or- der to gain time to save their baggage. The high road to Vienna ran through a forest of firs. The Russians took position on a clear- ing in the forest, which left a certain space open on the right and left of the road. In the centre of this space, and in front of it, was drawn up the artillery of the Russians, sup- ported by their cavalry ; in rear, and backed upon the wood, their best infantry. Murat and Lannes, debouching with the dragoons and Oudinot's grenadiers, perceived these dis- positions. It was the first time that they had met the Russians, and they were desirous to teach them how the French fought. They despatched the dragoons and the chasseurs at a gallop along the high road, to take the ene- my's artillery and cavalry. Our brave horse, in spite of the grape-shot, had soon taken the guns, cut in pieces the Russian cavalry, and cleared the ground. But it was necessary to break the infantry backed upon the fir wood. Voi. II 10 Oudinot's grenadiers undertook that task. Af- ter an extremely brisk fire of musketry, they advanced with bayonets fixed upon the Rus- sians. The latter, displaying extraordinary bravery, fought hand to hand, and took advan- tage for a long time of the thickness of the wood to resist. At last our grenadiers forced them in this position and put them to flight, after killing, wounding, or taking about a thou- sand men. Murat and Lannes, proceeding together, the first with his cavalry, always going, though overwhelmed with fatigue, the second with his formidable grenadiers, continued the pursuit of the enemy on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of No- vember, without being able to overtake him anywhere. "The Russians," wrote Lannes to Napoleon, " run away faster than we follow them; those wretches will not even stop to fight." Arriving on the 8th before St. Pollen, Lannes and Murat found them in order of bat- tle, putting on a bold look, as if they meant to make a serious affair of it. The two leaders of our advanced-guard, notwithstanding their ardour, durst not hazard a battle without the Emperor. Besides, they had not sufficient means for fighting one. The hostile troops remained in presence of each other the whole of the 8th. They were near the beautiful ab- bey of Molk. That wealthy abbey, situated on the steep bank of the Danube, and overlooking the broad bed of the river, with its magnificent domes, presents one of the finest views in the world. It was reserved for the head-quarters of the Emperor. It contained abundant re- sources, especially for the sick and the wounded. Murat was lodged at the chateau of Mittran, with a Count de Montecuculli. There he learned from various reports, that the Russians had no intention to make a stand at St. Pollen. They had actually taken a very important re- solution. After having delayed the march of the French, either by breaking down the bridges or by rear-guard fights, and complied with the wishes of the Emperor of Austria, who was desirous that the high road lo Vienna should be disputed as long as possible, the Russians conceived that ihey had done enough, and thought of their own safety. They re- passed the Danube at Krems, the point where that river, terminaling its bend to the north, resumes its eastern direction. The motive which especially instigated this determination was the intelligence that part of the French army had passed to the left bank of the Dan- ube. They had reason to apprehend, in fact, that Napoleon, throwing, by some unforeseen manoeuvre, the bulk of his forces on the left bank, might cut them off from Bohemia and Moravia. In consequence, they crossed the Danube at Krems, and burned the bridge after they had passed it. The works which would have enabled them to defend it, and to insure its exclusive possession, being scarcely begun, they had no other resource but to destroy it They effected their passage on the 9lh, leav- ing, throughout the whole archduchy of Aus- tria, frightful traces of their presence. They plundered, ravaged, and even murdered, be- having like downright barbarians, so that the 6 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. French were almost regarded as deliverers by : the people of the country. Their conduct in j particular towards the Austrian troops was I any thing but friendly. They treated them I with extreme arrogance, affecting to impute to them the disasters of this campaign. The lan- guage of the Russian officers and generals on this subject was insultingly offensive, and by no means deserved; for, if the Austrians showed less firmness than the Russian infant- ry, in all other respects they were far superior. The Austrians, living on very bad terms with the Russians, separated from them, to go and concur in the defence of the bridges of Vienna; and M. de Meerfeld, with his corps, retired by the road from Steyer to Leoben. He marched, followed by Marshal Marmont, on the road from Waidhofen to Leoben, and by Marshal Davout on that from St. Gaming to Lilienfeld. The direct road to Vienna was, therefore, open to the French, and they had but two marches to make in order to be at the gates of that capital, and no enemy before them who could dispute their entry. The temptation could not but be great for Murat. It was difficult for him to withstand the desire to dash forward and to show the Austrian capital his person, always the most conspicuous at reviews as in dangers. Never had an army from the West penetrated into this metropolis of the Germanic empire. Mo- reau in 1800, General Bonaparte in 1797, had signed armistices when nearly arrived there. The Turks alone had reached its walls with- out passing them. Murat could not resist this temptation, and marched on the 10th and llth for Vienna, urging Marshals Soult and Lannes to accompany him. He took care, it is true, not to enter, and halted at Burkersdorf, in the mountainous defile of the Kahlenberg, two leagues from Vienna. This was a useless and even a dangerous haste. A change so unforeseen as that which had just manifested itself in the march of the enemy, made it worth while to halt and wait for the Emperor's orders. Besides, it was pre- ceding too far the corps of Marshal Marmont, as well as the flotilla destined to keep that corps in communication with the army, and running blindly between the Russians, who had passed to the other side of the Danube, and the Austrians who were beaten back into the mountains. At this instant, in fact, peril threatened Marshal Mortier, 1 placed on the left bank of the Danube, and coming near Stein, into the presence of the Russians, who had crossed the river at Krems. The danger of Marshal Mortier was not precisely imputable to Murat, though the latter had contributed to produce and to aggravate it by his precipitate move- ment upon Vienna, but to a negligence scarce- ly ever to be met with in the operations di- 1 MORTIER, ADOLPHE CASIMIR JOSEPH. Born at Cam- bray in 1768. His father, a wealthy farmer, gave him a good education. He entered a cavalry regiment in 1791, and soon fought his way to the rank of adjutant-general. Under Pichegru, Moreau, and Massena, on the Rhine and in Switzerland, he fought his way to the command of a division. In 1804, he was rewarded for his capture of Hanover by a marshal's baton. In 1808, he wai made reeled by Napoleon, and which, nevertheless did occur in this instance, for there are inter- vals even in the most unremitting and most indefatigable vigilance. Distracted by a thousand things, Napoleon had omitted to follow one of his most inva- riable habits, which consisted in always as- suring himself of the execution of his orders, after he had given them. He had prescribed, in a general manner, the union of Gazan's, Dupont's and Dumonceau's divisions into a single corps, the formation of a flotilla under Captain Lostanges, to connect the columns marching on the left bank with those march- ing on the right bank, and he had depended too much upon his lieutenants to make all these things harmonize. Murat had advanced too rapidly : Mortier, whether drawn along by Murat's movement, or whether he had not given General Dupont instructions sufficiently precise, had left the interval of a march be- tween Gazan's division, which he had with him, and Dupont's and Dumonceau's divisions, which were to join him. The flotilla, difficult to collect, was left far behind. Meanwhile, Napoleon, quick at discovering negligences, hastened to Molk, and, guessing the danger of Marshal Mortier, though not yet apprized of it, he stopped Marshal Soult's corps, which Murat had wanted to take with him, and sent aides-de-camp to Murat and Lannes to slacken their movement. He was fearful not only of what might happen to the corps thrown upon the left bank of the Da- nube, but what might befall the advanced- guard itself, imprudently carried into the de- files of the Kahlenberg. Nowhere are faults so speedily punished as in war, for nowhere do causes and effects so speedily follow each other. The Russians, guided, upon the Austrian territory, by an officer of the Austrian staff of the highest merit, Colonel Schmidt, soon perceived the existence of a solitary French division on the left bank of the Danube, and resolved to cut it off. Feeling secure, from the destruction of the bridge of Krems, which prevented the French army from coming to the assistance of the compromised division, not perceiving a mass of boats which might make amends for the want' of a bridge, they halted to procure for themselves an apparently easy triumph. Gazan's division numbered scarcely 5000 men; the Russians, since their separation from the Austrians, were still nearly 40,000. The ground was favourable to their designs. The Danube, at this point, runs between steep banks, contracted by the mountains of Bohemia on the one hand, and by the Alps of Styria on the other. From Dirnstein to Stein and to Krems, the road on the left bank, nar- row, frequently hewn out of the rock, is bor- dered by the Danube and the mountains, which Duke of Treviso, and served in Spain, where he took Ba- dajos. He fought well at Dresden and Lutzen in the campaign of 1813, and in 1814 at Monlmirail, Troyes, and under the walls of Paris. Illness prevented his serving at Waterloo. He was killed by the discharge of the in- fernal machine prepared for the destruction of Louil Philippe in 1836. Court and Camp of Napoleon H Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 75 overlook the river. It is difficult for carriages, eyes, not one, either officer or soldier, ever Marshal Mortier, who was marching upon it thought of capitulating. To die to the last with Gazan's division, had, therefore, put into j man rather than surrender was the only alter- boats the only battery that he had at his dis- I native which presented itself to these brave posal. The horses, led by hand, followed the | fellows, so heroic was the spirit which an- ' imated this army ! Marshal Mortier thought like his soldiers, and like them he was resolved to perish rather than surrender his marshal's sword to the Russians. He therefore ordered division. On the llth of November, while Murat, on the right bank, was running to the gates of Vienna, Mortier, on the left bank, had passed Dirnstein, where are the ruins of a castle in which Richard Cceur de Lion was kept pri- soner. At this point of Dirnstein, the moun- tains recede a little, and leave a space be- tween their foot and the river. The road runs them to march in close column and to force their way with the bayonet, while retreating to Dirnstein, where they should be rejoined by Dupont's division. It was dark. The battle which they had fought with the Russians in through this space, sometimes imbedded in the ' the morning was renewed in the obscurity of ground, sometimes raised above it by a cause- ' night, but in an opposite direction. Again way. The French division, having entered ' they were engaged hand to hand in this nar- upon this road, perceived the smoke of the bridge of Krems, which was still burning. Presently it descried the Russians, and con- jectured that they had passed the Danube over this bridge. Without considering what there might be before it, impelled by the ardour common to the whole army, it thought only of pushing forward and of fighting. Mortier gave the order for it, which was instantly ex- ecuted. An officer of artillery, since General Fabvier, who commanded the battery attached to Gazan's division, had his pieces landed and placed them in position. The Russians ad- vanced in a close mass towards the French division. The fire of the artillery made dread- ful havoc in their ranks. They rushed upon the guns to take them. The infantry of the 100th and 103d regiments of the line defended them with extreme vigour. A most obstinate fight, hand to hand, ensued in this narrow road. The cannon were taken, but immedi- ately retaken. No sooner were they wrested from the Russians, than they were fired at them, almost close to the muzzles, with terri- bly destructive effect. The French, posted on the slightest rising grounds, kept up a fire of musketry, which did not less execution than their artillery. The fight was kept up at this point for half a day, and, to judge from the wounded found on the morrow, the enemy must have sustained great loss. Fifteen hun- dred prisoners were taken. The French were at last left masters of the ground, and thought that they might rest themselves there. They had advanced while fighting as far as Stein. The 4th light, spread over the heights which overlook the river, kept up a well-sus- tained tirailleur fire, which became every mo- ment more and more brisk. The cause of it, which it had been at first difficult to account for, was soon explained. The Russians had turned the heights. With two columns, form- ing a mass of twelve or fifteen thousand men, they had descended on the rear of Gazan's division and entered Dirnstein, through which this division had passed in the morning. It was, therefore, enveloped and separated from Dupont's division, which had been left a march behind. No part of the flotilla was to be seen on the Danube, and consequently they had very little, hope of escape left them. Night was approaching ; the situation was frightful, and no doubt they should have a whole army upon them. In this extremity, evident to all row road, the men being so close that they frequently seized each other by the throat. While fighting in this manner, the French gained ground towards Dirnstein. However, after penetrating through several masses of enemies, they began to despair of accomplish- ing their object, or of opening themselves a passage that was incessantly closed again. Some of Mortier's officers, perceiving no fur- ther chance of saving themselves, proposed to him to embark alone, and to withdraw his person at least from the Russians, that such a trophy as a marshal of France might not be left in their hands. " No," replied the illustrious marshal, " we must not forsake such brave fellows. We must be saved or perish with them." There he was sword in hand, fighting at the head of his grenadiers, and making repeated assaults to get back to Dirnstein, when, all at once, a most violent firing was heard in the rear of Dirnstein. Hope instantly revived, for, according to all probabilities, this must be Du- pont's division arriving. In fact, that brave division, which had marched all day, had learned in advancing, the dangerous situation of Marshal Mortier, and was hastening to his assistance. General Marchand, with the 9th light, supported by the 96th and 32d regiments of the line, the same that had distinguished themselves at Haslach, plunged into that gorge. Some pushed on direct for Dirnstein, others entered the ravines which descend from the mountains, to drive back the Russians. A battle, quite as obstinate as that which the sol- diers of Gazan's division were at this moment fighting, ensued in these defiles. At length, the 9th light penetrated to Dirnstein, while Marshal Mortier was entering on the opposite side. The two columns rejoined and recog- nised each other, by the fire-light. The sol- diers embraced one another, overjoyed at hav- ing escaped such a disaster. The losses were cruel on both sides, but the glory was not equal, for 5000 French had re- sisted more than 30,000 Russians, and had saved their colours by fighting their way through. These are examples which ought for ever to be recommended to a nation. Sol diers who have resolved to die can always save their honour, and frequently succeed in saving their liberty and their lives. Marshal Mortier found in Dirnstein the 1500 prisoners whom he had taken in the morning. 76 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. The Russians lost, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about 4000 men. In that number was Colonel Schmidt. The enemy could not sustain a more severe loss, and they soon had reason to regret it bitterly. The French num- bered 3000 men hors de combat, either killed or wounded. Half of the effective force of Ga- zan's division had fallen. When Napoleon, who was at Molk, learned the issue of this rencounter, he was relieved from the apprehensions which he had enter- tained of the entire destruction of Gazan's di- vision. He was delighted with the conduct of Marshal Mortier and his soldiers, and he sent the most signal rewards to the two divisions of Gazan and Dupont He recalled them to the right bank of the Danube, to give time for their wounds to heal, and destined Bernadotte to succeed them on the left bank. He cen- sured Murat for the un connectedness which had prevailed in the different columns of the army. The character of Napoleon was indul- gent, his mind stern. He preferred simple, solid, sedate bravery to brilliant bravery, though he employed all sorts, such as nature presented them to him, in his armies. He was in general severe towards Murat, whose levity, ostentation, and restless ambition, he disliked, though at the same time he did jus- tice to his excellent heart and his transcen- dent courage. "My cousin," he wrote to him, "I cannot approve of your manner of marching. You go like a hare-brained fellow, without weighing the orders that I send you. The Rus- sians, instead of covering Vienna, have re- crossed the Danube at Krems. This extraordi- nary circumstance ought to have suggested to you that you could not act without fresh instruc- tions. Without knowing what plans the ene- my may have, or inquiring what was my plea- sure in this new order of things, you go and draw away my army towards Vienna. You have consulted only the petty vanity of enter- ing Vienna. There is no glory but where there is danger. There is none in entering a defenceless capital." (Molk,the llth of Novem- ber.) Murat, on this occasion, expiated the faults of everybody. He had, it is true, marched too rapidly ; but, had he remained before Krems, without bridges and without boats, he would have been of no great assistance to Mortier, who had been compromised chiefly by the distance left between Dupont' s and Ga- zan's divisions, by the absence of the flotilla. Murat was deeply grieved. Napoleon, ap- prized by his aide-de-camp, Bertrand, of his brother-in-law's affliction, corrected by a few soothing expressions the effect of this harsh reprimand. Napoleon, desirous at the moment of deriv- ing advantage from the very fault of Murat, enjoined him, since he was in sight of Vienna, not to enter it, but to go along the walls and seize the great bridge of the Danube, which is thrown across that river, outside the suburbs This bridge occupied, Napoleon further directed him to advance with all expedition upon the road to Moravia, in order to arrive before the Russians at the point where the road from Krems joins the high road to Olmutz. If he secured the bridge and marched rapidly, it might be possible to cut off the retreat of Ge- neral Kutusof towards Moravia, and to subject lira to a disaster nearly equal to that of Ge- neral Mack. Murat had now an opportunity to repair his faults, and he seized it eagerly. Still it was scarcely to be supposed that the Austrians had committed such a blunder as to leave standing the bridges of Vienna, which must render the French masters of both banks of the river, or that, if they had left them standing, they had not made every preparation for destroying them at the first signal. No- thing, therefore, was more doubtful than the operation wished for rather than ordered by Napoleon. The Austrians had no intention to defend Vienna. That fine and large capital has a regular enclosure, that which resisted the Turks in 1683, and as, in time, the city in- creased too much to remain shut up in that space, and extensive suburbs arose all round it, the whole was encompassed with a wall of no great height, in the form of redans, sur- rounding the whole of the ground built upon. All this was but a slight defence, for the wall which covers the suburbs was easy to force; and, once master of the suburbs, one might, with a few shells, oblige the body of the place to surrender. The Emperor Francis had charged Count Wurbna, a discreet and con- ciliatory man, to receive the French, and to concert with them for the peaceable posses- sion of the capital. But it was decided that the passage of the river should be disputed. Vienna is situated at a certain distance from the Danube, which runs to the left of that city, between wooded islands. The great bridge, of wood, crossing several arms of the river, forms a communication from one bank to the other. The Austrians had placed combustibles under the flooring of the bridge, and were ready to blow it up the moment that the French should make their appearance. They were posted on the left bank, with their artillery pointed, and a corps of seven or eight thou- sand men, commanded by Count Auersper?. Murat had approached near to the bridge, without entering the city, which, owing to the localities, it was easy to do. At this moment the rumour, of an armistice was universally circulated. Napoleon, having arrived at the palace of Schiinbrunn, situated on the high road, before you come to Vienna, had been wailed upon by a deputation of the inhabitants of that capital, who had hastened thither to implore his clemency. He received them with all the attentions due to an excellent people, and from civilized nations towards each other. He had also received and ap- peared to listen to M. Giulay, who came to repeat the overtures previously made at Linz. The idea of an armistice, appearing likely to lead to peace, had, therefore, spread rapidly. Napoleon had, at the same time, sent General Bertrand to renew the order to Murat and Lannes to get possession of the bridges if pos- sible. Murat and Lannes needed no spurring. They had placed Oudinot's grenadiers behind the umbrageous plantations that border the Danube, and advanced themselves with some NOT. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 77 aides-de-camp to the tcte de pont. General Bertrand and an officer of the engineers, Co- lonel Dode de la Brunerie, had repaired thither also. A wooden barrier closed this tele de pont. Orders were given to throw it down. Behind,] at some distance, was posted an hussar, as I vidette, who fired his carbine, and galloped off. He was followed over the long and sinu- ous line of the small bridges thrown across the several arms of the river, till his pursuers came to the great bridge over the principal arm. Instead of planks, nothing was to be j seen but a bed of fascines spread on the floor- ing. At that very moment an Austrian sub- ; officer of artillery appeared with a match in I his hand. Colonel Dode seized and slopped him just as he was about to fire the train com- ' municating with the fire-works placed under the arches. In this manner the French officers reached the other bank : they addressed the Austrian artillerymen, told them that an armis- tice was signed, or on the point of being signed, that peace was negotiating, and desired to speak with the general, commanding the troops. The Austrians, taken by surprise, hesitated, and conducted General Bertrand to Count Auersperg. Meanwhile, a column of grenadiers advanced by Murat's order. It could not be seen, ; owing to the large trees by the river, and the ; windings of that route, which alternately cross- , ed bridges and wooded islands. While awaiting their arrival, the French chiefs continued to converse with the Austrians under the mouths of their cannon. All at once the long-con- cealed column of grenadiers came in sight. ! The Austrians, beginning to perceive that they had been tricked, prepared to fire. Lannes and Murat, with the officers who accompanied them, rushed upon the gunners, talked to them, made them hesitate afresh, and thus gave the column time to come up. The grenadiers at length fell upon the cannon, seized them, and disarmed the Austrians. Meanwhile, Count Auersperg came up ac- companied by General Bertrand and Colonel Dode. He was painfully surprised to see the bridge in the hands of the French, and these collected in considerable number on the left bank of the Danube. He had some thousands of infantry left to dispute the possession of: what they had wrested from him. But the | French officers repeated to him all the stories j by which they had already lulled the guard of, the bridge, and persuaded him that he ought' to retire with his soldiers to a certain distance from the river. Besides, fresh French troops were every moment arriving, and it was too late to resort to force. M. Auersperg therefore withdrew, agitated, confounded, appearing scarcely to comprehend what had just occurred. It was by means of this audacious trick, seconded by the unparalleled courage of those who played it, and with complete success, that the bridges of Vienna fell into our hands. Four years later, for want of these bridges, the passage of the Danube cost us sanguinary battles, which had wellnigh proved fatal to us. The joy of Napoleon, on hearing of this success, was extreme. He thought no longer of snubbing Murat, but sent him off immedi- ately, with the reserve cavalry, the corps of Lannes, and that of Marshal Soult, to proceed by the road of Stockerau and Hollabrunn, to cut off the retreat of General Kutusof. Having despatched these orders, he directed all his attention to the police of Vienna and the military occupation of that capital. It was a glorious triumph to enter that ancient metropolis of the Germanic empire, in the bosom of which the enemy had never ap- peared but as master. During the last two centuries considerable wars had been waged, memorable battles won and lost, but never had a great general been yet seen planting his standard in the capitals of mighty States. Men were obliged to go back to the times of the conquerors to find examples of such vast results. Napoleon, for his part, took up his abode at the imperial palace of Schonbrunn. He gave the command of the city of Vienna to Gene- ral Clarke, and left the police to the city mili- tia. He ordered and enforced the observance of the strictest military discipline, and suf- fered no property to be touched but the public property, such as the chests of the govern- ment and the arsenals. The great arsenal of Vienna contained immense stores 100,000 muskets, 2000 pieces of cannon, ammunition of every kind. It was surprising that the Emperor Francis bad not caused it to be eva- cuated by means of the Danube. Possession was taken of all that it contained for the ac- count of the army. Napoleon then distributed his forces in such a manner as to guard the capital duly, and to observe the road from the Alps by which the archdukes might soon arrive, that of Hungary, by which they might come somewhat later, lastly, that of Moravia, on which the Russians were in force. We have seen that he had despatched General Marmont by the Leoben road, to occupy the pass of the Alps, and Marshal Davout by the road of St. Gaming, to turn the position of St. Pollen. The latter laboriously climbed the steepest mountains amidst the snow and ice of a precocious winter, and, thanks to the de- votedness of the soldiers and the energy of the officers, he had surmounted all obstacles, when, near Mariazell, on the high road from Leoben to St. Piilten, he fell in with the corps of General Meerfeld in flight from General Marmont. An action of the same kind that Massena had formerly fought in the Alps, im- mediately ensued between the French and the Austrians. Marshal Davout overthrew the latter, took from them 4000 men, and drove the rest in disorder into the mountains. He then descended upon Vienna. General Mar- mont, on reaching Leoben, almost without striking a blow, halted there and waited for new instructions from the Emperor. Events were not less favourable in the Ty- rol and Italy. Marshal Ney, sent, after the occupation of Ulm, to take possession of the Tyrol, had luckily chosen the debtnu-M of Scharnits, the Por/a Clawiin of the ancients, for penetrating into it. This was one of the G 2 78 HISTORY OF THE [Nov. 1805. most difficult passes of that country, but it had the advantage of leading straight to Ins- pruck, amidst the dispersed troops of the Aus- trians, which, not expecting this attack, were scattered from the Lake of Constance to the sources of the Drave. Marshal Ney had not more than nine or ten thousand men, intrepid soldiers like their commander, and with whom any thing might be undertaken. He made them scale in the month of November the highest peaks of the Alps, in spite of the rocks, which the inhabitants tumbled upon their heads ; for the Tyrolese, strongly attached to the House of Austria, would not be subjects of Bavaria, to which they were threatened to be transferred. He stormed the entrench- ments of Scharnitz, entered Inspruck, dis- persed the surprised Austrians, and drove some of them into the Vorarlberg, the others into Italian Tyrol. General Jellachich and Prince de Rohan were beaten back towards the Vorarlberg, and from the Vorarlberg towards the Lake of Constance, along the very route by which Augereau was coming. As though Fate had decreed that none of the wrecks of the army of Ulm should escape the French, General Jellachich, the same who at the surrender of Memmingen had evaded the pursuit of Marshal Soult, came full butt upon Augereau's corps. Seeing no chance of escape, he laid down his arms with a de- tachment of 6000 men. The Prince de Ro- han, less advanced towards the Vorarlberg, had time to fall back. He made an audacious march through the cantonments of our troops, which, after the taking of Inspruck, were neg- ligently guarding the Brenner, beguiled the vigilance of Loison, one of Marshal Ney's divisionary generals, passed close to Botzen, almost before his eyes, and then fell upon Ve- rona and Venice, while Massena was pursu- ing the rear of the Archduke Charles. Mas- sena had charged General St. Cyr, with the troops brought back from Naples, to blockade Venice, in which the Archduke Charles had left a strong garrison. General St. Cyr, asto- nished at the presence of a hostile corps on the rear of Massena, when the latter was al- ready at the foot of the Julian Alps, marched with the utmost expedition, and enveloped the Prince de Rohan, who was obliged, like Gene- ral Jellachich, to lay down his arms. On this occasion General St. Cyr took about 5000 men. Meanwhile, the Archduke Charles was con- tinuing his arduous retreat through the Friule and beyond the Julian Alps. His brother, the Archduke John, passing from the Italian Tyrol into Carinthia, followed in the interior of the Alps a line exactly parallel to his. The two archdukes, despairing with reason of arriving in useful time atone of the defensive positions of the Danube, and judging it too rash to fall upon the flank of Napoleon, had decided to meet at Layback, the one by Villach, the other by Udine, and then to proceed to Hungary. There they might with the utmost safety join the Russians who occupied Moravia, and, having effected their junction with these latter, they might resume the offensive, if the allied armies had not been compromised by any fault, and if the two sovereigns of Austria and Russia had still the courage to prolong the contest. General Marmont, placed in advance of Leoben, on the crests which separate the val- ley of the Danube from that of the Drave, almost saw with mortification the troops of the Archduke John filing away before him, and burned with impatience to fight them. But a precise order chained his ardour, and enjoined him to confine himself to guarding the defiles of the Alps. Massena, after pursuing the Archduke Charles as far as the Julian Alps, had halted at the foot of them, and conceived that he ought not to venture into Hungary in pursuit of the archdukes. He gave a hand to General Marmont, and waited for orders from the Em- peror. All these movements were finished by the middle of November, nearly at the same time that the grand army was performing its march upon Vienna. Assuredly, if one had devised a plan in the tranquillity qf the closet, with the facilities which abound for tracing projects on the map, one would not have arranged mat- ters with greater ease. In six weeks that army, passing the Rhine and the Danube, in- terposing between the Austrian posts in Suabia and the Russians arriving upon the Inn, had enveloped the one, beaten back the other, sur- prised the Tyrol by a detachment, then oc- cupied Vienna, and turned the position of the archdukes in Italy, which had obliged the lat- ter to seek refuge in Hungary. History no- where presents such another spectacle : in twenty days from the Ocean to the Rhine, in. forty from the Rhine to Vienna! And though separations of forces, so dangerous in war, are most frequently attended with reverses only; here corps had been seen detached to a dis- tance, which, without running any risk, had accomplished their object, because at the cen- tre a mighty mass, striking opportunely deci- sive blows at the principal bodies assembled by the enemy, had imparted an impulsion to which every thing gave way, and had not left, either upon its rear or upon its wings, any consequences which might not easily be ga- thered : so that this dispersion was, in reality, nothing but a skilful distribution of accesso- ries beside the principal action, regulated with wonderful precision. But, after admiring that profound, that incomparable art, which aston- ishes by its very simplicity, we must admire also in this manner of operating another con- dition, without which every combination, how- ever judicious, may become a peril that is, such a vigour in the soldiers and lieutenants that, when they were overtaken by an unfore- seen accident, they knew how, by their energy, as the soldiers of General Dupont at Haslach, of Marshal Mortier at Dirnstein, of Marshal Ney at Elchingen, to give the supreme intelli- gence which directed them time to come to their assistance, and to repair the inevitable errors in even the best conducted operations. Let us repeat what we have already remarked a great captain wants valiant soldiers, and valiant soldiers want in like manner a great captain. The glory ought to be theirs in com. Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 79 mon, as well as the merit of the great things which they accomplish. Napoleon, at Vienna, would not feast him- self there with the vain-glory of occupying the capital of the Germanic empire. He wanted to put an end to the war. If he can be reproached with having in his career abused fortune, he will never be reproached, like Hannibal, with not having known how to take advantage of it, and with having fallen asleep amidst the delights of Capua. He pre- pared, therefore, to speed his march against the Russians, in order to beat them in Moravia, before they had time to effect their junction with the archdukes. These, however, on the 15th of November, had proceeded no further than Laybach. They would have to make a very great circuit to reach Hungary, then to traverse it, and to enter Moravia towards 01- miltz. This was a long march of more than 150 leagues to make. Twenty days would not have sufficed for it. Napoleon, at this period, was at Vienna, and had only 40 leagues to travel to reach Briinn, ihe capital of Moravia. He drew nearer to him General Marmont, who was too far off, and assigned to him a position a little in rear, on the very summit of the Alps of Styria, in order to guard the high road from Italy to Vienna. He enjoined him, in case the archdukes should attempt to take that way back, to destroy the bridges, and to break up the roads, which, in the moun- tains, enables a corps that is not numerous to stop a superior enemy for some time. He forbade him to give way to the desire to fight, unless he was forced to do so. He drew Mas- sena towards General Marmont, and put them into immediate communication with each other. The troops commanded by Massena thenceforward assumed the title of the eighth corps of the grand army. Napoleon placed the corps of Marshal Davout all round Vienna ; one division, that of General Gudiu, in rear of Vienna, towards Neustadt, where it could in a short time give a hand to Marmont; an- other, that of General Friant, in the direction of Presburg, observing the debouches of Hun- gary ; the third that of General Bisson (which had become Caffarelli's division) in advance of Vienna, on the road to Moravia. Dupont's and Gazan's division were established in Vienna itself, to recover from their fatigues and their wounds. Lastly, Marshals Soult, Lannes, and Murat marched towards Moravia, while Marshal Bernadotte, having passed the Danube at Krems, followed the track of Gene- ral Kutusof, and was preparing to rejoin, by the same route which that general had taken, the three French corps that were going to fight the Russians. Thus Napoleon at Vienna, in the centre of a web skilfully spread around him, could give assistance wherever the slightest agitation might indicate the presence of the enemy. If the archdukes attempted any thing towards Italy, Massena and Marmont, in connection with one another, were backed upon the Alps of Styria, and Napoleon, marching Davout's corps towards Neustadt, was in force to sup- port them. If the archdukes advanced by way of Presburg and Hungary, Napoleon, could de- spatch thither Davout's entire corps, a little after Marmont, who, at Neustadt, was not far off, and, in case of need, hasten thither him- self, with the bulk of the army. Lastly, if it were necessary to make head against the Rus- sians in Moravia, he could in three days unite with the corps of Soult, Lannes, and Murat, which were already there, that of Davout, easily withdrawn from Vienna, and that of Bernadotte, quite as easily brought back from Bohemia. He was, therefore, duly prepared on every side, and fulfilled in the highest de- gree the conditions of that art of war which, in conversation with his lieutenants, he defined in these terms: THE ART OF DIVIDING ONE'S SELF TO SUBSIST, AND OF CONCENTRATING ONE'S SELF TO FIGHT. Never have the precepts of that formidable art which destroys or founds empires been better defined or better practised. Napoleon had hastened to avail himself of the conquest of the bridges of Vienna, to send Marshals Soult, Lannes, and Murat beyond the Danube, in the hope of cutting off the retreat of General Kutusof, and arriving before him at Hollabriinn, where that general, who had passed the Danube at Krems, would strike off into the road to Moravia. General Kutusof directed his inarch towards Moravia, and not towards Bohemia, because it was upon Ol- miitz, the frontier of Moravia and Gallicia, that the second Russian army was directing its course. While he was advancing upon Hollabriin, having Prince Bagration at the head, he was astonished and dismayed on learning the presence of the French on the high road which he designed to follow, and thus acquiring the certainty of being cut off. He then laid the same snare for Murat which Murat had laid for the Austrians, in order to take from them the bridges of the Danube. He had with him General Winzingerode, the same who had negotiated all the conditions of the plan of the campaign. He despatched him to Murat to retail to him the inventions by which Count Auersperg had been deceived, and which consisted in saying that there were no negotiators at Schonbrunn on the point of signing a peace. In consequence, he directed an armistice to be proposed to. him, the prin cipal condition of which was to halt both of them on the ground which they occupied, so that nothing whatever should be changed by the suspension of the operations. If they were to be resumed, six hours' notice was to be given. Murat, artfully flattered by M. de Winzingerode, proud, moreover, of the honour of being the first intermediate agent of the peace, accepted the armistice, saving the ap- probation of the Emperor. We mast add, in order to be just, that a consideration, which was not without weight, contributed greatly to lead him into this false step. The corps of Marshal Soult was not yet on the ground, and he was fearful that, with his cavalry and Ou- dinot's grenadiers, he should not have a suffi- cient force to bar the way against the Rus- sians. He despatched, therefore, an aide-de- camp to the head-quarters with the draft of the armistice. Next day the commanders on both sides visited one another. Prince Bagration went 80 HISTORY OH 1HE [Nov. 1805 to see Murat, and manifested great interest and curiosity respecting the French generals, and especially respecting the illustrious Mar- shal Lannes. The latter, simple in his man- ners, without being on that account deficient in military courtesy, told Prince Bagration that if he had been alone they should have been at that moment fighting instead of ex- changing compliments. At this moment, in fact, the Russian army, covering itself with Bagration's rear-guard, which affected to keep motionless, marched rapidly behind this cur- tain and regained the road to Moravia. Thus Murat, duped in his turn, gave the enemy oc- casion to revenge himself for the bridge of Vienna. Presently there arrived an aide-de-camp of the Emperor's, Gen eral Lemarrois, who brought a severe reprimand to Murat for the fault that he had committed,' and which gave an order, as well to him as to Marshal Lannes, to attack immediately, whatever the hour might be at which this communication reached them. Lannes, however, took care to send an officer to Prince Bagration to acquaint him with the orders which he had just received. Disposi- tions for attack were instantly made. Prince Bagration had seven or eight thousand men. Determined to cover completely the movement of Kutusof, he took the noble resolution to pe- rish rather than stir from the spot. Lannes pushed his grenadiers upon him. The only disposition that was possible was that of two lines of infantry, deployed facing one another, and attacking on nearly level ground. For some time they exchanged a very brisk and very destructive fire of musketry, then charged * with the bayonet, and, what is rare in war, the two masses of infantry marched resolutely to- wards each other, without either giving way before they met. They closed, and then, after a fight, man to man, Oudinot's grenadiers broke Bagration's foot-soldiers and cut them in pieces. They then disputed, till after night- fall, by the light of the flames, the burning village of Schiingraben, which was finally left in the hands of the French. The Russians behaved valiantly. They lost on this occasion nearly half their rear-guard, about 3000 men, more than 1500 of whom strewed the field of battle. Prince Bagration had proved himself by his resolution the worthy rival of Marshal Mortier at Dirnstein. This sanguinary action was fought on the 16th of November. The French advanced on the following days, taking prisoners at every step, and at length entered, on the 19th, the town of Briinn, the capital of Moravia. The place was found armed and provided with abundant resources. The enemy had not even thought of defending it. They thus abandoned to Napoleon an im- portant position, where he commanded Mo- ravia, and could at his ease observe and await the movements of the Russians. Napoleon, on receiving intelligence of this last combat, resolved to proceed to Briinn, for, the news from Italy announcing the protracted retreat which the archdukes were making into Hungary, he concluded that it would be with the Russians that he should chiefly have to do. He made some slight changes in the distribu- tion of Marshal Davout's corps around Vienna. He despatched towards Presburg Gudin's divi- sion, which seemed to be no longer necessary on the road to Styria, since the retreat of the archdukes. He established Friant's division, belonging to the same corps, in advance of Vienna, on the road to Moravia. Bisson's divi- sion (which had for a moment become CafFa- relli's) was detached from Davout's corps and marched to Briinn, to supply in Lannes' corps the place of Gazan's division, left at Vienna. Napoleon, on his arrival at Briinn, fixed his head-quarters there on the 20th of November. General Giulay, accompanied this time by M. de Stadion, came to visit him again, and to talk of peace more seriously than in his pre- ceding missions. Napoleon expressed to both of them a desire to lay aside arms and return to France, but did not leave them in ignorance of the conditions on which he should consent to do so. He would no longer, he said, allow Italy, divided between France and Austria, to continue to be a subject of jealousy and war between them. He was resolved to have the whole of it as far as the Isonzo, that is to say, he required the Venetian States, the only part of Italy which remained for him to conquer. He entered into no explanations respecting what he should have to demand for his allies, the Electors of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden ; but he declared in general terms that he must secure their situation in Germany, and put an end to all the questions left pend- ing between them and the emperor, since the new Germanic constitution of 1803. Mes- sieurs de Stadion and De Giulay cried out vehemently against the hardness of these con- ditions. But Napoleon showed no disposition to depart from them, and he gave them to understand that, wholly engrossed by the du- ties of war, he had no desire to keep about him negotiators, who were in reality nothing but military spies, directed to watch his move- ments. He therefore recommended to them to go to Vienna, to M. de Talleyrand, who had just arrived there. Napoleon, caring little about the tastes of his minister, who was not fond either of business or of the fatigues of head-quarters, had first summoned him to ' u To PRINCB MURAT. " SchSnbrunn, 25 Brumaire, year XIV., "November 16, 1805, eight in the morning. "It is impossible to find terms to express my displeasure. You command only my advanced-guard, and yon have no right to make an armistice without my order. You cause me to lose the fruit of a campaign. Break the armistice immediately and march against the enemy. Send and declare to him that the general who signed that capitula- tion had no right to do it; that none but the Emperor of Russia has that right. " If, however, the Emperor of Russia would ratify the snid convention, I would ratify it; but it is only a strata- gem. March; destroy the Russian army; you are in a position to take the baggage and its artillery. The aide- de-camp of the Emperor of Russia is a Officer! are nothing when they have not powers : this had none. The Austrians let themselves be duped for the passage of the bridge of Vienna, you let yourself be duped by an aide-de-camp of the emperor." Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 81 Strasburg, then to Munich, and now to Vienna. He shifted to him those interminable parleys, which in negotiations always precede serious results. During the conferences which Napoleon had held with the two Austrian negotiators, one of them, unable to contain himself, had dropped an imprudent word, from which it might evi- dently be inferred that Prussia was bound by a treaty with Russia and Austria. Something of that kind had been intimated to him from Berlin, but nothing so precise as what he had just learned. This discovery suggested new reflections, and rendered him more disposed to peace, without, however, inducing him to desist from his essential pretensions. It could not suit him to follow the Russians beyond Moravia, that is to say into Poland, for that would be running the risk of seeing the arch- dukes cut off his communications with Vi- enna. In consequence, he resolved to await the arrival of M. de Haugwitz and the further development of the military projects of the Russians. He was equally ready either to treat, if the proposed conditions seems accept- able to him, or to cut in a great battle the Gordian knot of the coalition, if his enemies afforded a favourable occasion for it He therefore suffered a few days to elapse, employ- ing himself in studying with extreme care, and in making his generals study, the ground upon which he was, and upon which a secret presentiment told him that he might be fated to fight a decisive battle. At the same time, he rested his troops, worn out with fatigue, suffer- ing from cold, sometimes from hunger, and having traversed in three months nearly 500 leagues. Hence the ranks of his soldiers were much thinned, though fewer stragglers were seen among them than in the train of any army. The effectives had lost nearly one- fifth, since taking the field. All military men will acknowledge that this was very little after such fatigues. For the rest, whenever the army halted anywhere, the ranks were soon completed, owing to the anxiety of the men who remained behind to rejoin their corps. The two emperors of Russia and Germany, on their part, meeting at Olmutz, employed their time in deliberating upon the course which they ought to pursue. General Kutu- sof, after a retreat, in which he had sustained only rear-guard defeats, nevertheless brought back no more than thirty andodd thousand men, already inured to fighting, but exhausted with fatigue. He had, therefore, lost twelve or fifteen thousand killed, wounded, prisoners, or lame. Alexander, with Buxhovden's corps and the imgerial Russian guard, brought 40,000, which made about 75,000 Russians. Fifteen thou- sand Austrians, comprising the wrecks of Kienmayer's and Meerfeld's corps, and a fine division of cavalry, completed the Austro- Russian army beneath Olmutz, and made it amount to a total force of 90,000 men. 1 This is a fit place for remarking how exag- 1 The R;is>i ins made it amount to much less the day after their defeat, Napoleon to much more in his bulle- tin*. After comparing a great number of testimonies and authentic accounts, we think that we here give the most accurate statement. VOL. II. 11 gerated were at that time the pretensions of Russia in Europe, on comparing them with the real state of her forces. She affected to hold the balance between the powers, and the real number of soldiers brought by her upon the fields of battle where the destinies of the world were decided, was as follows : She had sent from 45 to 50 thousand men, under Kutu- sof, she brought 40,000 under Buxhovden and the Grand-duke Constantine, and 10,000 under General Essen. If we set down those acting in the north with the Swedes and the English at 15,000, and those preparing to act towards Naples at 10,000, we shall have a total of 125,000 men, figuring in reality in this war, and 100,000 at most, if we are to believe the accounts of the Russians after their defeat. Austria had assembled more than 200,000, Prussia could bring into line 150,000, France, by herself, 300,000. We do not speak of soldiers rated on the effectives, (which makes a difference of nearly half,) but of soldiers present in the fire on the day of battle. Though the Russians were steady infantry, yet it was not with 100,000 men, brave and ignorant, that one could then pretend to control Europe. The Russians, always extremely contemptu- ous towards their allies the Austrians, whom they accused of being cowardly soldiers, in- capable officers, continued to commit horrible ravages in the country. The eastern provinces of the Austrian monarchy were afflicted with dearth. Necessaries ran short at Olmiitz, and the Russians procured themselves provisions, not with the dexterity of the French soldier, an intelligent, rarely cruel, marauder, but with the brutality of a savage horde. They ex- tended their pillage to the distance of several leagues round, and completely laid waste the country which they occupied. Discipline, usually so strict among them, was visibly affected by it, and they appeared much dissat- isfied with their emperor. In the Austro-Russian camp, therefore, peo- ple were not disposed to take wise determina- tions. The levity of youth concurred with a feeling of great discomfort to impel them to act, no matter how, to change their place, were it merely for the sake of change. We have said that the Emperor Alexander began to fall under new influences. He was not satisfied with the direction given to his affairs; for this war, notwithstanding the flatteries with which a coterie had surrounded him at Berlin, did not seem to turn out well, and, according to the custom of princes, he was glad to throw upon his ministers the results of a policy which he had himself decreed, but which he could not uphold with the perseverance that could alone correct its faultiness. What had occurred at Berlin had confirmed him stili more in his dispositions. He should have committed very different faults, he said, if he had listened to his friends. By persisting tc do violence to Prussia, he should hav 'hrcwc her into the arms of Napoleon, whereas by his personal address he had induced that court to enter, on the contrary, into engage- ments which were equivalent to a declaration of war against France. Hence the young emoeror would no longer listen to advice, lor 82 HISTORY OF 'THE [Nov. 1805. he fancied himself more clever than his ad- visers. Prince Adam Czartoryski, honest, grave, having warm passions under a cold exterior, become, as we Lave seen, the trouble- some censor of the weaknesses and the fickle- ness of his master, supported an opinion which could not fail to alienate him completely. Ac- cording to this minister, the emperor had no business with the army. That was not his place. He had never served; he could not know how to command. His presence at the head-quarters, surrounded by young, giddy, ignorant, presumptuous men, would annul the authority of the generals, and at the same time their responsibility. In a war, into which they all entered with a certain apprehension, they desired nothing more than to have no opinion, to take nothing upon themselves, and to let hot-headed youth command, that they might no longer be responsible for the defeats which they expected. In this manner there would be nothing but the worst of commands for an army that of a court. This war, moreover, would be fertile in lost battles, and to main- tain it there was required perseverance, and perseverance depended on the magnitude of the means which should be provided. It was requisite, therefore, to leave the generals to act the part which belonged to them at the head of the troops, and for the emperor to per- form his at the centre of the government, by upholding the public spirit, by administering with energy and application, so as to furnish the armies with the necessary resources for prolonging the struggle, the only means, if not to conquer, at least to balance fortune. , It was impossible to express a sentiment either more sensible or more disagreeable to the Emperor Alexander. He had tried to play a political part in Europe, but had not yet suc- ceeded according to his wish. He found him- self hurried into a contest which would have filled him with dismay, if the remoteness of his empire had not cheered him. He had need to drown his thoughts in the tumult of camps ; he had need to silence the murmurs of his reason, by hearing himself called at Berlin, at Dres- den, at Weimar, at Vienna, the saviour of kings. This monarch, moreover, asked himself whe- ther he could not, in his turn, shine on fields of battle ; whether, with his intelligence, he might not have higher inspirations there than those old generals, whose experience impru- dent youth encouraged him too much to de- spise; lastly, whether he could not have his share in that glory of arms so dear to princes, and at that time exclusively decreed by fortune to a single individual and to a single nation. In these ideas he was confirmed by the mili- tary coterie which already surrounded him, and at the head of which was Prince Dolgorouki. This latter, in order to gain the better an as- cendency over the emperor, was desirous to draw him to the army. He strove to persuade him that he had the qualities for command, and that he had but to show himself in order to change the fortune of the war ; that his pre- sence would double the valour of the soldiers, by filling them with enthusiasm ; that his gene- rals were common-place men without abilities ; 'Jiat Napoleon had triumphed over their timi- dity and their antiquated science, but that he would not triumph so easily over a young no- bility, intelligent and devoted, led by an adored emperor. These warriors, such novices in the profession of arms, dared to maintain that at Dirnstein, at Hollabrunn, the Russians had con- quered the French, that the Austrians were cowards, that there were no brave men but the Russians, and that if Alexander would but come and animate them with his presence, they should soon put a stop to the arrogant and undeserved prosperity of Napoleon. The wily Kutusof ventured timidly to say that this was not absolutely the case ; but, too servile to maintain courageously his own opi- nion, he took care not to contradict the new possessors of the imperial favour, and had the meanness to permit his old experience to be insulted. The intrepid Bagration, the vicious but brave Miloradovich, the discreet Doctorow, were officers whose opinion deserved some attention. None of these men was heeded. A German adviser of the Archduke John at Hohenlinden, General Weirother, had alone a real authority over the military youth who sur- rounded Alexander. Since Frederick the Great, in the last century, had beaten the Austrian army by attacking it on one of its wings, the theory of oblique order, which Frederick had never thought of, had been invented, and to this theory had been attributed all the successes of that great man. Since General Bonaparte had shown himself so superior in the high com- binations of war, since he had been seen so often surprising, enveloping the generals op- posed to him, other commentators made the whole art of war consist in a certain manoau- vre, and talked about nothing but turning the enemy. They had invented, so they asserted, a naw science, and for this science a word then new, that of strategy, and they hastened to offer it to the princes who would submit to be directed by them. The German Weirother had persuaded the friends of Alexander that he had a plan, one of the most excellent and most sure, for destroying Napoleon. It consisted in a grand manoeuvre, by which they were to turn the Emperor of the French, cut him off from the road to Vienna, and throw him into Bohe- mia, beaten and separated for ever from the forces which he had in Austria and in Italy. The susceptible mind of Alexander was wholly won by these ideas, wholly under the influence of the Dolgoroukis, and showed no inclination to listen to Prince Czartoryski when the latter advised him to return to Pe- tersburg, and to govern there, instead of com- ing to fight battles in Moravia. Amidst this mutual agitation of the young court of Russia, the Emperor of Germany was scarcely thought of. Neither his army nor his person seemed to be held in any estimation. His army, it was said, had compromised at Ulm the issue of that war. As for himself, they were coming to his aid ; he ought to deem himself fortunate in being assisted, and not to ! interfere in any thing. It is true that he did not ! interfere in many things, and made no effort to stem this torrent of presumption. He looked \ for more lost battles, reckoned only upon time, i if he then reckoned upon any thing, and weighed, Nov. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 83 without saying so, what the silly pride of his allies was worth. This prince, simple and unostentatious, possessed the two great quali- ties of his government, shrewdness and con- stancy. It may easily be conceived in what manner the grave question which was to be resolved, that is, whether it was right to give battle to Napoleon or not, would be treated by so many vain minds. Those admirable pictures which antiquity has bequeathed to us, and which re- present the young Roman aristocracy doing violence by its silly presumption to the wisdom of Pompey, and obliging him to fight the battle of Pharsalia those pictures have nothing more grand, nothing more instructive, than what was passing at Olmiitz in 1805, about the Emperor Alexander. Everybody had an opinion on the question, whether a battle was to be sought or shunned, and everybody ex- pressed it. The coterie, at the head of which were the Dolgoroukis, had no hesitation. Ac- cording to it, not to fight would be a cowardice, and an egregious blunder. In the first place, there was no living any longer at Olmiitz ; the army was perishing there of want; it was be- coming demoralized. By remaining at Olmiitz, they relinquished to Napoleon not only the honour of the arms, but also three-fourths of the Austrian monarchy, and all the resources in which it abounded. By advancing, on the contrary, they should recover at one blow the means of subsistence, confidence, and the as- cendency, always so powerful, of the offensive. And then, was it not plain that the moment for changing parts had arrived; that Napoleon, usually so prompt, so pressing when pursuing his enemies, had suddenly stopped short, that he hesitated, that he was intimidated, for, fixed at Brunn, he durst not come to Olmiitz to meet the Russian army 1 It was what he thought at Dirnstein, at Hollabrunn ; it was because his army was shaken like himself. It was known, beyond the possibility of doubt, that it was worn out with fatigue, reduced one half, a prey to discontent and ever murmuring. Such was the language held by the young courtiers with incredible assurance. Some wise men, Prince Czartoryski, in particu- lar, quite as young, but far more conside- rate than the Dolgoroukis, opposed to them a small number of simple reasons that must have been decisive with minds which the strangest blindness had not completely be- wildered. In taking no account of those sol- diers who, after all, had remained masters of the ground at Dirnstein as well as at Holla- brunn, before whom the Russians had inces- santly fallen back from Munich to Olmiitz; by taking no account of that general who had conquered all the generals in Europe, the most experienced at least of all living captains, if he was not the greatest, for he had command- ed in a hundred battles, and his present adver- saries had never commanded in one ; in tak- ing no account either of these soldiers or of this general, there were two peremptory rea- sons for not being in haste. The first and the most striking was that, by waiting a few days longer, the month stipulated with Prussia would have elapsed, and that she would be obliged to declare herself. Who knows, iu fact, if in previously losing a great battle one may not furnish her with occasion to release herself! By allowing, on the contrary, the term of a month to expire, 150,000 Prussians would enter Bohemia, Napoleon would be obliged to fall back without our having to run j the risk of a battle with him. The second reason for delay is that, by giving a little time ' to the archdukes, they would arrive with 80,000 Austrians from Hungary, and one | might then fight Napoleon in the proportion 1 of two, perhaps three, to one. It was certainly difficult to live without provisions at Olmiitz, j but if it was true that they could not stay there a few days longer, the only thing that could be done was to march into Hungary to meet the archdukes. There they should find bread and a reinforcement of 80,000 men. By adding thus to the distances which Napoleon would have to traverse, they should oppose to him the most formidable of all obstacles. They had a proof of this truth in his inaction ever since he occupied Briinn. If he did not advance it was not because he was afraid to do so. Inexperienced soldiers only could pre- tend that such a man was afraid. If he did not advance, it was because he found the dis- tance already very great. He was, in fact, forty leagues beyond, not his capital, but that which he had conquered, and, in removing to a distance from it, he felt it tremble under his hand. What reply could be made to such reasons? Assuredly none. But with prejudiced minds the quality of reasons is of no effect. Evi- dence irritates instead of persuading them. It was decided, therefore, about Alexander that a battle must be fought. The Emperor Fran- cis assented to it on his part He had every thing to gain from a speedy decision of the question, for his country was suffering cruelly by the war, and he was not sorry to see the Russians pitted against the French and afford- ing occasion for an opinion to be formed of them in their turn. It was decided to leave the position of Olmiitz, which was very good, on which it would have been easy to repulse an assailing army, how superior soever in number, for the purpose of going to attack Napoleon in the position of Briinn, which he had been carefully studying for several days. The Russians marched in five columns by road from Olmiitz to Briinn in order to approach the French army. On arriving on the 18th of November at Wischau, one march from Briinn, they surprised an advanced-guard of cavalry and a small detachment of infantry, placed in that village by Marshal Soult. Three thousand horse were employed to sur- round them, and then, with a battalion of in- fantry the Russians penetrated into Wischau itself. About a hundred French prisoners I were picked up there. The aide-de-camp i Dolgorouki had the chief hand in this exploiu I The Emperor Alexander had been persuaded to be present, and was made to believe that j this skirmish was war, and that his presence j had doubled the valour of his soldiers. This slight advantage completely turned all the young heads of the Russian staff, and the r^ 84 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. solution to fight was thenceforward irrevoca- ble. Fresh observations of Prince Czar- toryski's were very unfavourably received. General Kutusof, under whose name the battle was to be fought, no longer commanded, and had the culpable weakness to adopt resolu- tions which he disapproved. It was agreed, then, to attack Napoleon in his position at Briinn, according to the plan which should be formed by General Weirother. Another march was made, and the Russians established them- selves in advance of the mansion of Aus- terlitz. Napoleon, who possessed extraordinary sa- gacity in guessing the designs of an enemy, was well aware that the allies were seeking a decisive engagement with him, and was highly pleased at it. His attention was nevertheless occupied with the projects of Prussia, which recent accounts from Berlin represented as definitively hostile, and with the movements of the Prussian army, which was advancing towards Bohemia. He had no time to lose : he wanted either an overwhelming battle or peace. He had no doubt of the result of a battle ; still peace would be the safer of the two. The Austrians proposed it with a certain appearance of sincerity, but always referring, on the subject of the conditions to the approval of Russia. Napoleon would fain have dis- covered what was passing in the head of Alexander, and sent his aide-de-camp, Savary, to the Russian head-quarters, to compliment that prince, to get into conversation with him, and to ascertain precisely what he desired. General Savary set out immediately, pre- sented himself with a flag of truce at the ad- vanced posts, and had some difficulty to gain access to the Emperor Alexander. While he was waiting to be introduced, he had oppor- tunities to judge of the dispositions of the young Muscovite nobles, of their silly infa- tuation, and of their desire to be present at a great battle. They counted upon nothing less than beating the French and driving their vanquished army to the frontiers of France. General Savary listened calmly to this lan- guage, was at length admitted to the Emperor, delivered his master's message, found him mild and polite, but evasive, and far from capable of appreciating the chances of the present war. On the repeated assurance that Napoleon was animated with very pacific dis- positions, Alexander inquired on what condi- tions peace would be possible. General Sa- vary was not prepared to answer, and advised the Emperor Alexander to send one of his aides-de-camp to the French head-quarters to confer with Napoleon. He affirmed that the result of this step would be most satisfactory. After much parleying, in which General Sa- vary, in the warmth of zeal, said more than he was commissioned to do, Alexander sent with him Prince Dolgorouki himself, the prin- cipal personage of the new coterie, which dis- puted the favour of the czar with Messieurs de Czartoryski, de Strogonoff, and de Novo- siltzoff. This Prince Dolgorouki, though one of the most vehement declaim ers of the Rus- sian staff, was nevertheless extraordinarily flattered to be charged with a commission to the Emperor of the French. He accompani^] General Savary, and was presented to Napo- leon at a moment when the latter, having just finished the inspection of his advanced posts, had about him nothing to strike a vulgar mind. Napoleon listened to this young man, destitute of tact and discretion, who had pick- ed up here and there some of the ideas with which the Russian cabinet feasted itself, and which we have recapitulated in explaining the plan of the new European balance of power, expressed them awkwardly, and lugged them in unseasonably. France, he declared, must, if she desired to have an immediate peace, and if she continued the war and was not successful, would be required to restore Bel- gium. Savoy, and Piedmont, to form defensive barriers around and against her. These ideas, clumsily expressed, appeared to Napoleon a formal demand of the immediate restitution of Belgium, ceded to France by so many treaties, and excited in him a violent irritation, which, however, he repressed, conceiving that his dignity did not permit him to give vent to it before such a negotiator. He dismissed him drily, observing that they should settle else- where than in diplomatic conferences the quarrel which divided the policy of the two empires. Napoleon was exasperated, and could think of nothing but fighting to the last extremity. Ever since the surprise at Wischau, he had drawn back his army into a position wonder- fully well chosen for fighting. He manifested in his movements a certain hesitation which contrasted with the accustomed boldness of his proceedings. This circumstance, coupled with the mission of Savary, contributed still further to work upon the weak understandings which swayed the Russian staff. There was soon but one cry for war around Alexander. Napoleon is falling back, said they; he is in full retreat ; we must rush upon him and over- whelm him. The French soldiers, who were not deficient in intelligence, perceived, on their part, clearly enough that they should have to do with the Russians, and their joy was extreme. Prepa- rations were made on both sides for a decisive engagement. - Napoleon, with that milita'ry tact which he had received from nature, and which he had so greatly improved by experience, had adopt- ed among other positions which he might have taken about Briinn, one which could not fail to insure to him the most important re- sults, under the supposition that he should be attacked a supposition which had become a certainty. The mountains of Moravia, which eonnect the mountains of Bohemia with those of Hun- gary, subside successively towards the Danube, so completely that near that river Moravia presents but one wide plain. In the environs of Briinn, the capital of the province, they are not of greater altitude than high hills, and are covered with dark firs. Their waters, retained for want of drains, form numerous ponds, and throw themselves by various streams into me Morawa, or March, and by the Morawa int the Danube. Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 85 All these characters are found together in the position between Brunn and Austerlitz, which Napoleon has rendered for ever cele- brated. The high road of Moravia, running from Vienna to Briinn, rises in a direct line to the northward, then, in passing from Brunn to Olmiitz, descends abruptly to the right, that is to the east, thus forming a right angle with its first direction. In the angle is situated the position in question. It commences on the left towards the Olmiitz road, with heights studded with firs; it then runs off to the right in an oblique direction towards the Vienna road, and after subsiding gradually, terminates in ponds full of deep water in winter. Along this position, and in front of it, runs a rivulet, which has no name known in geography, but which, in part of its course, is called Goldbach by the people of the coun- try. It runs through the little villages of Girzikowitz, Puntowitz, Kobelnitz, Sokolnitz, and Telnitz, and, sometimes forming marshes, sometimes confined in channels, terminates in the ponds above-mentioned, which are called the ponds of Satschau and Menitz. Concentrated with all his forces on this ground, appuyed on the one hand upon the wooded hills of Moravia, and particularly upon a rounded knoll to which the soldiers of Egypt gave the name of the Santon, appuyed, on the other, upon the ponds of Satschau and Menitz thus covering by his left the Olmiitz road, by his right the Vienna road Napoleon was in a condition to accept with advantage a decisive battle. He meant not, however, to confine his operations to self-defence, for he was accus- tomed to reckon upon greater results ; he had divined, as though he had read them, the plans framed at great length by General Weirother. The Auslro-Russians, having no chance of wresting from him the point cCappui which he found for his left in the high wooded hills, would be tempted to turn his right, which was not close to the ponds, and to take the Vienna road from him. There was sufficient induce- ment for this step; for Napoleon, if he lost that road, would have no other resource but to retire into Bohemia. The rest of his forces, hazarded towards Vienna, would be obliged to ascend separately the valley of the Danube. The French army, thus divided, would find it- self doomed to a retreat, eccentric, perilous, nay, even disastrous, if it should fall in with the Prussians by the way. Napoleon was perfectly aware that such must be the plan of the enemy. Accordingly, after concentrating his army towards his left and the heights, he left towards his right, that is towards Sokolnitz, Telnitz, and the ponds, a space almost unguarded. He thus invited the Russians to persevere in their plans. But it was not precisely there that he prepared the mortal stroke for them. The ground facing him presented a feature from which he hoped to derive a decisive result. Beyond the stream lhat ran in front of our position, the ground spread at first, opposite to our left, into a slightly undulated plain, through which passed the Olmiitz road ; then, opposite to our centre, it rose successively, and at last formed facing our right a plateau, called the plateau of Pratzen, after the name of a village situated half-way up, in the hollow of a ravine. This plateau terminated on the right in rapid declivities towards the ponds, and at the back in a gentle slope towards Austerlitz, the cha- teau of which appeared at some distance. There were to be seen considerable forces ; there a multitude of fires blazed at night, and a great movement of men and horses was ob- servable by day. On these appearances, Na- poleon had no longer any doubt of the designs of the Austro-Russians. 1 They intended evi- dently to descend from the position which they occupied, and, crossing the Goldbach rivulet, between the ponds and our right, to cut us off from the Vienna road. But, for this reason, it was resolved to take the offensive in our turn, to cross the rivulet at the villages of Girziko- witz and Puntowitz, to ascend to the plateau of Pratzen while the Russians were leaving it, and to take possession of it ourselves. In case we succeeded, the enemy's army would be cut in two; one part would be thrown to the left into the plain crossed by the Olmiitz road; the other to the right into the ponds. Thenceforward the battle could not fail to be disastrous for the Austro-Russians. But, for this effect, it was requisite that they should not blunder by halves. The prudent, nay even timid attitude of Napoleon, exciting their silly confidence, would induce them to commit the entire blunder. Agreeably to these ideas, Napoleon made his dispositions. Expecting for two days past to be attacked, he had ordered Bernadotte to quit Iglau on the frontier of Bohemia, to leave there the Bavarian division which he had brought with him, and to hasten by forced marches to Brunn. He had ordered Marshal Davout to march Friant's and if possible Gu- din's division towards the abbey of Gross Rai- gern, situated on the road from Vienna to Brunn, opposite to the ponds. In consequence of these orders Bernadotte marched, and had arrived on the 1st of December. General Fri- ant, being alone apprized ;n time, because Ge- neral Gudin was at a greater distance towards Presburg, had set out immediately, and tra- velled in forty-eight hours the thirty-six leagues ' There has been recently published a work translated from the Russian by M. Leon de Narischkine, which con- tains a great number of inaccurate assertions, though proceeding from an author in a situation to be correctly informed. In this work it is alleged that, before the battle of. Austerlitz, the plan of General Weirother was . communicated to Napoleon. This assertion Is totally erroneous. Such a communication would imply that the plan, communicated long beforehand to the commanders of the different corps, could have been liable to be di- vulged. We shall see presently, from the report of an eye-witness, that it was not till the night preceding the battle that the plan was communicated to the command- ers of corps. Besides, all the details of the orders and correspondence proved that Napoleon foresaw and was not apprized of the enemy's plan. Our resolution being to avoid all controversy with contemporary writers, we shall confine o. rselves to the correction of this er.or, without noticing many others contained in the work in question, the real merit, and to a certain point the impar- tiality, of which we are ready to acknowledge. H HISTORY OF THE >-~ 1805 which separate Vienna from Gross Raigern. The soldiers sometimes dropped on the road, exhausted with fatigue; but at the least sound, imagining that they heard the cannon, they rose with ardour to hasten to the assistance of their comrades, engaged, they said, in a bloody battle. On the night of the 1st of De- cember, which was extremely cold, they bi- vouacked at Gross Raigern, a league and a half from the field of battle. Never did troops on foot perform so astonishing a march ; for it is a march of eighteen leagues a day for two suc- cessive days. On the 1st of December, Napoleon, rein- forced by Bernadotte's corps and Friant's divi- sion, could number 65 or 70 thousand men, present under arms, against 90,000 men, Rus- sians and Austrians, likewise present under arms. At his left he placed Lannes, in whose corps Caffarelli's division supplied the place of Ga- zan's. Lannes, with the two divisions of Suchet and Caffarelli, was to occupy the Ol- miitz road, and to fight in the undulated plain outspread on either side of that road. Napo- leon gave him, moreover, Murat's cavalry, comprising the cuirassiers of Generals d'Haut- poul and Nansouty, the dragoons of Generals Walther and Beaumont, and the chasseurs of Generals Milhaud and Kellermann. The level surface of the ground led him to expect a pro- digious engagement of cavalry on this spot. On the knoll of the Santon, which commands this part of the ground, and is topped by a chapel called the chapel of Bosenitz, he placed the 17th light, commanded by General Clapa- rede, with eighteen pieces of cannon, and made him take an oath to defend this position to the death. This knoll was, in fact, the point d'appui of the left. At the centre, behind the Goldbach rivulet, he ranged Vandamme's and St. Hilaire's divi- sions, which belong to the corps of Marshal Soult. He destined them to cross that stream at the villages of Girzikowitz and Puntowitz, and to gain possession of the plateau of Prat- zen, when the proper moment should arrive. A little further behind the marsh of Kobelnitz and the chateau of Kobelnitz, he placed Mar- shal Soult's third division, that of General Le- grand. He reinforced it with two battalions of tirailleurs, known by the names of chas- seurs of the Po and Corsican chasseurs, and by a detachment of light cavalry, under Gene- ral Margaron. This division was to have only the 3d of the line and the Corsican chasseurs at Telnitz, the nearest point to the ponds, and to which Napoleon was desirous of drawing the Russians. Far in rear, at the distance of a league and a half, was posted Friant's divi- sion at Gross Raigern. Having ten divisions of infantry, Napoleon, therefore presented but six of them in line. Behind Marshals Lannes and Soult, he kept in reserve Oudinot's grenadiers, separated on this occasion from Lannes' corps, the corps of Bernadotte, composed of Drouet's and Riv- aud's divisions, and, lastly, the imperial guard. He thus kept at hand a mass of 25,000 men, to move to any point where they might be needed, ai'd particularly to the heights of Pratzen, in order to take those heights at any cost, if the Russians should not have cleared them suffi ciently. He bivouacked himself amidst this reserve. These dispositions completed, he carried his confidence so far as to make them known tc his army in a proclamation imbued with the grandeur of the events that were preparing It is subjoined, just as it was read to the troops on the evening before the battle. " SOLDIEHS, "The Russian army appears before you to avenge the Austrian army of Ulm. They are the same battalions that you beat at Holla- briinn, and that you have since been constantly pursuing to this spot. " The positions which we occupy are formi- dable ; and while they are marching to turn my right, they will present their flank to me. " Soldiers, I shall myself direct your batta- lions. I shall keep out of the fire, if, with your usual bravery, you throw disorder and confu- sion into the enemy's ranks. But, if the victory should be for a moment uncertain, you will see your Emperor the foremost to expose himself to danger. For victory must not hang doubt- ful on this day, most particularly, when the honour of the French infantry, which so deeply concerns the honour of the whole nation, is at stake. " Let not the ranks be thinned upon pretext of carrying away the wounded, and let every one be thoroughly impressed with this thought, that it behoves us to conquer these hirelings of England, who are animated with such bitter hatred against our nation. " This victory will put an end to the cam- paign, and we shall then be able to return to our winter-quarters, where we shall be joined by the new armies which are forming in France, and then the peace which I shall make will be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself. " NAPOLEON." On this same day he received M. de Haug- witz, who had at length reached the French head-quarters, discerned in his wheedling con- versation all the falseness of Prussia, and felt more convinced than ever of the necessity of gaining a signal victory. He received the Prussian envoy most graciously, told him that he was going to fight on the morrow, and that he would see him again afterwards, if he was not swept ofF by some cannon-ball, and that then it would be time to arrange matters with the cabinet of Berlin. He advised him to set out that very night for Vienna, and he gave him a letter to M. de Talleyrand, taking care to let him be conducted through the field of battle of Hollabriinn, which presented a horrible sight. It is right, he wrote M. de Talleyrand, that this Prussian should learn by his own eyes in what manner we make war. Having passed the evening at the bivouac with his marshals, he resolved to visit the sol- diers and to judge for himself of their moral disposition. It was the evening of the 1st of December, the eve of the anniversary of his coronation. The coincidence of these dates was singular, and Napoleon had not contrived it, for he accepted battle, but did not offer it. The night was cold and dark. Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. The first soldiers who perceived him, eager ' to light him on his way, picked up the straw of their bivouac and made it into torches which they placed blazing on the top of their muskets. In a few minutes this example was followed by the whole army, and along the vast front of our position was displayed this singular illumination. The soldiers accom- panied the steps of Napoleon with shouts of " Vive VEmpereur '." promising to prove on the morrow that they were worthy of him and of themselves. Enthusiasm pervaded all the ; ranks. They went as men ought to go into danger, with hearts full of content and confi- dence. Napoleon retired to oblige his soldiers to take some rest, and awaited in his tent the dawn of that day which was to be one of the most glorious of his life, one of the most glo- rious in history. Those lights, those shouts, had been early distinguished from the heights occupied by the Russian army, and in a small number of dis- creet officers they had produced a sinister pre- sentment. They asked one another if these were signs of an army disheartened and in retreat. Meanwhile, ihe commanders of the Russian corps, assembled at the quarters of General Kutusof, in the village of Kreznowitz, were receiving their instructions for the following day. Old Kutusof was fast asleep, and Gene- ral Weirother, having spread out a map of the country before those who did listen to him, read with emphasis a memorial containing the . whole plan of the battle. 1 We have nearly i explained it already in describing the disposi- i lions of Napoleon. The right of the Russians, J under Prince Bagration, faced our left, as it j was destined to advance against Lannes, on ! both sides of the Olmiitz road, to take the ; Santon from us, and to march direct for Bruun. The cavalry, collected into a single mass be- tween the corps of Bagration and the centre of the Russian army, was to occupy the same ( plain in which Napoleon had placed Murat, \ and to connect the left of the Russians with 1 We think it useful to quote here a fragment of the manuscript memoirs of General Langeron, an eye-wit- ness, since he commanded one of the corps of the Russian army. Here follows the account of that officer. " We havH seen that on the 19th of November (De- eember the 1st) our columns did not reach their destina- tion till about ten o'clock at night. " About eleven, all the commanders of those columns, excepting Prince Bagrntion, who was too far off, received orders to repair to General Kutusof 's quarters at Krez- nowitz, to have the dispositions for the battle of the fol- lowing day read to them. "At one in the morning, when we had all assembled, General Weirother arrived, unfolded upon a large table an immense and most accurate map of the environs of Briinn and Austerlitz, and read the dispositions to us in a loud tone, and with a self-sufficient air, which indicated a thorough persuasion of his own merit and that of our incapacity. He was like a college teacher reading a lesson to young scholars. Perhaps we really were scho- lars ; but he was far from being a clever schoolmaster. Kutusof, seated and half asleep when we arrived, at length fell into a sound nap before our departure. Buz- hSvden, standing, listened but most assuredly compre- hended not a word ; Miloradovich held his tongue ; I'ri- hyicbewski kept in the background, and Doctorow alone their centre. The main body of the army, composed of four columns, commanded by Generals Doctorow, Langeron, Pribyschewski, and Kollowrath, established at the moment on the heights of Pratzen, was to descend from them, to cross the swampy stream which has been previously mentioned, to take Telnitz, Sokolnitz, and Kobelnitz, to turn the right of the French, and to advance upon their rear, to wrest the Vienna road from them. The ren- de?vous of all the corps was fixed under the walls of Brunn. The Archduke Constantine, with the Russian guard, nine or ten thousand strong, was to start from Austerlitz at day- break, and to place himself in reserve behind the centre of the combined army. When General Weirother had finished his lecture to the commanders of the Russian corps, only one of whom, General Doctorow, was attentive, and only one, General Langeron, inclined to contradict, the latter ventured to make some objections. General Langeron, a French emigrant, who served against his coun- try, who was a grumbler but a good officer, asked General Weirother, if he imagined that circumstances would turn out precisely as he had written, and showed himself strongly dis- posed to doubt it. General Weirother would never admit any other idea than that current in the Russian staff, namely that Napoleon was retreating, and that the instructions for this case were excellent. But General Kutu- sof put an end to all discussion by sending the commanders of the corps to their quarters, and ordering a copy of the instructions to be for- warded to each. That experienced chief knew in what estimation plans of battles conceived and arranged in that manner ought to be held, and yet he suffered the thing to be done, though it was in his name that the transaction took place. By four in the morning Napoleon had left his tent, to judge with his own eyes if the Russians were committing the blunder into which he had been so dexterously leading them. He descended to the village of Punto- witz, situated on the bank of the brook which examined the map attentively. When Weirother had finished his lecture, I was the only one who spoke. 'General,' I said to him, 'this is all very well, but if the enemy should anticipate us and attack us at Pratzen, what are we to do then V 'The case is not foreseen,' he replied. 'You know how daring Bonaparte is. If he could have attacked us, he would have done so to-day.' 'Then you do not think him strong 7' I rejoined. 'It is much if he has 40,000 men.' 'In this case, he is plung- ing himself into ruin by awaiting our attack : hut I look upon him to be too able to be imprudent, for if, as you wish and believe, we cut him off from Vienna, he will have no other retreat but the mountains of Bohemia. I conjecture, however, that he has a different design. He has put out his fires, and not a sound is heard in his camp.' 'That is because he is retiring or changing posi- tion ; and, even supposing he takes that of Turas, he will spare us a great deal of trouble, and the disposilions will remain the same.' "Kutusof, having then wakened up, dismissed us, or- dering us to leave an adjutant to copy the dispositions which Lieutenant-Colonel Toll, of the staff, was going to translate out of German into Russian. It was three in the morning, and we did not receive copies of these fc- I moug dispositions till near eight, when we were already I on march." HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. separated the two armies, and perceived the fires of the Russians nearly extinguished on the heights of Pratzen. A very distinguish- able sound of cannon and horses indicated a march from left to right towards the ponds, the very way that he wished the Russians to take. Great was his joy on finding his fore- sight so fully justified ; he returned and placed himself on the high ground where he had bivouacked, and where the eye embraced the whole extent of that field of battle. His mar- shals were on horseback at his side. Day began to dawn. A wintry fog covered the country to a distance, the most prominent points only being visible and rising above the mist like islands out of the sea. The differ- ent corps of the French army were in motion, and were descending from the position which they had occupied during the night to cross the rivulet which separated them from the Russians. But they halted in the bottom, where they were concealed by the fog and kept by the Emperor till the opportune mo- ment for the attack. A very brisk fire was already heard at the extremity of the line towards the ponds. The movement of the Russians against our left was evident. Marshal Davont had gone in all haste to direct Friant's division from Gross Raigern upon Telnitz, and to support the 3d of the line and the Corsican chasseurs, who would soon have upon their hands a consider- able portion of the enemy's army. Marshals Lannes, Murat, and Soult, with their aides-de- camp surrounded the Emperor, awaiting his 'order to commence the combat at the centre and on the left. Napoleon moderated their ardour, wishing to let the Russians consum- mate the fault which they were committing on our right, so completely that they should not have it in their power to get back out of those bottoms which they were seen entering. The sun at length burst forth, and dispelling the fog, poured a flood of radiance upon the vast field of battle. It was the sun of Austerlitz, a sun the recollections of which have been so frequently submitted to the present generation, that assuredly they will not be forgotten by future generations. The heights of Pratzen were cleared of troops. The Russians, in execution of the plan agreed upon, had de- scended to the bed of the Goldbach, to gain possession of thu villages of Telnitz and So- kolnitz, situated along that rivulet. Napoleon then gave the signal for the attack, and his marshals gallopped off" to put themselves at the head of their respective corps d'armee. The three Russian columns directed to at- tack Telnitz and Sokolnitz, had broken up at seven o'clock in the morning. They were under the immediate command of Generals Poctorow, Langeron, and Pribyschewski, and under the superior command of General Bux- hovden.an officer of inferior abilities, inactive, puffed up by the favour which he owed to a court marriage, and who no more commanded the left of the Russian army than General Kutusof commanded the whole. He marched himself along with General Doctorow's co- lumn, forming the extremity of the Russian line, and which would have to engage first. He paid no attention to the other columns, or to the harmony which ought to have been in- troduced into their different movements; which was very lucky for us; for, if they had acted together, and attacked Telnitz and Sokolnitz en masse, as Friant's division had not yet ar- rived at that point, they might have gained much more ground upon our right than it would have suited us to give up to them. Doctorow's column had bivouacked, like the others, on the height of Pratzen. At the foot of this height, in the bottom which sepa- rated it from our right, there was a village called Augezd, and in that village an advanced guard under the command of General Kien- mayer, composed of five Austrian battalions, and fourteen squadrons. This advanced guard was to sweep the plain between Au- gezd and Telnitz, while Doctorow's column was descending from the heights. The Aus- trians, eager to show the Russians that they could fight as well as they, attacked "the village of Telnitz with great resolution. It was ne- cessary to cross at once the rivulet running here in channels, and then a height covered with vines and houses. We had in this place, besides the 3d of the line, the battalion of the Corsican chasseurs, concealed from view by the nature of the ground. These skilful marksmen, coolly taking aim at the hussars who had been sent forward, picked off a great number of them. They received in the same manner the Szekler regiment (infantry), and in half an hour strewed the ground with part of that regiment. The Aus- trians, tired of a destructive combat, and one that was productive of no result, attacked en masse the village of Telnitz, with their five united battalions, but were not able to pene- trate into it, thanks to the firmness of the 3d of the line, which received them with the vigour of a tried band. While Kienmayer's advanced guard was thus exhausting itself in impotent efforts, Doctorow's column, twenty- four battalions strong, led by General Bux- hovden, made its appearance, an hour later than was xpected, and proceeded to assist the Austrians to take Telnitz, which the 3d of the line was no longer sufficient to defend. The bed of the stream was crossed, aud Gene- ral Kienmayer threw his fourteen squadrons into the plain beyond Telnitz, against the light cavalry of General Margaron. The latter bravely stood several charges, but could not maintain its ground against such a mass of cavalry. Friant's division, conducted by Marshal Davont, having not yet arrived from Gross Raigern, our right was greatly over- matched. But General Buxhovdeu, after being long waited for, was obliged in his turn to wait for the second column, com- manded by General Langeron. This latter had been delayed by a singular accident The mass of the cavalry, destined to occupy the plain which was on the right of the Rus- sians and on the left of the French, had mis- conceived the order prescribing that it should take that position : it had therefore gone and taken post at Pratzen, amidst the bivouacs of Langeron's column. Having discovered its error, this cavalry, in repairing to its proper D C. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 89 place, had cut and long retarded Langeron's ! and Pribyschewski's columns. General Lan- geron, having at length arrived before Sokol- nitz, commenced an attack on it. But mean- . while General Friant had come up in the ut- most haste, with his division, composed of five regiments of infantry and six regiments of dragoons. The 1st regiment of dragoons, at- tached for this occasion toBourcier's division, was despatched at full trot upon Telnitz. The Austro-Russians, already victorious at this point, began to cross the Goldbach, and to press the 3d of the light as well as Margaron's light cavalry. The dragoons of the first regi- ment, on approaching the enemy, broke into a gallop, and drove back into Telnitz all who had attempted to debouch from it. Generals Friant and Heudelet, arriving with the 1st brigade, composed of the 108th of the line and the voltigeurs of the 15th light, entered , Telnitz with bayonets fixed, expelled the Aus- ', trians and Russians, and drove them pell-mell beyond the channels which form the bed of the Goldbach, and remained masters of the ground, after they had strewed it with dead and wounded. Unluckily, the fog, dispersed nearly everywhere, prevailed in the bottoms. It enveloped Telnitz as in a sort of cloud. The 26th light, of Legrand's division, which had i come to the assistance of the 3d of the line, | perceiving indistinctly masses of troops on the other side of the stream, without being able to ' discern the colour of their uniform, fired upon ; the 108th, under the impression that it was the enemy. This unexpected attack staggered the 108th, which fell back, for fear of being turned. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the Russians and Austrian?, having twenty-nine \ battalions at this point, resumed the offensive, and dislodged Heudelet's brigade from Telnitz, ; while General Langeron, attacking with twelve Russian battalions the village of Sokolnitz, situated on the Goldbach, a little above Tel- j nitz, had penetrated into it. The two hostile columns of Doctorow and Langeron then be- gan to debouch, the one from Telnitz, the other , from Sokolnitz. At the same time General | Pribyschew^ki's column had attacked and j taken the chateau of Sokolnitz, situated above the village of that name. At this sight General Friant, who on that day, as on so many others, behaved like a hero, flung General Bourcier, with his six regiments of dragoons, upon Doc- torow's column, at the moment when the latter was deploying beyond Telnilz. The Russians presented their bayonets to our dragoons ; but the charges of our horse, repeated with the utmost fury, prevented them from extending themselves, and supported Heudelet's brigade, which was opposed to them. General Friant afterwards put himself at the head of Lochet's brigade, composed of the 18th and the lllth 1 of the line, and rushed upon Langeron's co- lumn, which was already beyond the village of Sokolnitz, drove it back to that place, en- tered it at its heels, expelled it again, and 1 Prince Czartoryski, placed between the two empe- At this sight that prince lost all the confidence which he rnrs, remarked to the Emperor Alexander the nimble and had till then felt, and conceived a sinister presentiment decided step with which the French were ascending to : which never left him during the engagement, the plate i;, without returning the fire of the Russians. 1 2 The same who died lately. VOL. II. 12 H 2 hurled it to the other side of the Goldbach. Having occupied Sokolnitz, General Friant committed it to the guard of the 48th, and marched with his 3d brigade, that of Kister, composed of the 33d of the line and the 15th light, to recover the chdteau of Sokolnitz from Pribyschewski's column. He forced it to fall back. But while he was engaged with Priby- schewski's troops, in front of the chateau of Sokolnitz, Langeron's column, attacking anew the village dependent on this chateau, had wellnigh overwhelmed the 48th, which, retir- ing into the houses of the village, defended itself with admirable gallantry. General Friant returned, and extricated the 48th. That brave general and his illustrious chief, Marshal Da- vout, hastened incessantly from one point to another, on this line of the Goldbach, so warmly disputed, and with seven or eight thousand foot and 2800 horse, engaged 35,000 Russians. Indeed, Friant's division was reduced, by a march of thirty-six hours which it had per- formed, to 6000 men at most, and with the 3d of the line formed no more than seven or eight thousand combatants. But the men who had lagged behind, arriving every moment at the report of the cannon, successively filled up the gaps made by the enemy's fire in its ranks. During this obstinate combat towards our right, Marshal Soult, at the centre, had attacked the position on which depended the issue of the battle. At a signal given by Napoleon, the two divisions of Vandamme and St. Hi- laire, formed into close column, ascended at a rapid pace the acclivities .of the plateau of Pratzen. Vandamme's division had proceeded to the left, St. Hilaire's to the right of the vil- lage of Pratzen, which is deeply imbedded in a ravine that terminates at the Goldbach rivulet, near Puntowitz. While the French were pushing forward, the centre of the ene- my's army, composed of Kollowrath's Austrian infantry and the Russian infantry of Milora- dovich, twenty-seven battalions strong, under the immediate command of General Kutusof and the two emperors, had come and deployed on the plateau of Pratzen, to take the place of Buxhovden's three columns, which had de- scended into the bottoms. Our soldiers, with- out returning the fire of musketry which they sustained, continued to climb the height, sur- prising by their nimble and resolute step the enemy's generals who expected to find them retreating. 1 On reaching the village of Pratzen they passed on without halting there. General Morand, putting himself at the head of the 10th light, went and drew up on the plateau. Ge- neral Thiebault 2 followed him with his brigade, composed of the 14th and 36th of the line, and, while he was advancing, suddenly re- ceived in rear a volley of musketry, which proceeded from two Russian battalions con- cealed in the ravine, at the bottom of which the village of Pratzen is situated. Genera) Thiebault halted for a moment, returned at 90 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805 point-blank range the volley which he had re- ceived, and entered the village with one of his battalions. He dispersed and took the Rus- sians who occupied it, and then returned to support General Morand, deployed on the pla- teau. Vare's brigade, the second of St. Hi- laire's division, passing on its part to the left of the village, drew up facing the enemy, while Vandamme, with his whole division, took a position still further to the left, near a small knoll, called Stari Winobradi, which com- mands the plateau of Pratzen. Upon this knoll the Russians had posted five battalions and a numerous artillery. The Austrian infantry of Kollowrath and the Russian infantry of Miloradovich were drawn up in two lines. Marshal Soult, with- out loss of time, brought forward St. Hilaire's and Vandamme's divisions. General Thie- bault, forming with his brigade the right of St. Hilaire's division, had a battery of twelve pieces. He ordered them to be charged with balls and grape, and opened a destructive fire upon the infantry opposed to him. This fire, kept up briskly and directed with precision, soon threw the Austrian ranks into disorder, and they hurried in confusion to the back of the plateau. Vandamme immediately attacked the enemy drawn up opposite to him. His brave infantry coolly advanced, halted, fired several murderous volleys, and marched upon the Russians with the bayonet. It flung back their first line upon their second, put both to flight, and obliged them to retreat to the back of the plateau of Pratzen, leaving their artillery behind them. In this movement, Vandamme had left the knoll of Stari Winobradi, defended by several Russian battalions and bristling with artillery, on his left. He went back to it, and, directing General Schiner to turn it with the 24th light, he ascended it himself with the 4th of the line. In spite of a downward fire, he climbed the knoll, overturned the Russians who guarded it, and took their cannon. Thus in less than an hour the two divisions of Marshal Soult's corps had made themselves masters of the plateau of Pratzen, and were pursuing the Russians and Austrian?, hurled pell-mell down the declivities of that plateau, which inclines towards the chateau of Auster- litz. The two Emperors of Austria and Russia, witnesses of this rapid action, strove in vain to rally their soldiers. They were scarcely listened to amidst that confusion, and Alex- ander could already perceive that the presence of a sovereign is not, in such circumstances, worth that of a good general. Miloradovich, always conspicuous in the fire, traversed on horseback that field of battle, ploughed with balls, and strove to bring back the fugitives. General Kutusof, wounded on the cheek by a rnusket-ball, beheld the realization of the dis- aster which he had foreseen, and which he had not the firmness to prevent. He had hastened to send for the Russian imperial guard, which had bivouacked in advance of Austerlitz, in order to rally his routed centre behind it. If this commander of the Austro- Russian army, whose merit was limited to great astuteness disguised by great indolence, lad been capable of just and prompt resolu- tions, he would have hurried at this moment :o his left, engaged with our right, drawn Buxhovden's three columns from the bottoms into which they had been plunged, brought them back to the plateau of Pratzen, and with a collected force of 50,000 men have made a decisive effort to recover a position, without which the Russian army must be cut in two [f even he had not succeeded, he might aJ least have retired in order upon Austerlitz by a safe road, and not have left his left backed upon an abyss. But, content to parry the evil of which he was an eye-witness, he did nothing more than rally his centre upon the Russian imperial guard, nine or ten thousand strong, while Napoleon, on the contrary, with his eyes riveted on the plateau of Pratzen, was bringing forward to the support of Marshal Soult, already victorious, the corps of Berna- dotte, the guard, and Oudinot's grenadiers, that is to say 25,000 choice troops. While our right was thus disputing the line of the Goldbach with the Russians, and our centre was wresting from them the plateau of Pratzen, Lannes and Murat, on our left, were engaged with Prince Bagration and all the cavalry of the Austro-Russians. Lannes, with Suchet's and Caffarelli's divi- sions, deployed on both sides of the Olmiitz road, was to march straight forward. On the left of the road, the same near which rose the Santon, the ground, on approaching the wooded heights of Moravia, was very uneven, some- times hilly, sometimes intersected by deep ravines. There Suchet's division was placed. On the right, more level ground was connected by very gentle rises with the plateau of Prat- zen. Caffarelli marched on that side, pro- tected by Murat's cavalry, against the mass of the Austro-Russian cavalry. At this point, a sort of Egyptian battle was anticipated, for here were seen eighty-two Russian and Austrian squadrons, drawn up in two lines, commanded by Prince John of Lichtenstein. For this reason, Suchet's and Caffarelli's divisions presented several bat- talions deployed, and behind the intervals of these battalions, other battalions in close co- lumn, to appuy and flank the former. The artillery was spread over the front of the two divisions. General Kellermann's light cavalry, as also the divisions of dragoons, were on the right in the plain, Nansouty's and d'Haut- poul's heavy cavalry in reserve in rear. In this imposing order, Lasmes moved off as soon as he heard the cannon at Pratzen, and traversed at a foot pace, as though it had been a parade ground, that plain illumined by a bright winter's sun. Prince John of Lichtenstein had not arrived upon the ground till late, owing to a mistake which had caused the Austro-Russian cavalry to run from the right to the left of the field of battle. In his absence, Alexander's imperial guard had filled the gap left between the cen- tre and the right of the combined army. When he at length arrived, perceiving the movement of Lannes' corps, he directed the Grand-duke Constantine's Hulans against Caffarelli's divi- sion. Those bold horse rushed upon that di- Dec. 1SU5.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 91 vision, before which Kellermann was placed with his brigade of light cavalry. General Kellermann, one of our ablest cavalry officers, judging that he should be flung back upon the French infantry, and perhaps throw it into confusion, if he awaited, without moving, that formidable charge, drew back his squadrons, and making them pass through the intervals of Caffarelli's battalions, drew them up again on the left, in order to seize a favourable op- portunity for charging. The Hulans, coming up at a gallop, no longer found our light ca- valry, but encountered in its stead a line of infantry, which was not to be broken, and which, even without forming into square, re- ceived it with a murderous fire of musketry. Four hundred of these assailants were soon stretched on the ground in front of the division. The Russian General Essen was mortally wounded fighting at their head. The others dispersed in disorder to the right and left. Kellermann, who had reformed his squadrons on the left of CafTarelli, seizing the opportune moment, charged the Hulans, and cut in pieces a considerable number of them. Prince John of Lichtenstein sent a fresh portion of his squadrons to the assistance of the Hulans. Our division of dragoons dashed off in their turn upon the enemy's cavalry, and for a while nothing was to be seen but an awful fray, in which all the combatants were fighting hand to hand. This cloud of horsemen at length dispersed, and each rejoined his line of battle, 'caving the ground covered with dead and wounded, mostly Russians and Austrians. Our two masses of infantry then advanced with firm and measured step upon the ground abandoned by the cavalry. The Russians op- posed to them forty pieces of cannon, which poured forth a shower of projectiles. One discharge swept away the whole group of drummers of Caffarelli's first regiment. This fierce cannonade was returned by the fire of all our artillery. In this combat with great guns, General Valhabert had a thigh fractured by a ball. Some soldiers would have carried him away; "Remain at your post," said he, "I shall know how to die all alone; six men must not be taken away for the sake of one." The French then marched for the village of Blaziowitz, situated on the right of the plain, where the ground begins to rise towards Platzen. Of this village, seated like all those of the coun- try, in a deep ravine, nothing was to be seen but the flames that were consuming it. A de- tachment of the Russian imperial guard had occupied it in the morning, till Prince Lichten- stein's cavalry should arrive. Lannes ordered the 13th light to take it. Colonel Castex, who commanded the 13th, advanced with the first ba"' n in column of attack, and as soon as he arrived before the village, he was struck by a ball in the forehead. The battalion rushed forward, and revenged with the bayonet the death of its colonel. Blaziowitz was carried, and some hundreds of prisoners, picked up there, were sent to the rear. 'At the other wing of Lannes' corps, the Russians, led by Prince Bagration, strove to take the little eminence, called by our soldiers ihe Santon. They had descended into a valley which skirts the foot of this eminence, taken the village of Bosenitz, and exchanged balls to no purpose with the numerous artillery planted on the height. But the Russians did not care to encounter the musketry of the 17th of the line, too advantageously posted for them to dare to approach too near. Prince Bagration had drawn up the rest of his infantry on the Olmutz road, facing Suchet's division. Being obliged to fall back, he retired slowly before the corps of Lannes, which marched without precipitation, but with im- posing compactness, and kept constantly gain- ing ground. Blaziowitz being carried, Lannes caused the villages of Holubitz and Kruch, situated on the Olmutz road, to be taken also, and at length came upon Bagration's infantry. At this moment he broke the line formed by his two divisions. He directed Suchet's divi- sion obliquely to the left, Caffarelli's division obliquely to the right. By this diverging move- ment, he separated Bagration's infantry from Prince Lichtenstein's cavalry, and threw back the first to the left of the Olmutz road, the se- cond to the right, towards the slopes of the plateau of Pratzen. That cavalry then determined to make a last effort, and rushed in a mass upon Caffarelli's I division, which received it with its usual firm- | ness, and brought it to a stand by the fire of I its musketry. Numerous squadrons of Lich- tenstein's, at first dispersed, then, rallied by their officers, were led back against our batta- lions. By order of Lannes, the cuirassiers of Generals d'Hautpoul and Nansouty, who fol- lowed Caffarelli's infantry, filed away at full trot behind the ranks of that infantry, formed upon its right, deployed there, and dashed off at a gallop. The earth quaked under those four thousand horsemen cased in iron. They rushed sword in hand upon the mass of the new-formed Austro-Russian squadrons, over- threw them by the shock, dispersed, and obliged them to flee towards Austerlilz, whither they retired, to appear no more during the engage- ment. Meanwhile, Suchel's division -had attacked Prince Bagration's infantry. After pouring upon the Russians those quiet and sure vol- leys, which our troops, not less intelligent than inured to war, executed with extreme precision, Suchet's division had advanced upon them with the bayonet. The Russians, giving way to the impetuosity of our battalions, had re tired, but unbroken and without surrendering. They formed a confused mass bristling with muskets, which the French could only drive before them, without being able to take them prisoners. Lannes, having got rid of Prince Lichtenstein's eighty-two squadrons, had has- tened to bring back General d'Hautpoul's heavy cavalry from the right to the left of that plain, and directed it upon the Russians in order to decide their retreat. The cuirassiers, charg- ing on all sides those obstinate foot-soldiers who were retiring in large bodies, had obliged some thousands of them to lay down their arms. Thus, on our left, Lannes had fought a real battle by himself. He had taken 4000 prison ers. The ground around him was strewed HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. with 4000 Russians and Austrians dead or Bounded. But, on the plateau of Pratzen, the conflict was renewed between the enemy and the corps of Marshal Soult, reinforced by all the re- serves, which Napoleon brought up in person. General Kutusof, without having any idea, as we have observed, of calling to him the three columns of Doctorow, Langeron, and Priby- schewski, posted in the bottoms, thought only of rallying his centre upon the imperial Rus- sian guard. The single brigade of Kamenski, belonging to Langeron's corps, hearing a very brisk fire on its rear, had halted, and then spontaneously fallen back, in order to return to the plateau of Platzen. General Langeron, apprized of the circumstance, had come up to put himself at the head of this brigade, leaving the rest of his column at Sokolnitz. The French, in this renewed combat at the centre, were about to find themselves engaged with Kamenski's brigade, with the infantry of Kollowrath and Miloradovich, and with the imperial Russian guard. Thiebault's brigade, occupying the extreme right of Marshal Soult's corps, and separated from Vare's brigade by the village of Pratzen, found itself amidst a square of fires, for it had in front the reformed line of the Austrians, and on its right part of Langeron's troops. This brigade, consisting of the 10th light, and of the 14th and 36th of the line, was soon exposed to the most serious danger. As it was deploying and forming it- self into a square to face the enemy, Adjutant Labadie, fearing that his battalion, under a fire of musketry and grape, discharged at the dis- tance of thirty paces, might be staggered in its movement, seized the colours, and, planting himself upon the ground, cried, "Soldiers, here is your line of battle!" The battalion deployed with perfect steadiness. The others imitated it, the brigade took position, and for some moments exchanged a destructive fire of musketry at half-range. These three regi- ments, however, would soon have sunk under a mass of cross-fires, had the conflict been j prolonged. General St. Hilaire, admired by j the army for his chivalrous valour, was con- versing with Generals Thiebault and Morand on the course proper to be pursued, when Co- lonel Pouzel of the 10th said, " General, let us advance with the bayonet, or we are undone." "Yes, forward!" replied General St. Hilaire. The bayonets were immediately crossed, and the men, falling on Kramenski's Russians on the right and on Kollowrath's Austrians in front, precipitated the first into the bottoms of Sokolnitz and Telnitz, and the second down he back of the plateau of Pratzen, towards the Austerlitz road. While Thiebaull's brigade, left for some ime unsupported, extricated itself with such valour and success, Vare's brigade and Van- damme's division, placed on the other side of the village of Pratzen, had not near so much trouble to repulse the offensive return of the Austro-Russians, and had soon flung them to the foot of the plateau, which they strove in vain to ascend. In the ardour that hurried away our troops, the first battalion of the 4th of the line, belonging to Vandamme's division, had yield- ed to the temptation to pursue the L issians over the sloping ground covered with vines. The Grand-duke Constantine had immediately sent a detachment of the cavalry of the guard, which, surprising that battalion among the vines, had overthrown it before it could form into square. In this confusion the colour- bearer of the regiment had been killed. A subaltern, endeavouring to save the eagle, had also been killed. A soldier had then snatched it out of the hands of the officer, and, being himself put hors de combat, had not been able to prevent Constantine's horse from carrying off" the trophy. Napoleon, who had come to reinforce the centre with the infantry of his guard, the whole corps of Bernadotte, and Oudinot's gre- nadiers, witnessed the rash proceeding of this battalion from the height on which he was posted. " They are in disorder yonder," said he to Rapp ; " that must be set to rights." At the head of the Mamelukes and the horse chasseurs of the guard, Rapp instantly flew to the succour of the compromised battalion. Marshal Bessieres followed Rapp with the horse grenadiers. Drouet's division of Berna- dotte's corps, formed of the 94th and 95th regi- ments and of the '27th light, advanced in se- cond line, headed by Colonel Gerard, Berna- dotte's aid-de-carnp, and an officer of great energy, to oppose the infantry of the Russian guard. Rapp, on making his appearance, drew upon him the enemy's cavalry, who were slaughter- ing our foot soldiers extended on the ground. This cavalry turned against him with four un- horsed pieces of cannon. In spite of a dis- charge of grape, Rapp rushed forward, and broke through the imperial cavalry. He pushed on, and passed beyond the ground covered by the wrecks of the battalion of the 4th. The soldiers of that battalion imme- diately rallied, and formed anew to revenge the check which they had received. Rapp, on reaching the lines of the Russian guard, was assailed with a second charge of cavalry. These were Alexander's horse-guards, who, Headed by their colonel, Prince Repnin, fell upon him. The brave Morland, colonel of the chasseurs of the French imperial guard, was killed; the chasseurs were driven back. But at this moment the horse-grenadiers, led by Marshal Bessieres, came up at a gallop to the assistance of Rapp. This splendid body of men, mounted on powerful horses, was eager to measure its strength with the horse-guards of Alexander. A conflict of several minutes ensued between them. The infantry of the Russian guard, witnessing this fierce encoun- ter, durst not fire, for fear of slaughtering its own countrymen. At length Napoleon's horse- grenadiers, veterans tried in a hundred battles, triumphed over the young soldiers of Alexan- der, dispersed them, after extending a number of them upon the ground, and returned con- querors to their master. Napoleon, who was present at this engage- ment, was delighted to see the Russian youth punished for their boasting. Surrounded by his staff", he received Rapp,who returned wound- ed, covered with blood, followed by Prince Dec. 1801.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. Repnin a prisoner, and gave him signal testi- monies ',? satisfaction. Meanwhile, the three regiments of Drouet's division, brought by Colonel Gerard, pushed the infantry of the Russian guard upon the village of Kreznowitz, carried that village, and took many prisoners. It was one o'clock ; victory appeared no longer doubtful, for, Lannes and Murat being masters of the plain on the left, Marshal Soult, supported by the whole of the reserve, being master of the plateau of Pratzen, there was nothing left to be done but to fall upon the right, and fling Buxhovden's three Russian columns, which had so vainly striven to cut us off from the road to Vienna, into the ponds. Napoleon, then leaving Bernadotte's corps on the plateau of Pratzen, and turning to the right with Mar- shal Soult's corps, the guard, and Oudinot's grenadiers, resolved himself to seize the prize of his profound combinations, and proceed by the route which Buxhoven's three columns had taken when descending from the plateau of Pratzen, to attack them in rear. It was high time for him to arrive, for Marshal Da- vout and his Lieutenant-general Friant, hurry- ing incessantly from Kobelnitz to Telnitz to prevent the Russians from crossing the Gold- bach, were almost knocked up. The brave Friant had had four horses killed under him in the fight. But, while he was making the last efforts, Napoleon suddenly appeared at the head of an overwhelming mass of forces. Prodigious confusion then took place among the surprised and despairing Russians. Pri- byschewski's entire column, and half of Lan- geron's left before Sokolnitz, found themselves surrounded without any hope of escape, for the French were coming upon their rear by the routes which they had themselves pursued in the morning. These two columns dispersed; part were made prisoners in Sokolnitz ; others fled towards Kobelnitz, and were enveloped near the marshes of that name. Lastly, a third portion made off towards Briinn, but was obliged to lay down its arms near the Vienna road, the same which the Russians had appointed for rendezvous in the hope of vic- tory. General Langeron, with the relics of Ka- menski's brigade and some battalions which he had withdrawn from Sokolnitz before the disaster, had fled towards Telnitz and the ponds, near to the spot where Buxhovden was with Doctorow's column. The silly comman- der of the left wing of the Russians, quite proud of having, with twenty-nine battalions and twenty-two squadrons, disputed the village of Telnitz against five or six French batta- lions, continued motionless, awaiting the suc- cess of Langeron's and Pribyschewski's column. His face, according to an eye-wit- ness, exhibited evidence of the excess in which he was accustomed to indulge. Lange- ron, hastening to this point, related to him with warmth what was passing. " You see nothing but enemies everywhere," was the brutal answer of Buxh&vden. " And you," re- plied Langeron, " are not in a state to see them anywhere." At this instant Marshal Soult's column appeared on the slope of the plateau towards the ponds, advancing towards Doc- torow's column to drive it into them. It was no longer possible to doubt the danger. Bux- hovden, with four regiments, which he had most unskilfully left inactive about him, en- deavoured to regain the route by which he had come, and which ran through the village of Augezd, between the foot of the plateau of Pratzen and the pond of Satschau. Thither he proceeded precipitately, ordering General Doctorow to save himself as he best could. Langeron joined him with the remains of his column. Buxhovden was passing through Augezd, at the very moment when Vandam- me's division, descending from the height, arrived there on its side. He sustained in his flight the fire of the French, and succeeded in gaining a place of safety with a portion of his troops. The greater part, accompanied by Langeron's wrecks, was stopped short by Vandamme's division, which was in posses- sion of Augezd. Then all together rushed towards the frozen ponds and strove to clear themselves a way there. The ice which co- vered these ponds, weakened by the warmth of a fine day, could not bear the weight of men, horses, and cannon. It gave way at some points beneath the Russians, who were ingulphed ; at others it was strong enough to afford a retreat to the fugitives who thronged across it Napoleon, having reached the slopes of the plateau of Pratzen, towards the ponds, per- ceived the disaster, which he had so skilfully prepared. He ordered a battery of the guard to fire with ball upon those parts of the ice which still held firm, and completed the de- struction of those who were upon it. Nearly 2000 perished beneath the broken ice. Between the French army and these inacces- sible ponds, was still left Doctorow's unfortu- nate column, one detachment of which had escaped with Buxhovden, and another found a grave under the ice. General Doctorow, left in this cruel situation, behaved with the no- blest courage. The ground, in approaching the lakes, rose so as to offer a sort of appui. General Doctorow, backing himself against this rising ground, formed his troops into three lines, placing the cavalry in the first line, the artillery in the second, and the infantry in the third. Thus deployed, he opposed a bold face to the French, while he sent a few squadrons in search of a route between the pond of Sats- chau and that of Menitz. A last and a severe combat ensued on this ground. The dragoons of Beaumont's divi- sion, borrowed from Murat, and brought from the left to the right, charged Kienmayer's Aus- trian cavalry, which, after doing its duty, retired under the protection of the Russian artillery. The latter, sticking close to its guns, poured a shower of grape upon the dra- goons, who endeavoured in vain to take it Marshal Soult's infantry marched up, in its turn, to this artillery, in spite of a fire at point-blank range, took it and drove the Rus- sian infantry towards Telnitz. Marshal Da vout, on his part, with Friant's division, was entering Telnitz. The Russians, therefore, had no other retreat but a narrow pass be- tween Telnitz and the ?onds. Some rushed 94 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. upon them pell-mell, and shared the fate of those who had preceded them. Others found means to escape by a route which had been discovered between the ponds of Satschau and Menitz. The French cavalry pursued them along this track, and harassed them in their retreat. The sun in the daytime had converted the clayey soil of these parts from ice into thick mud, into which men and horses sunk. The artillery of the Russians stuck fast in it. Their horses, fitted rather for speed than for draught, being unable to extricate the guns, were objiged to leave them there. Amidst this rout, our horses picked up 3000 prisoners and a great number of cannon. "I had pre- viously seen some lost battles," says an eye- witness of this frightful scene, General Lan- geron, " but I had no conception of such a defeat." In fact, from one wing to the other of the Russian army, no part of it was in order but the corps of Prince Bagration, which Lannes had not ventured to pursue, being ignorant of what was passing on the right of the army. All the rest was in a state of frightful disorder, setting up wild shouts, and plundering the villages scattered upon its route, to procure provisions. The two sovereigns of Russia and Austria fled from that field of battle upon which they heard the French crying "Vive I" Empereur !" Alexander was deeply dejected. The Emperor Francis, more tranquil, bore the disaster with great composure. Under the common misfortune, he had at least one con- solation : the Russians could no longer allege that the cowardice of the Austrians constituted all the glory of Napoleon. The two princes retreated precipitately over the plains of Mo- ravia, amidst profound darkness, separated from their household, and liable to be insulted, through the barbarity of their own soldiers. The Emperor Francis seeing that all was lost, took it upon him to send Prince John of Lich- tenstein to Napoleon, to solicit an armistice, with a promise to sign a peace in a few days. He commissioned him, moreover, to express to Napoleon his wish to have an interview with him at the advanced posts. Prince John, who had well performed his duty in the engagement, could appear with honour before the conqueror. He repaired with the utmost expedition to the French head- quarters. The victorious Napoleon was en- gaged in going over the field of battle, to have the wounded picked up. He would not take rest himself till he had paid to his soldiers those attentions to which they had such good right. In obedience to his orders, none of them had quitted the ranks to carry away the wounded. The ground was, in consequence, strewed with them for a space of more than three leagues. It was covered more especially with Russian corpses. The field of battle was an awful spectacle. But this sight affected >ur old soldiers of the Revolution very slightly. Accustomed to the horrors of war, they re- garded wounds, death, as a natural conse- quence of battles, and as trifles in the bosom of victory. They were intoxicated with joy, and raised boisterous acclamations, when they oerceivcJ the group of officers which marked the presence of Napoleon. His return to the head-quarters, which had been established at the post-house of Posoritz, had the appearance of a triumphal procession. That spirit, in which such bitter pangs were one day to succeed such exquisite joys, tasted at that moment the delights of the most mag- nificent and the most deserved success; for, if victory is frequently a pure favour of chance, it was in this instance the reward of admi- rable combinations. Napoleon, in fact, guess- ing with the penetration of genius, that the Russians designed to wrest the Vienna road from him, and that they would then place themselves between him and the ponds, had, by his very attitude, encouraged them to come thither; since, weakening his right, reinforc- ing his centre, he had thrown himself upon the heights of Pratzen, abandoned by them, cut them thus in two, and flung them into a gulf, which they could not get out of. The greater part of his troops, kept in reserve, had scarcely been brought into action, so strong did a just conclusion render his position, and so well also did the valour of his soldiers per- mit him to bring them forward in inferior number before the enemy. It may be said that, out of 65,000 French, 40 or 45 thousand, at most, had been engaged; for Bernadotte's corps, the grenadiers, and the infantry of the guard had exchanged only a few musket-shots. Thus 45,000 French had beaten 90,000 Austro- Russians. The results of the battle were immense : 15,000 killed or wounded, about 20,000 prison- ers, among whom were 10 colonels and 8 generals, 180 pieces of cannon, an immense quantity of artillery and baggage-wagons such were the losses of the enemy and the trophies of the French. The latter had to regret about 7000 men killed and wounded. Napoleon, having returned to his head- quarters at Posoritz, there received Prince John of Lichtenstein. He treated him as a conqueror full of courtesy, and agreed to an interview with the Emperor of Austria on the day after the next, at the advanced posts of the two armies; but an armistice was not to be granted till the two Emperors of France and Austria had met and explained themselves. On the morrow, Napoleon transferred his head-quarters to Austerlitz, a mansion belong- ing to the family of Kaunitz. There he esla- blished himself, and determined to give the name of that mansion to the battle which the soldiers already called the battle of the three emperors. It has borne and will bear for ages the name which it received from the immortal captain who won it He addressed to his sol diers the following proclamation: "Aufterlitz, 12 Frimaire. " Soldiers, I am satisfied with you : in the battle of Austerlitz you have justified all that I expected from your intrepidity. You have decorated your eagles with immortal glory. An army of one hundred thousand men, com- manded by the Emperors of Russia and Aus- tria, has been in less than four hours either cut in pieces or dispersed. Those who escaped your weapons are drowned in the lakes. Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 95 "Forty colours, the standards of the impe- rial guard of Russia, one hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, more than thirty thousand prisoners, 1 are the result of this ever-celebrated battle. That infantry, so highly vaunted and superior in number, could not withstand your shocks, and thenceforward you have no rivals to fear. Thus, in two months, this third coa- lition has been vanquished and dissolved. Peace cannot now be far distant, but, as I pro- mised my people before I passed the Rhine, I will make only such a peace as gives us gua- rantees and insures rewards to our allies. " Soldiers, when all that is necessary to se- cure the welfare and the prosperity of our country is accomplished, I will lead you back to France : there you will be the object of my tenderest concern. My people will see you again with joy, and it will be sufficient to say, I was at the battle of Austerlitz, for them to reply, There is a brave man. " NAPOLEOS." It was necessary to follow the enemy, whom all accounts represented as being in disorderly retreat. In this confusion, Napoleon, misled by Murat, conjectured that the fugitive army was directing its course towards Olmutz, and he had sent off the cavalry and the corps of Lannes to that point But, on the following day, the 3d of December, more accurate intel- ligence, collected by General Thiard, apprized him that the enemy was proceeding by the road to Hungary for the Morava. Napoleon hastened to recall his columns to Nasiedlowitz and Coding. Marshal Davout, reinforced by the junction of Friant's whole division, and by the arrival in line of Gudin's division, had lost no time, thanks to his nearer position to the Hungary road. He set out in pursuit of the Russians and pressed them closely. He in- tended to overtake them before the passage of the Morava, and to cut off perhaps a part of their army. After marching on the 3d, he was, on the morning of the 4th, in sight of Goding and nearly up with them. The greatest con- fusion prevailed in Goding. Beyond that place there was a mansion belonging to the Emperor of Germany, that of Holitsch, where the two allied sovereigns had taken refuge. The perturbation there was as great as at Goding. The Russian officers continued to hold the most unbecoming language respecting the Austrians. They laid the blame of the common defeat on them, as if they ought not to have attributed it to their own presumption, to the incapacity of their generals, and to the levity of their government. The Austrians, moreover, had behaved quite as well as the Russians on the field of battle. The two vanquished monarchs were very cool towards each other. The Emperor Fran- cis wished to confer with the Emperor Alex- ander, before he went to the interview agreed upon with Napoleon. Both thought that they ought to solicit an armistice and peace, for it was impossible to continue the struggle. Alex- ander was desirous, though he did not acknow- ledge it, that himself and his army should be ' The exact number was not yet known. saved as soon as possible from the conse- quences of an impetuous pursuit, such as might be apprehended from Napoleon. As for the conditions, he left his ally to settle them as he pleased. The Emperor Francis alone having to defray the expenses of the war, the conditions on which peace should be signed concerned him exclusively. Some time before, the Emperor Alexander, setting himself up for the arbiter of Europe, would have in- sisted that those conditions concerned him also. His pride was less exigent since the battle of the 2d of December. The Emperor Francis accordingly set out for Nasiedlowitz, a village situated midway to the mansion of Austerlitz, and there, near the mill of Paleny, between Nasiedlowitz and Ur- schitz, amidst the French and the Austrian advanced posts, he found Napoleon waiting for him before a bivouac fire kindled by his soldiers. Napoleon had had the politeness to arrive first. He went to meet the Emperor Francis, received him as he alighted from his carriage and embraced him. The Austrian monarch, encouraged by the welcome of his all-powerful foe, had a long conversation with him. The principal officers of the two armies, standing aside, beheld with great curiosity the extraordinary spectacle of the successor of the Caesars vanquished and soliciting peace of the crowned soldier, whom the French Revolution had raised to the pinnacle of human greatness. Napoleon apologized to the Emperor Francis for receiving him in such a place. " Such are the palaces," said he, " which your majesty has obliged me to inhabit for these three months." " The abode in them," replied the Austrian monarch, " makes you so thriving, that you have no right to be angry with me for it." The conversation then turned upon the general state of affairs, Napoleon insisting that he had been forced into the war against his will at a moment when he least expected it, and when he was exclusively engaged with England, the Emperor of Austria affirming that he had been urged to take arms solely by the designs of France in regard to Italy. Napoleon declared that, on the conditions already specified to M. de Giulay, and which he had no need to re- peat, he was ready to sign a peace. The Em- peror Francis, without explaining himself on this subject, wished to know how Napoleon was disposed in regard to the Russian army. Napoleon first required that the Emperor Fran- cis should separate his cause from that of the Emperor Alexander, and that the Russian army should retire by regulated marches from the Austrian territories, and promised to grant him an armistice on this condition. As for peace with Russia, he added, that would be settled afterwards, for this peace concerned him alone. " Take my advice," said Napoleon to the Emperor Francis, "do not mix up your cause with that of the Emperor Alexander. Russia alone can now wage only a fancy war in Eu- rope. Vanquished, she retires to her deserts, and you, you pay with your provinces thf costs of the war." The forcible language of Napoleon expressed but too. well the state of ! things in Europe between that great i and the rest of the continent. The 96 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. Francis pledged his word as a man and a sove- reign not to renew the war, and above all to listen no more to the suggestions of powers which had nothing to lose in the struggle. He agreed to an armistice for himself and for the Emperor Alexander, an armistice, the condition of which was that the Russians should retire by regulated marches, and that the Austrian cabinet should immediately send negotiators empowered to sign a separate peace with France. The two emperors parted with reiterated de- monstrations of cordiality. Napoleon handed into his carriage that monarch whom he had just called his brother, and remounted his horse to return to Austerlitz. General Savary was sent to suspend the march of Davout's corps. He first proceeded to Holitsch, with the suite of the Emperor Francis, to learn whether the Emperor Alex- ander acceded to the proposed conditions. He saw the latter, around whom every thing was much changed since the mission on which he was sent to him a few days before. " Your master," said Alexander to him, " has shown himself very great. I acknowledge all the power of his genius, and, as for myself, I shall retire, since my ally is satisfied." General Savary conversed for some time with the young czar on the late battle, explained to him how the French army, inferior in number to the Russian army, had nevertheless appeared su- perior on all points, owing to the art of ma- noauvring which Napoleon possessed in so eminent a degree. He courteously added that with experience Alexander, in his turn, would ber ime a warrior, but that so difficult an art v AH not to be learned in a day. After these flatteries to the vanquished monarch, he set out for Coding to stop Marshal Davout, who had rejected all the proposals fora suspension of arms, and was ready to attack the relics of the Russian army. To no purpose he had been assured in the name of the Emperor of Russia himself that an armistice was negotiating be- tween Napoleon and the Emperor of Austria. He would not on any account abandon his prey. But General Savary stopped him with a formal order from Napoleon. These were the last musket-shots fired during that unex- ampled campaign. The troops of the several nations separated to go into winter-quarters, awaiting what should be decided by the nego- tiators of the belligerent powers. Napoleon proceeded from the mansion of Austerliiz to Briinn, to which place he had re- quired M. de Talleyrand to repair, in order to settle the conditions of the peace, which could be no longer doubtful, since the resources of Austria were exhausted; and Russia, eager to obtain an armistice, was drawing off her army in the utmost haste into Poland. While the war of the first coalition had lasted five years, that of the second coalition, two, the war raised by the third had lasted three months, so irre- sistible had become the power of revolutionary Fiance, concentrated in a single hand, and so able and prompt was that hand to strike those whom it purposed to reach. The course of events had actually been such as Napoleon had Barked >u' beforehand in his cabinet at Bou- logne. He had taken the Austrians at Ulm almost without striking a blow ; he had crushed the Russians at Austerlitz, and extricated Italy by the mere effect of his offensive march upon Vienna, and reduced the attacks on Hanover and Naples to mere acts of imprudence. The latter, in particular, after the battle of Auster- litz, was but a disastrous folly for ihe house of Bourbon. Europe was at the feet of Napo- leon, and Prussia, hurried away for a moment by the coalition, was soon destined to find her- self at the mercy of the captain whom she had offended and betrayed. Still it required great skill to negotiate, for, if our enemies, recovering from their terror, and abusing the engagements into which they had obliged Prussia to enter, forced her to in- tervene in the negotiations, they might still, being three to one, dispute the conditions of the peace, and rob the conqueror of part of the advantages of the victory. Napoleon, there- fore, determined that the negotiations should be carried on at Briinn, far from M. de Haug- witz, whom he had sent to Vienna, and whom he obliged to stay there by promising to meet him in that capital. While the armies were engaged in fighting, Messieurs de Giulay and De Stadion had held conferences at Vienna with M. de Talleyrand, and they had desired to negotiate in common for Russia and Austria, under the mediation of Prussia. Since the arrival of M. de Haugwitz, they had politely but earnestly urged him to execute the convention of Potsdam, judging that, if Prussia were comprehended in the negotiations, she would be obliged either to enforce the conditions of peace settled at Pots- dam or take part in the war. M. de Haugwitz had refused to treat in that manner, on the ground of the nature of his mission, which obliged him not to take his seat in a congress, but to treat directly with Napoleon, in order to bring him into the ideas adopted by the Prus- sian cabinet. Besides, M. de Talleyrand had cut short these pretensions by declaring that Austria alone would be admitted to the nego- tiation. He signified this resolution at Vienna on the 2d of December, the very day on which the battle of Austerlitz was fought. That battle being won, and the armistice demanded and granted at the bivouac of the conqueror, the separate negotiation was a condition accepted beforehand. Napoleon re- quired, as we have related, that it should be opened immediately at Briinn with M. de Tal- leyrand. He caused it to be intimated that he consented to admit M. de Giulay to treat, but not M. de Stadion, formerly ambassador of Austria in Russia, full of the prejudices of the coalition, and raising, from the very nature of his genius, incessantly recurring difficulties. He pointed out for negotiator Prince John of Lichtenstein, who had pleased him by his frank and military manners. The latter was immediately sent to Briinn with M. de Giulay. The Emperor Francis being at Holitsch, it was possible to communicate with him in a few hours, and to settle very promptly any contested points. The negotiation was, there- fore, opened at Briinn, between Messieurs de Talleyrand, De Giulay, and De Lichtenstein Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 97 Napoleon, after he had fixed the basis, pur- posed to repair immediately to Vienna, to wring from M. de Haugwitz a confession of the weaknesses and the falseness of Prussia, and to make him bear the punishment for them. But what were to be the bases of the peace ? This was what Napoleon and M. de Talley- rand discussed at Brunn, and what had been the subject of frequent and profound conversa- tions between them. The moment was perilous for the wisdom of Napoleon. Victorious in three months over a powerful coalition, having seen the most renowned soldiers of the continent flee before his soldiers, though inferior in number, was he not likely to acquire from his power an exaggerated sentiment, and to conceive a contempt for all European resistances ? During the Consulate, when he wished to conciliate France and Europe, he had been seen at home indulging parties, abroad overcoming Austria by victories, Russia by delicate caresses, Prussia by the skilfully employed bait of Ger- manic indemnities, England by the state of exclusion to which he had reduced her, pacify- ing the world in an almost miraculous man- ner, and displaying the most admirable of abilities, that of the force which knows how to restrain itself. But he had soon been seen also irritated by the ingratitude of parties, no longer keeping measures with them, and striking cruelly in the person of the Duke d'Enghien. He had been seen, exasperated at the provoking jealousy of England, throwing down the gauntlet which she had picked up, and collecting all human means to overwhelm her. Now, the powers of the continent, having without sufficient motive called him away from his struggle with England, and having drawn upon themselves defeats which were absolute disasters, was he not to deal with them as with his other enemies, and set aside those courte- sies indispensable even to might, and which constitute the whole art of politics] Would a man who could always draw from his genius and the bravery of his soldiers such an event as Marengo or Austerlitz be accountable to any one on earth 1 M. de Talleyrand, to whose character and to the part which he played during this reign we have already adverted, again made on this occasion some efforts to moderate Napoleon, but without much success. Fonder of pleas- ing than contradicting, having, in regard to European politics, inclinations rather than opinions, incessantly patronizing Austria, doing ill offices to Prussia, from an old tradi- tion of the cabinet of Versailles, he had ren- dered himself suspected of complaisance for the one and aversion for the other, and had not that credit with his sovereign which a firm and convinced mind could have obtained. However, on this as on other occasions, if he had not the merif of securing the ascendency for moderation, he had that of recommend- ing it. M. de Talleyrand, on the day after the battle of Austerlitz, gave to the intoxicated conqueror of Europe such advice as this. It was requisite, according to him, to treat Austria with moderation and generosity. That VOL. II. 12 power, considerably diminished during the last two centuries, ought to be much less an object of our jealousy than formerly. A new power ought to take its place in our prepos- sessions that was Russia, and against this latter, Austria, so far from being a danger, was a useful barrier. Austria, a vast aggregation of nations foreign to each other, as Austrians, Sclavonians, Hungarians, Bohemians, Italians, might easily fall to pieces, if the bond, already feeble, that held together the heterogeneous elements of which it was composed, were to be further weakened; and its wrecks would have more tendency to attach themselves to Russia than to France. We ought, therefore, to desist from inflicting blows upon Austria, nay, to indemnify her for the new losses which she was about to sustain, and to indemnify her in a manner beneficial to Europe, which was not only possible, but easy. M. de Talleyrand proposed an ingenious combination, but premature, indeed, in the then state of Europe : it was to give Austria the banks of the Danube, that is to say, Wal- lachia and Moldavia. These provinces, he said, would be wijrth more than Italy itself; they would console Austria for her losses, alienate her from Russia, render her, in regard to the latter, the bulwark of the Ottoman em- pire, as she already was that of Europe. These provinces, after embroiling her with Russia, would embroil her with England, and make her thenceforward the obliged ally of France. As for Prussia, there was no need to put one's self out of the way on her account: we were at liberty to treat her as we pleased. It was decidedly a false, faint-hearted court, on which no reliance was to be placed. In order to please it, we ought not again to es- trange Austria, the only ally whom we could think of in future. Such were the opinions of M. de Talley- rand on this occasion. The advice to spare Austria, to console her, nay even to indemnify her with well chosen equivalents, was excel- lent; for the true policy of Napoteon ought to have been to conquer and to spare everybody on the morrow of the victory. But the coun- sel to treat Prussia slightingly was pernicious, and proceeded from a false policy, to which we have already adverted. Assuredly, it would have been desirable to have it in our power to gain the provinces of the Danube to Austria, and above all to make her consider them as a sufficient compensation for her losses in Italy ; but it is doubtful whether she would have assented to such a combination ; for Wallachia and Moldavia, by alienating Russia and England from her, would have rendered her dependent on us. It is doubtful, besides, if one could, at this period, have dis- tributed European territories so freely as was done two years 'ater at Tilsit. Be this as it may, in determining to sway Italy, it was ne- cessary to make up one's mind to find Aus- tria an enemy, whatever consideration might be shown for her: and then what ally would there be to choose 1 We have already ob- served more than once, that, embroiled .vi'h, England from the desire of equality at sea, with Russia from the- desire of supremacy OP 98 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. the continent, unable to derive any benefit ! from disorganized Spain, what was left us but Prussia Prussia, vacillating, it is true, but much more from the scruples of her sove- reign than from the natural falseness of her cabinet Prussia, having no interest contrary to ours, since she had not yet the Rhenish provinces, already compromised in our sys- tem, having her hands full of the spoils of the church received from us, wishing for nothing better than to receive more of them, and 1 ready to accept any conquest that would chain her for ever to our policy 1 It was an egregious mistake, therefore, not to wish to spare Austria, but to believe that we could attach her seriously and so strongly that there was no longer any danger in ill-treating or neglecting Prussia. Napoleon did not share the errors of Tal- leyrand, but he committed others, from the passion for dominion, which the hatred of his enemies, and the prodigious success of his armies began to excite in him beyond all rea- sonable bounds. He had not sought a quarrel on the conti- nent : they had come, on the contrary, to di- vert him from his grand enterprise against England, to declare war against him. Those who had begun that war, and who had got beaten, ought, according to him, to bear the consequences. He resolved, therefore, to ob- tain, by the peace, the complement of Italy, that is to say, the Venetian States, then in the possession of Austria, and likewise the defini- tive solution of the Germanic questions in favour of his allies, Bavaria, Baden, Wurtem- berg. On these two points Napoleon was peremp- tory ; it was not wrong of him to be so. He wanted Venice, the Friule, Istria, Dalmatia, in short, Italy as far as the Julian Alps, and the Adriatic with both its coasts, which would insure him an action upon the Ottoman Em- pire. As to Germany, he purposed first to confine Austria with her natural frontiers, the Inn and the Salza, to take from her the terri- tories which she possessed in Suabia, and which were designated by the title of Hither Austria, territories which afforded her the means of annoying the German States in alli- ance with France, and of making, whenever she pleased, military preparations on the Upper Danube. He meant to deprive her of the communications of the Tyrol with the Lake of Constance and Switzerland, that is to say, off the Vorarlberg. He even intended, if possible, to wrest from her the Tyrol, which gave her possession of the Alps and an ever sure passage into Italy. But this last point was difficult to be obtained, because the Ty- rol was an old possession of Austria's, as dear to her affections as valuable to her inte- rests. It was inflicting on Austria a loss of about four millions of subjects out of twenty- four, and of fifteen million florins out a reve- nue of one hundred and rnree. These were, therefore, cruel sacrifices to require of her. With all that he purposed to take from her in Germany, Napoleon intended to complete the patrimony of the three German States which had been his auxiliaries Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg. He intended also to procure for himself by means of these three States an action on the Diet, a road to the Danube, and to show in a signal manner that his alliance was beneficial to those who em- braced it. He purposed also to resolve favourably for those allied princes the question of the im- mediate nobility, and to abolish that nobility, which created them enemies in their domi- nions. He meant likewise to resolve all questions of paramountship, and to suppress by that means a great number of rights of the feudal kind, very slavish and onerous to the Germanic States. Lastly, Napoleon proposed, in order to at- tach solidly to himself the three princes of South Germany, to add the bond of matri- mony to the bond of benefit. He wanted princes and princesses to unite with members of his dynasty. He calculated on finding them in Germany, and on thus joining to princely establishments the influence of fa- mily alliances. Prince Eugene de Beauharnais was dear to his heart. He had made him viceroy of Italy : he was seeking a wife for him. He had cast his eyes on the daughter of the elector of Ba- varia, a remarkable princess, and worthy of him for whom she was destined. As he re- served the greater part of the spoils of Austria for Bavaria, which the situation and the dan- gers of that electorate sufficiently justified, he wished that part of those spoils should be the dowry for the French prince. But the Princess Augusta was promised to the heir of Baden, and her mother, the elec- tress of Bavaria, a violent enemy of France, alleged that engagement for rejecting an al- liance which she disliked. General Thiard, having contracted intimacies with several of the minor German courts, while serving in the army of Conde, had been sent to Munich and Baden to remove the obstacles which opposed the projected unions. That officer, a clever negotiator, had made use of the Countess of Hochberg, who was united by a left-handed marriage with the reigning Elector of Baden, and who had need of France to obtain the ac- knowledgment of her children. Through the influence of this lady, he had induced the court of Baden to a very delicate step, namely, to desist from all views on the hand of the the Princess Augusta of Bavaria. This point gained, the elector and the Electress of Bava- ria were left without pretext for refusing an alliance which brought them a dowry of the Tyrol and part of Suabia. This was not the only German union which i Napoleon thought of. The heir of Baden, from ' whom the Princess Augusta of Bavaria had just been taken, was yet to be provided for, Napoleon destined for him Mademoiselle Ste- phanie de Beauharnais, a person endowed with grace and a superior understanding, and whom he intended to create imperial princess. He charged General Thiard to conclude this match also. Lastly, the old Duke of Wurtera- berg had a daughter, the Princess Catharine, whose noble jualities have since been con spicuously called forth by adversity. Napo- Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 99 Icon wished to obtain her for his brother Je- rome. But a marriage contracted by the latter in America, without the authorization of his family, was an obstacle which could not yet be removed. It was necessary, therefore, to defer this last establishment. To all the ag- grandizements of territory, which he was pre- paring for the houses of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, Napoleon purposed to add the title of king, leaving to those houses the place which they had in the Germanic confedera- tion. Such were the advantages which Napoleon intended to derive from his late victories. To require the whole of Italy was, on his part, natural and consistent. To seek in the Aus- trian possessions in Saubia means of aggran- dizing the princes, his allies, was extremely ju- dicious, for Austria was thus thrust back be- hind the Inn, and the alliance of France was rendered manifestly beneficial. To take the Vorarlberg from Austria, in order to give it to Bavaria, was also wise, for she was then separated from Switzerland. But to take the Tyrol from her, though it was a good combi- nation in reference to Italy, was filling her heart with implacable resentment ; it was re- ducing her to a despair, which, concealed for the moment, would break forth sooner or later ; it was condemning one's self more than ever to cautious policy, clever at finding and at keeping alliances, since it rendered the princi- pal of the powers of the continent an irrecon- cilable foe. To resolve the question of the immediate nobility, and several other feudal questions, might be a useful simplification in regard to the internal organization of Germany. But to aggrandize in an extraordinary degree the Princes of Baden, Bavaria, and Wurtem- berg, to connect them with France so closely as to render them suspected to Germany, was to create for them a false position, from which they would some day be tempted to extricate themselves by becoming unfaithful to their protector; it was making enemies of all the German princes who were not favoured; il was wounding in a new fashion Austria, already wounded in so many ways, and, what was still worse, disobliging Prussia herself; in short, it was interfering further than was becoming in the affairs of Germany, and rais- ing up against one's self jealous spirits and petty in grates. Napoleon ought not to have forgotten that he had caused cannon to be pointed at the gates of Stuttgard in order to break them open ; that he was obilged at that moment to make use of a foreign woman to ob- tain a marriage at Baden, and almost to wring from the Elector of Bavaria his daughter, who had been obtained only by appearing with the keys of the Tyrol in one hand and the sword of France in the other. Napoleon, then, overstepped the true limit of French policy in Germany, in creating for himself allies too much detached from the German system, and by no means sure, be- cause their position would be false. But it is difficult to observe moderation in victory ; be- sides, he was a new monarch : he was an ex- cellent head of a family ; he wanted alliances and marriages. Such were the ideas that served for the foundation of the instructions left with M. de Talleyrand for the negotiation commenced with Messieurs de Giulay and Lichtenstein. He added one condition for the benefit of the army, which was not less dear to him than his brothers and nieces; he demanded 100 mil- lions, for the purpose of forming a provision not only for the officers of all ranks, but also for the widows and children of those who had fallen in battle ; without losing time, he signed three treaties of alliance with Baden, Wurtem- berg, and Bavaria. He gave to Baden the Ortenau and part of the Brisgau, several towns on the shore of the Lake of Constance, that is to say 113,000 inhabitants, which was an augmentation of about one-fourth to the terri- tories of that house. He gave to the house of Wurtemburg the rest of the Brisgau, and con- siderable portions of Suabia, that is to say 183,000 inhabitants, which formed an aug- mentation of more than a fourth, and raised the population of that principality to nearly a mil- lion. Lastly, to Bavaria he gave the Vorarl- berg, the bishoprics of Eichstidt and Passau, recently allotted to the Elector of Salzburg, all Austrian Saubia, the city and bishopric of Augsburg, that is to say a million inhabitants, which raised Bavaria from two millions to three, and added a third to her possessions. The progress of the negotiations with Austria did not admit of any mention being yet made of the Tyrol. To these princes were, moreover, attributed all the rights of sovereignty over the imme- diate nobility, and they were relieved from the feudal services claimed by the Emperor of Germany on account of certain portions of their territories. The Elector of Baden, having the modesty to refuse the title of king, as too superior to his revenues, the title of elector was left him ; but that of king was immediately conferred on the Electors of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. In return for these advantages, those three princes engaged to assist France in any war which she might have to wage in future in support of her state at this time, and in any which might result from the treaty about to be concluded with Austria. France, on her part, engaged, whenever it should be necessary, to take up arms to maintain these princes in their new situation. These treaties were signed on the 10th, 12th, and 20th of December. They were delivered to General Thiard when he set off to negotiate the projected marriages. Thus a portion of the territories of Austria had been disposed of beforehand, and without the consent of that power. But the conqueror gave himself little concern about the conse- quences to which this proceeding exposed him. Napoleon, after attending to his wounded, after sending off for Vienna those at least who were capable of being removed, after despatching to France the prisoners and the cannon taken from the enemy, quitted Brunr. leaving M. de Talleyrand to discuss the pre- scribed conditions with Messieurs de Giulay and De Dichtenstein. He was impatient to have a long conversation at Vienna with M. 100 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805. le Haugwitz and to dive to the bottom of the secret of Prussia. M. de Talleyrand entered immediately into conference with the two Austrian negotiators. They strongly remonstrated when they were made acquainted with the pretensions of the French minister, and as yet there had been no explanation respecting the Tyrol; nothing had been said but about the desire to separate Austria from Italy and Switzerland, to cut short all causes for rivalry and war. Messieurs de Lichtenstein and De Giulay communicated, on their part, the conditions to which Austria was ready to consent She saw clearly that she must relinquish the Ve- netian States, the possessions which she had in Suabia, and litigious pretensions between the Empire and the German princes. She consented, therefore, to cede Venice and the terra firma as far as the Izonzo ; but she wished to keep Istria and Albania and to gain Ragusa, as debouches necessary for Hungary. These were, besides, the last remains of the acquisitions obtained by the reigning emperor, and he made it a point of honour to preserve them. As for the Tyrol, she was almost disposed to give that up, but by transferring it to the then Elector of Salzburg, the Archduke Fer- dinand, who had been compensated in 1803 for Tuscany by the bishopric Of Salzburg and the provostship of Berchtolsgaden. She want- ed Salzburg and Berchtolsgaden in exchange, and moreover she required that the Vorarl- berg, Lindau, and the shores of the Lake of Constance should be given to the same arch- duke, as dependencies of the Tyrol. By this arrangement, Austria would have acquired Salzburg and kept the Tyrol and the Vorarlberg, in the person of one of her arch- dukes. For the rest, she consented to cede the Aus- trian possessions in Suabia, likewise the Or- tenau, the Brisgau, the bishoprics of Eichstiidt and Passau. But she demanded for the princes of her house who would lose those possessions a large compensation, which will appear singularly devised, and show with what sentiments the members of the European coa- lition were animated towards one another she demanded Hanover. Thus this patrimony of the King of Eng- land, which Napoleon had been censured for offering to Prussia, and Prussia for accepting from Napoleon, which Russia came herself to propose to Prussia in order to detach her from France, Austria, in her turn, demanded for an archduke ! M. de Talleyrand, delighted to find such claims brought forward, made no remonstrance on hearing them expressed, and promised to communicate them to Napoleon. Lastly, with regard to the contribution of one hundred millions, Austria declared it im- possible for her to pay ten, so completely was she exhausted. In compensation for such a sum, she offered to give up the immense ma- tirid in arms and ammunition of all kinds, which were in the Venetian States, and which she would have had a right to carry away, if she had not stipulated to leave it. After warm debates, which lasted but three or four days, since both parties were in haste to bring matters to a close, it was agreed that the Prince de Lichtenstein should go to the Emperor Francis at Holitsch, to obtain fresh instructions, as those with which he was fur- nished did not authorize him to subscribe to the sacrifices required by Napoleon. M. de Talleyrand was to remain at Brunn till his return. It was a great fault of the A us- trians to lose time ; for what was passing at Vienna between Napoleon and M. de Haug- witz was about to place them in a still worse situation. M. de Talleyrand, who from Briinn corre- sponded daily with Vienna, had informed Na- poleon that he was not near settling with the Austrian negotiators. This resistance, which would have deserved serious attention if it had been combined with the resistance of Prussia, annoyed Napoleon. The archdukes were ap- proaching Presburg, followed by 100,000 men. The Prussian troops were assembling in Sax- ony and in Franconia; the Anglo-Russians were advancing in Hanover. These conjoint circumstances did not alarm the victor of Aus- terlitz. He was ready, if need were, to fight the archdukes under the walls of Presburg, and then to fall upon Prussia by way of Bohe- mia. But it was beginning afresh a dangerous game with Europe, coalesced this time whole and entire, and he would not have been wise to expose himself to the risk for a few square leagues more or less. Though the position of Napoleon was that of an all-powerful conque- ror, it did not dispense him from the duty of behaving like an able politician. It was Prus- sia that it particularly behoved his skill to keep sight of; for, profiting by the terror with which the recent events of the war had filled her, he might take her away from the coalition, attach her again to France, and add to the victory of Austerlitz a diplomatic victory not less deci- sive. He was, therefore, extremely impatient to see and to converse with M. de Haugwitz. M. de Haugwitz, who had come to impose conditions on Napoleon, under the false ap- pearance of an officious mediation, found him triumphant and almost master of Europe. No doubt, with firmness, union, perseverance, it would still be possible to make head againt- the Emperor of the French. But Russia had passed from the delirium of pride to the de spondency of defeat. And, besides, all the allies, distrusting one another, communicated but little among themselves. M. de Haugwitz frequented incessantly and exclusively the French legation, and carried flattery to such a length as to wear every day in Vienna the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour, 1 never spoke but with admiration of Austerlitz and of the genius of Napoleon, and could not help feeling a strong agitation when thinking of the reception which he was about to meet with. Napoleon, having arrived on the 13th of December at Vienna, sent the same evening for M. de Haugwitz to Schonbrunn, and gave au- dience to him in the cabinet of Maria Theresa. 1 It is M. de Talieyrand who relates these particulars ii one of his letters to Napoleon. Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND TH.t] EMPIRE. 101 He knew not yet all that had taken place at Potsdam; he knew more, however, than when he saw M. de Haugwitz at Brunn, the day be- fore the battle. He was informed of the exist- ence of a treaty signed on the 3d of November, by which Prussia engaged eventually to join the coalition. He was warm and easily irri- tated, but frequently he feigned anger rather than felt it. Striving on this occasion to inti- midate his visitor, he reproached M. de Haug- witz most vehemently for having, he, the minis- ter, who was the friend of peace, he who had placed his glory in the system of neutrality, who had even desired to convert that neutrali- ty into a plan of alliance with France he re- proached him for having had the weakness to unite himself at Potsdam with Russia and Austria, for having contracted with those two powers engagements which could lead him to nothing but war. He complained bitterly of the duplicity of his cabinet, of the hesitations of his sovereign, of the empire of women over his court, and gave him to understand that, being now rid of the enemies whom he had upon his hands, he was at liberty to do what he pleased wilh Prussia. He then asked with vehemence what the Prussian cabinet wanted, what system it calculated on pursuing, and seemed to require complete, categorical, im- mediate explanations upon all these points. M. de Haugwitz, agitated at first, soon reco- vered himself, for he had not less presence of mind than intelligence. Amidst all this bois- terous passion, he imagined that he could per- ceive that Napoleon, at bottom, was desirous of a reconciliation, and that, if the engage- ments entered into with the coalition were very speedily broken, this conqueror, apparently so incensed, would consent to be appeased. M. de Haugwitz then gave his artful, spe- cious, fawning explanations of the circum- stances which had overpowered and hurried Prussia away ; mentioned, not indiscreetly, those who had suffered themselves to be con- trolled by pure accident to such a degree as to depart from the true system which was suita- ble for their country; and concluded with in- sinuating plainly enough that all would be speedily repaired, and even that the alliance which had so often miscarried might become the instantaneous price of an immediate re- conciliation. Napoleon, casting a piercing look into the soul of M. de Haugwiiz, perceived that the Prussians desired nothing better than to face about and come back to him. To all the blows that he had inflicted on Europe, he had taken pleasure in adding a piece of arch-raillery ; and he took it into his head to offer on the spot to M. de Haugwitz the plan which Duroc had been ordered to present at Berlin, that is to say, the formal alliance of Prussia with France, on the so oft-renewed condition of Hanover. This was certainly carrying the attempt upon the honour of the Prussian cabinet to a great length ; for Napoleon proposed to it, for the sake of money, one may say, to dissolve the ties recently contracted over the coffin of the great Frederick ; and he proposed to it, af er deserting France at Potsdam for the benefit of Europe, to desert Europe at Vienna for the benefit of France. Napoleon did not hesitate, and, while uttering this proposal, he kept his eyes long fixed on the face of M. de Haug- witz. The Prussian minister appeared neither an- gry nor surprised. He seemed delighted, on the contrary, to carry back from Vienna, in- stead of a declaration of war, Hanover, with the alliance of France, which was his favour- ite system. It should be observed, in excuse for M. de Haugwitz, that, having left Berlin at a moment when people there were flattering themselves that Napoleon would not reach Vienna, he had seen, even in this supposition, the Duke of Brunswick and Marshal Mollen- dorf uneasy about the consequences of a war against France, and insisting that no declara- tion should be issued before the end of Decem- ber. Now Napoleon had taken Vienna, crushed all the allies at Austerlitz, and it was only the 13th of December. M. de Haugwitz had rea- son to apprehend that the conqueror might make a rapid incursion into Bohemia and fall like lightning upon Berlin. He thought himself fortunate, therefore, in terminating with a con- quest a situation which threatened to terminate in a disaster. As for fidelity towards the coa- lesced powers, he treated them as they treated each other. Besides, for the line of conduct which he had pursued at Vienna, we must find fault not so much with him as with those who, in his absence, had entangled Prussia in a de- file, having no outlet. He accepted, therefore, the offer of Napoleon without further consider- ation. The latter, gratified to see that his proposal was successful, said to M. de Haugwitz, " Well, then, the thing is decided, you shall have Han- over. You will give me in return some patches of territory that I want, and sign a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, with France. But, on your arrival in Berlin, you will impose silence on the coteries; you will treat them with the contempt which they deserve; you will make the policy of the ministry predomi- nate over that of the court." The allusions of Napoleon pointed to the queen, to Prince Louis, and to those about them. He then en- joined Duroc to confer with M. de Haugwitz, and to prepare immediately the draft of the treaty. No sooner was this arrangement concluded than Napoleon, delighted with his work, wote to M. de Talleyrand, desiring him not to bring matters to a conclusion at Brunn, to protract the negotiation for a few days longer, for he was certain of settling with Prussia, which he had conquered at the price of Hanover, and thenceforward he had no need, to concern him- self either about the threats of the Anglo-Rus- sians against Holland, or the movements c-f the archdukes from the direction of Hungarv. He added that he would now peremptorily in- sist on the Tyrol, on the war contribution more resolutely than ever, and that, for the rest, he must leave Brunn and come to Vienna. The negotiation was too far from him at Briinn : he wished to have it nearer, af Presburg for instance. It, was on the 13th of December when Na- poleon had the interview with M de Haugwitz. i 2 103 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805 The treaty was drawn up on the 14th, and signed on the 15th at Schonbrunn. The prin- cipal conditions were the following : France, considering Hanover as her own conquest, ceded it to Prussia. Prussia, in re- turn, ceded to Bavaria the margravate of An- spach, that province which it was so difficult to_avoid passing through when at war with Austria. She ceded, moreover, to France the principality of Neufchatel, and the duchy of Cleves, containing the fortress of Wesel. The two powers guarantied all their possessions ; that is to say, Prussia guarantied to France her present limits, with the new acquisitions made in Italy and the new arrangements con- cluded in Germany; and France guarantied to Prussia her state at that time, including the additions of 1803 and the new addition of Han- over. It was an absolute treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, which moreover bore that formal title, a title repudiated in all ante- rior treaties. Napoleon had demanded Neufchatel, Cleves. and particularly Anspach, which he meant to exchange with Bavaria for the duchy of Berg, in order to have endowments to confer on his best servants. To Prussia these were very small sacrifices, and to him valuable means of reward ; for, in his vast designs, he would not be great without making all about him great his ministers, his generals, as well as his relations. This negotiation was a master-stroke: it covered the allies with confusion ; it placed Austria at the discretion of Napoleon ; and, above all, it secured to the latter the only de- sirable and possible alliance, the alliance of Prussia. But it contained a serious engage- ment, the engagement to wring Hanover from England, which might some day be found ex- tremely troublesome, as it was to be appre- hended that it might prevent a maritime peace, if sooner or later circumstances rendered such a peace possible. Napoleon wrote immediately afterwards to M. de Talleyrand that the treaty with Prussia was signed, and that he must leave Brtinn, if the Austrians did not accept the conditions which he meant to impose upon them. M. de Talleyrand, who would have been glad if peace had been already concluded, who disliked above all to maltreat Austria, was deeply vexed. As for the Austrian negotiators, they were thunderstruck. They brought from Holitsch fresh concessions, but not so exten- sive as those which had been required of them. They knew that Prussia, in order to obtain Hanover, exposed them to the loss of the Ty- ro}, and, notwithstanding the danger of further delay, and of seeing Napoleon make perhaps fresh demands, a danger of which M. de Tal- leyrand took pains to convince them, they were obliged to refer to their sovereign. They parted, therefore, at Briinn, promising to meet again at Presburg. The abode at Brunn had become unwholesome from the effluvia exhaled by a soil crowded with corpses and a town filled with hospitals. M. de TalleyraTic returned to Vienna and found Napoleon ready to renew the war if his leroii were not agreed tu. He had actually ordered General Songis to repair the materiel of the artillery, and to augment it at the expense of the arsenal of Vienna. He had even ad- dressed a severe reprimand to Fouche, the minister of police, for having allowed peace to be announced too soon as certain. One very recent circumstance had contri- buted to incense him more. He had just re ceived intelligence of what was occurring at Naples. That senseless court, after stipulat- ing (by the advice of Russia, it is true) a treaty of neutrality, had all at once thrown oft the mask and taken up arms. When informed of the battle of Trafalgar and the engagements contracted by Prussia, Queen Caroline had concluded that Napoleon was ruined, and had determined to send for the Russians. On the 19th of November, a naval division had landed on the coast of Naples 12,000 Russians and 6,000 English. The court of Naples had en- gaged to add 40,000 Neapolitans to the Anglo- Russian army. The plan was to raise Italy in the rear of the French, while Massena was at the foot of the Julian Alps and Napoleon almost on the frontiers of ancient Poland, That court of emigrants had given way to the habitual weakness of emigrants, which is to believe always what they wish and to act ac- cordingly. Napoleon, when apprized of this scandalous violation of faith pledged, was at once irritated and pleased. His resolution was taken ; the Queen of Naples should pay with her kingdom for the conduct which she had pursued, and leave vacant a crown which would be ex- tremely well placed in the Bonaparte family. Nobody in Europe could tax with injustice the sovereign act that should strike this branch of the house of Bourbon ; and, as for its natural protectors, Napoleon had no need to care about them. Meanwhile, the Austrian negotiators at Briinn had endeavoured to obtain the insertion in the treaty of peace of some article which should cover the court of Naples, of whose secret, though yet unknown to Napoleon, they were apprized. But the latter, when once in- formed, gave a positive order to M. de Talley- rand not to listen to any thing on that subject I should be too weak, said he, were I to put up with the insults of that wretched court of Naples. You know with what generosity I have treated it, but that is over now, Queen Caroline shall cease to reign in Italy. Hap- pen what will, never mention it in the treaty. That is my absolute will. The negotiators were waiting at Presburg for M. de Talleyrand, He repaired thither The negotiations were held at the advanced posts of the two armies. The archdukes had approached Presburg: they were within two marches of Vienna. Napoleon had collected there the greater part of his troops. He had brought Massena by the route of Styria. Nearly 200,000 French were concentrated around the capital of Austria. Napoleon, extremely in- censed, had determined to resume hostilities But it would have been too great a folly on the part of the court of Vienna to permit that, especially after the defection of Prussia, and in the disheartened state of the Russian caoi- Dec. 1805.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 103 net. Great as were the sacrifices required of the Austrian cabinet, though affecting at first to repeal the idea, it had made up its mind to submit to them. It was therefore agreed that Austria should give up the state of Venice, with the provinces of the terra firma, such as Friule, Istria, and Dalmatia. Trieste and the Bocca di Cattaro were also to be ceded to France. These territories were to be annexed to the kingdom of Italy. The separation of the crowns of France and Italy was anew stipulated, but with a vagueness of expression which left the faculty of deferring that separa- tion till the general peace, or till the death of Napoleon. Bavaria obtained the Tyrol, the object of her everlasting longing, the German Tyrol'as well as the Italian Tyrol. Austria, in return, ob- tained the principalities of Salzburg and Berchtolsgaden, given in 1803 to the Archduke Ferdinand, previously Grand-duke of Tuscany ; and Bavaria indemnified the archduke by ceding to him the ecclesiastical principality of Wurzburg, which she likewise had obtained in 1803, in consequence of the secularizations. The territory of Austria was thus rendered more compact ; but, with the Tyrol, she lost all influence over Switzerland and Italy, and the Archduke Ferdinand, removed into the centre of Franconia, ceased to be under her immediate influence. The state granted to that prince was not, as before, a mere depen- dency of the Austrian monarchy. To this indemnity, found in the country of Salzburg, was added for Austria the secular- ization of the possessions of the Teutonic Order, and their conversion to hereditary property in favour of any of the archdukes whom she should point out. The importance of these possessions consisted in a popula- tion of 120,000 inhabitants, and a revenue of 150,000 florins. The electoral title of the Archduke Ferdi- nand was upheld, and transferred from the principality of Salzburg to the principality of Wurzburg. Austria, recognising the royalty of the elec- tors of Wurtemberg and Bavaria, consented that the sovereigns of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, should have the same preroga- tives over the immediate nobility in their terri- tories as the emperor had over the immediate nobility in his. This was equivalent to the suppression of that nobility in the three states in question, for, the powers of the emperor over that nobility being complete, those of the three princes became equally so. Lastly, the imperial chancellery renounced all rights of feudal origin in the three states favoured by France. The approbation of the Diet was,however, for- mally reserved. France effected in this manner a social revolution in a considerable part of Germany ; for she centralized power there for the benefit of the territorial sovereign, and put an end to all external feudal dependence. She continued also the system of secularizations, for with the Teutonic Order disappeared one of the last two ecclesiastical principalities re- maining, and the only one then left was that of the prince arch-chancellor, ecclesiastical elector of Ratisbon. Conformably with what had previously been done, this secularization also was effected for the benefit of one of the principal courts of Germany. Austria, definitively excluded from Italy, de- spoiled by the loss of the Tyrol of the com- manding positions which she had in the Alps, thrust back behind the Inn, deprived of every advanced post in Suabia, and of the feudal rights which subjected the states of South Germany to her, had sustained immense losses, material and political. She lost, as we have already observed, four millions of subjects out of twenty-four, fifteen millions of florins out of a revenue of 103. The treaty was well conceived for the peace of Italy and Germany. There was only one objection to be made to it, namely, that the ; vanquished, too ill-treated, could not submit sincerely. It was for Napoleon, by great dis- cretion, by judicious alliances, to leave Aus- j tria without hope and without means of | revolting against the decisions of victory. At the moment of signing such a treaty, the hands of the plenipotentiaries hesitated. They stood out on two points, the war contribution of 100 millions and Naples. Napoleon had reduced the contribution demanded to 50 mil- lions, on account of the sums in the chests of Austria, to which he had already helped him- self. As for Naples, he would not hear a word about her. In order to overcome him, a proceeding of pure courtesy was devised, namely, to send to him the Archduke Charles, a prince whose character and talents he honoured, and whom | he had never seen. He was solicited to re- i ceive him at Vienna, and assented very cheer- fully, but firmly resolved to abate nothing. It was expected that this prince, one of the first generals in Europe, explaining to him the re- sources which the Austrian monarchy still possessed, expressing the sentiments of the army, ready to sacrifice itself in rejecting a humiliating peace, joining adroit solicitations to these remonstrances, might perhaps soften Napoleon. Hence, when M. de Talleyrand urged the negotiators to bring the business to a conclusion, they replied that they should be accused of having betrayed their country, if they gave their signatures before the interview which Napoleon was to have with the Arch- duke. However, M. de Talleyrand having taken it upon himself to relinquish 10 millions more of the war contribution, they signed on the 26th of December the treaty of Presburg, one of the most glorious that Napoleon ever con- cluded, and certainly the best conceived; for, if France afterwards obtained more extensive territories, it was at the price of arrangements less acceptable to Europe, and therefore less durable. The Austrian negotiators confined themselves to the recommendation of the reigning house of Naples to the generosity of the conqueror, in a letter signed by them both. The archduke visited Napoleon on the 27th, in one of the imperial palaces, was received by him with the respect due to his rank and his renown, conversed with him on the mili- tary art, which was perfectly natural betweeu 104 HISTORY OF THE [Dec. 1805 two captains of such merit, and then retired without having said a word about the affairs of the two empires. Napoleon made preparations for leaving Austria immediately. He ordered 2000 pieces of cannon and 100,000 muskets, found in the arsenal of Vienna, to be shipped on the Da- nube; he despatched 150 pieces to Palma Nova, to arm that important fortress, which commanded the Venetian states of the terra firma. He regulated the return of his soldiers in such a manner that it should take place by short marches, for he would not have them go back as they had come, on the run. The ne- cessary arrangements were made on the route for their abundant supply. He ordered two millions to be distributed forthwith among the officers of all ranks, that every one might im- mediately enjoy the fruits of the victory. Ber- thier was appointed to superintend the return of the army to the territory of France. It was to evacuate Vienna in five days, and to repass the Inn in twenty. It was stipulated that the fortress of Braunau should remain in the hands of the French till the complete payment of the contribution of 40 millions. This done, Napoleon set out for Munich, where he was received with transport. The Bavarians, who were one day to betray him in his defeat, and to oblige the French army to fight its way through them at Hanau, covered with their applause, pursued with ardent cu- riosity, the conqueror who had saved them from in-vasion, constituted them into a king- dom, enriched them with the spoils of van- quished Austria. Napoleon, after attending the wedding of Eugene Beauharnais and the Princess Augusta, after enjoying the happiness of a son whom he loved, the admiration of the people, eager to see him, the flatteries of an enemy, the Electress of Bavaria, set out for Paris, where the enthusiasm of France awaited him. A campaign of three months, instead of a war of several years, as it had at first been feared, the continent disarmed, the French em- pire extended to limits which it ought never to have passed, a dazzling glory added to our arms, public and private credit miraculously restored, new prospects of peace and pros- perity opened to the nation, under a govern- ment powerful and respected by the world that was what the people meant to thank him for by a thousand times repeated shouts of " Vive I'Empereur /" With these cries he was greeted even at Strasburg on crossing the Rhine, and they accompanied him to Paris, which he entered on the 26th of January, 1806. It was a second return from Marengo. Aus- terlitz was in fact for the Empire what Ma- rengo had been for the Consulate. Marengo had confirmed the consular power in the hands of Napoleon; Austerlitz secured the imperial crown upon his head. Marengo had caused France to pass in one day from a threatening situation to a tranquil and grand situation : Austerlitz, by crushing in a day a formidable coalition, produced a not less important result. For calm and reflecting minds, if any such were left in presence of these events, there was but one subject for fear the inconstancy of Fortune, and what is still more to be dreaded, the weakness of the human mind, which sometimes bears adversity without quailing, rarely prosperity without committing great faults. Jan. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 105 BOOK XXIV. CONFEDERATION OF THE RHINE. Return of Napoleon to Paris Public Joy Distribution of the Colours taken from the Enemy Decree of the Senate ordaining the Erection of a triumphal Monument Napoleon devotes his first Attention to the Finance* The Company of United Merchants is ascertained to be indebted to the Treasury the Sum of 141 Millions- Napoleon, dissatisfied with M. de Marbois, appoints M. Mollien to supersede him Re-establishment of Public Credit A fund formed with the Contributions levied in conquered Countries Orders relative to the Returii of the Army, to the Occupation of Dalmatia, to the Conquest of Naples Affairs of Prussia Ratification of the Treaty of Schonbrunn given with Reservations New Mission of M. de Haugwitz to Napoleon The Treaty of Schon- brunn remodelled in Paris, but with more Obligations and fewer Advantages for Prussia M. de Lucchesini is ent to Berlin to explain these new Changes The Treaty of Schonbrunn, transformed into the Treaty of Paris, is at length ratified, and M. de Haugwitz returns to Prussia Predominant Ascendency of France Entry of Joseph Bonaparte into Naples Occupation of Venice Delay in the Delivery of Dalmatia The French Army is halted on the Inn till the Delivery of Dalmatia, and distributed in the German Provinces most capaole of subsisting it Distress of the occupied Countries Situation of the Court of Prussia, after the Return of M. de Haugwitz to Berlin Mission of the Duke of Brunswick to St. Petersburg, to explain the Conduct of the Prus- sian Cabinet State of the Court of Russia Dispositions of Alexander since Austerlitz Reception given to the Duke of Brunswick Useless Efforts of Prussia to induce Russia and England to approve the Occupation of Hanover England declares War against Prussia Death of Mr. Pitt, and Accession of Mr. Fox to the Minis- try Hopes of Peace Correspondence between Mr. Fox and M. de Talleyrand Mission of Lord Yarmouth to Paris in Quality of confidential Negotiator Bases of a Maritime Peace The Agents of Austria, instead of giving up the Bocca di Cattaro to the French, put it into the Hands of the Russians Threats of Napoleon against the Court of Vienna Russia sends M. d'Oubril to Paris, with a Commission to prevent a Movement of the French Army against Austria, and to propose Peace Lord Yarmouth and M. d'Oubril negotiate jointly at Paris Possibility of a general Peace Calculation of Napoleon tending to protract the Negotiation System of the French Empire Vassal Kingdoms, Grand-Duchies, and Duchies Joseph King of Naples, Louis King of Holland Dissolution of the Germanic Empire Confederation of the Rhine Movements of the French Army Internal Administration Public Works The Column of the Place Venddme. the Louvre, the Rue Imperiale, the Arc de 1'Etoile Roads and Canals Council of State Institution of the University Budget of 1806 Re- establishment of the Tax on Salt New System of the Treasury Reorganization of the Bank of France Con- tinuation of the Negotiations with Russia and England Treaty of Peace with Russia signed on the 20th of July, by M. d'Oubril The Signature of this Treaty decides Lord Yarmouth to produce his Powers Lord Lan- derdale is associated with Ix>rd Yarmouth Difficulties of the Negotiation with England Some indiscretions committed by the English Negotiators on the Subject of the Restitution of Hanover, excite great Uneasiness at Berlin False Reports inflame the Court of Prussia New Infatuation at Berlin and Resolution to arm Sur- prise and Distrust of Napoleon Russia refuses to ratify the Treaty signed by M. d'Oubril. and proposes new Conditions Napoleon refuses to admit them General Tendency to War The King of Prussia insists on the French Army being withdrawn Napoleon replies by insisting on the Prussian Army being withdrawn Long Silence on both Sides Both Sovereigns set out for the Army War declared between Prussia and France. WHILE Napoleon was staying a few days at j Munich to celebrate the marriage of Eugene I de Beauharnais with the Princess Augusta of Bavaria ; while he was stopping one day at Stuttgard, another at Carlsruhe, to receive the congratulations of his new allies, and to con- clude family alliances there; the people of Paris were waiting with the utmost impa- tience to testify their joy and their admiration. France, thoroughly satisfied with the conduct of the public affairs, though no longer taking any part in them, seemed to have recovered the vivacity of the first days of the Revolution to applaud the marvellous exploits of her armies and of her chief. Napoleon, who with the genius for great things combined the art to set them off, had sent before him the colours taken from the enemy. He had given orders for a distribution of them that was very skil- fully calculated. He had divided them among the Senate, the Tribunate, the city of Paris, and the ancient church of Notre Dame, which had witnessed his coronation. He gave eight to the Tribunate, eight to the city of Paris, fifty-four to the Senate, fifty to the church of Notre Dame. During the whole of the cam- paign, he had never ceased to inform the Senate of all the events of the war, and when peace was signed, he had hastened to com- municate to it by a message the treaty of Presburg. In this manner he repaid by con- tinual attentions the confidence of that great body, and, in acting thus, he was consistent with his policy ; for he kept in a high rank loose old authors of the Revolution, whom the Voi. II. 14 new generation was glad to get rid of, when the elections furnished it with the means of doing so. These were his own aristocracy, which he hoped to melt down by degrees into the old one. These colours passed through Paris on the 15th of January, 1806, and were borne tri- umphantly along the streets of the capital, to be placed under the roofs of the edifices which were to contain them. An immense con- course collected to witness this spectacle. The cool and unimpassioned CambaceVes himself says, in his grave Memoirs, that the joy of the people resembled intoxication. And wherefore, indeed, should they rejoice if not on such occasions! Four hundred thousand Russians, Swedes, English, Austrians, were marching from all points of the horizon against France, two hundred thousand Prussians pro- mising to join them, and, all at once, a hun- dred thousand French, starting from the coasts of the Ocean, traversing in two months a great part of the European continent, taking the first army opposed to them without fighting, in- flicting redoubled blows on the others, entering the astonished capital of the ancient Germanic empire, passing beyond Vienna and going to the frontiers of Poland, to break in one great battle the bond of the coalition ; sending back the vanquished Russians to their frozen plain.,, and chaining the disconcerted Prussians to their frontiers; the dread of a war which might be expected to last long terminated in three months ; the peace of the continent sud- denly restored, the peace of the seas justly 106 HISTORY OF THE [Jan. 1806. noped for ; all the prospects of prosperity given back to France, delighted and placed at the head of the nations for what should peo- ple rejoice, we repeat, if not for such marvels ? And as at that time none could foresee the too speedy end of this greatness, or yet discern, in the too fertile genius that produced it, the too ardent genius also that was destined to com- promise it, one sympathized in the public happiness without any mixture of sinister presentiments. The men who are particularly affected by the material prosperity of States, the mer- chants, the capitalists, were not less moved than the rest of the nation. The great com- mercial houses, which in victory applauded the speedy return of peace the great com- mercial houses were delighted to see the double crisis of public and private credit ter- minated in a day, and to have reason to hope anew for that profound tranquillity, which for five years the Consulate had conferred on France. The Senate, on receiving the colours destined for it, ordained by a decree that a triumphal monument should be erected to Na- poleon the Great. Conformably with the wish of the Tribunate, this monument was to be a column surmounted by the statue of Napo- leon. His birthday was placed among the national festivals, and it was, moreover, de- termined that a spacious edifice should be erected in one of the public places of the capital, to receive, along with a series of sculptures and paintings, dedicated to the glory of the French armies, the sword which Napoleon used at the battle of Austerlitz. The colours destined for Notre Dame were delivered to the clergy of that cathedral by the municipal authorities. "These colours," said the venerable Archbishop of Paris, "suspend- ed from the roof of our church, will attest to our latest posterity the efforts of Europe in arms against us, the great achievements of our soldiers, the protection of Heaven over France, the prodigious successes of our in- vincible Emperor, and the homage which he pays to God of his victories." It was amidst this profound and universal satisfaction that Napoleon entered Paris, ac- companied by the Empress. The heads of the bank, desirous that his presence should be the signal of the public prosperity, had waited till the day before his arrival to resume their pay- ments in cash. Since the late events, reviving confidence had poured abundance of specie into its coffers. Of the temporary embarrass- ments of the month of December not a trace was left With Napoleon joy on account of success never interrupted business. His indefatigable spirit could unite at once business and plea- sure. Having arrived in the evening of the 26th of January, on the morning of the 27th he was wholly absorbed in the cares of govern- ment The Arch-chancellor Cambaceres was the first personage of the Empire with whom he conversed on that day. After some moments given to the pleasure of receiving his congra- tulations, and seeing his prudence confounded by the prodigies of the late war, he spoke to him about the financial crisis, so speedily and so happily terminated. He believed, and with reason, the accuracy, the equity, of the reports of the Arch-chancellor Cambaceres ; he wish- ed therefore to hear him before any other per- son. He was extremely irritated against M. de Marbois, whose gravity had always imposed upon him, and whom he had deemed incapa- ble of carelessness in business. He was far from suspecting the high integrity of that mi- nister, but he could not forgive him for having delivered up all the resources of the Treasury to adventurous speculators, and he was re- solved to display great severity. The arch- chancellor contrived to pacify him, and to de- monstrate that, instead of using rigour, it would be better to treat with the United Merchants for the transfer of all their assets, in order to wind up this strange transaction with the least pos- sible loss. Napoleon immediately summoned a council to the Tuileries, and desired to be furnished with a detailed report of the operations of the Company, which were still obscure to him. He required the attendance of all the ministers, and also of M. Mollien, director of the Sinking Fund, whose management he approved, and whom he thought to possess in a much higher degree than M. de Marbois the dexterity neces- sary for the administration of funds on a great scale. He sent an authoritative order to Mes- sieurs Desprez, Vanlerberghe, and Ouvrard, and to the clerk who was accused of having deceived the minister of the Treasury, to come to the Tuileries. All the persons who attended were intimi- dated by the presence of the Emperor, who did not conceal his resentment. M. de Marbois began reading a long report which he had drawn up relative to the subject under discus- sion. He had not read far before Napoleon, interrupting him, said, " I see how it is. It was with the funds of the Treasury and those of the bank that the company of United Merchant* calculated on providing supplies for France and Spain. And, as Spain had nothing to give but promises of piastres, it is with the money of France that the wants of both countries have been supplied. Spain owed me a subsidy, and it is I who have furnished her with one. Now Messieurs Desprez, Vanlerberghe, and Ouv- rard, must give up to me all they possess; Spain must pay me what she owes them, or I will shut up those gentlemen in Vincennes and send an army to Madrid." Napoleon appeared cold and stern towards M. de Marbois. "I esteem your character," said he, " but you have been the dupe of men against whom I warned you to be upon your guard. You have given up to them all the effects in the portfolio, over the employment of which you ought to have been more watchful. I regret to find myself obliged to withdraw from you the administration of the Treasury, for, after what has happened, I cannot leave it to you any longer." Napoleon then ordered the members of the Company, who had been sum- moned to the Tuileries, to be introduced. Mes- sieurs Vanlerberghe and Desprez, though the least reprehensible, melted into tears. M. Ouv- rard, who had compromised the Company by hazardous speculations, was perfectly calm. Jan. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 107 He endeavoured to persuade Napoleon that he ought to permit him to wind up himself the very complicated affairs in which he had in- volved his partners, and that he should bring over from Mexico, by way of Holland and Eng- land, considerable sums, and far superior to those which France had advanced.' It is probable that he would have managed the winding up of these affairs much better than any other person ; but Napoleon was too incensed, and too impatient to get out of the hands of speculators, to trust to his promises. He left M. Ouvrard and his partners the alter- native of a criminal prosecution or the imme- diate surrender of all they possessed, whether stores, paper securities, immovables, or pledges received from Spain. They submitted to this cruel sacrifice. This was sure to prove a ruinous liquidation for them, but they had rendered themselves liable to it by abusing the resources of the Treasury. The most to be pitied of the three was M. Vanlerberghe, who, without intermed- dling in the speculations of his partners, had confined himself to the operations of a corn trade, carried on actively and honestly through- out all Europe, for the service of the French armies.2 On dismissing the council, Napoleon de- tained M. Mollien, and without waiting either for any observation from him or for his con- sent, he said, "You will to-day take the oath as minister of the Treasury." M. Mollien, in- timidated, though flattered by such confidence, hesitated to reply. "Have you any objection to be minister then 1 ?" added Napoleon, and re- quired him to take the oath the same day. It was requisite to get out of the embarrass- ments of all sorts created by the company of the United Merchants. M. de Marbois had al- ready withdrawn the service of the Treasury from the hands of that Company, and had committed it for a few days to M. Desprez, who had continued it from that moment for the account of the state. He had finally en- trusted it to the receivers-general, on moderate but temporary conditions. The course to be definitively pursued on this subject was not yet decided : nothing was fixed but the resolu- tion not to charge speculators, how able or how upright soever they might be, with a ser- vice so extensive and so important as the general negotiation of the assets of the Trea- sury. This service consisted, as we have seen, in discounting the obligations of the receivers-general, ' the bills of the customs and coupes de bois, papers J which had all twelve, fifteen, and eighteen months to run. Till the institution of the company of the United Merchants, the only practice was to make partial and specific dis- counts of those papers, to the amount of twen- ty or thirty millions at a time. In exchange for the effects themselves, the funds proceed- J ing from the discount were immediately re- ! ceived. It was gradually, under the growing I empire of necessity, which soon supersedes confidence, that this service had successively been wholly relinquished to a single company, that the portfolio of the Treasury had been left in some measure at its discretion, and that, so great was the infatuation, the chests of ac- countable persons were placed at its disposal. \ Had the minister merely transferred to it spe- cific sums in paper for equivalent sums in cash, allowing it to receive the amount of the discounted effects only when they became due, i no confusion would have taken place between | its affairs and those of the state. But there had been given up to the United Merchants so ' much as 470 millions at once, in obligations of i the receivers-general, bills at sight, bills of the cus- I toms, which they had got discounted either by the bank or by French and foreign bankers. At the same time, for greater convenience, they had been authorized to take directly from the chests of the receivers-general all the funds paid into them, to be afterwards ac- counted for; so that the bank, as we have | seen, when it presented the effects which it had discounted and which were due, had found in the chests nothing but receipts of M. Des- prez's, attesting that he had already been paid them. But these strange facilities had not j stopped there. When M. Desprez, acting for the United Merchants, discounted the effects of the Treasury, he furnished the amount not in cash, but in paper, which he had been allowed to introduce, and which was called M. Desprez's bills. Thus the Company had been enabled to fill the chests of the state and of the bank with these bills, and to create a circulating paper by the aid of which it had for some time met its speculations as well with France as with Spain. The real fault of M. de Marbois had been to lend himself to this confusion of affairs, in consequence of which it was no longer possi- ble to distinguish the property of the state from that of the Company. Add to this abusive complaisance, the dishonesty of a clerk, who alone was in the secret respecting the portfolio, and who had deceived M. de Marbois, by exaggerating continually to him the need that he had of the United Merchants ; and we shall have an explanation of this in- credible financial adventure. For this, that clerk had received one million, which Napo- leon ordered to be thrown into the general mass of the assets of the Company. The ter- 1 In justice to the memory of my deceased friend, M. Gabriel Julien Ouvrard, I feel called upon to state that, in his memoirs, published in 1826, he gives a very dif- ferent version of these transactions and of his interview with Napoleon on the above occasion. M. Ouvrard expired in London on the 21st of October, 1846, aged seventy-six years. The manuscript memoirs which he has left, and which form the sequel of his published autobiography, are replete with interesting matter, and contain some startling disclosures respecting the French Revolution of 1830, and the intrigues which preceded, attended, and followed it. It is likely that the English public will soon be enabled to peruse in print these piquant revelations. D. F. C. 2 I borrow this account from the most authentic sources ; in the first place, from the memoirs of Prince Cambac6r6s ; next from the interesting and instructive memoirs of M le Comte Mollien, which are not yet published ; and last ly, from the Archives of the Treasury. I have had in my hands, and read myself with great attention, the docu- ments of the proceedings (procis), and especially a long and interesting report which the minister of thn Treasury drew up for the Emperor. Here, then, I advance nothing but from official and incontestable evidence. 108 HISTORY OF THE ror excited by the Emperor was so great, that the parties readily confessed and restored every thing.. However, in order to be just towards every one, we must say, that Napoleon had himself a share in the faults committed on this occa- sion, by persisting in leaving M. de Marbois under the pressure of enormous charges, by deferring too long the creation of extraordinary means. It would have been requisite, in fact, that M. de Marbois should provide for a first arrear, resulting from anterior budgets and the insolvency of Spain, who, not paying her sub- sidy, was the cause of a fresh deficit of about 50 millions. It was under the weight of these different burdens, that this upright but too in- considerate minister had become the slave of adventurous men, who rendered him some ser- vices, who might have even rendered him very great ones, if their calculations had been made with greater precision. Their speculations were, in fact, based on a real foundation, namely, the piastres of Mexico, which abso- lutely existed in the chests of the captains- general of Spain. But these piastres could not be so easily brought to Europe as M. Ouv- rard had hoped, and this had led to the embar- rassments of the Treasury and the ruin of the Company. What proves the height of the confusion to which things had arrived, was the difficulty that was found to fix the amount of the debit of the Company to the Treasury. It was at first supposed to be 73 millions. A new examina- tion raised it to 84. Lastly, M. Mollien, re- solving on his entry into office, to make a strict investigation into the state of the finances, dis- covered that the Company had contrived to possess itself of the sum of 141 millions, for which it remained debtor lo the state. This enormous sum of 141 millions was made up in the following manner. The United Merchants had drawn directly from the chests of the receivers-general so much as 55 millions at once ; and, by means of various repay- ments, their debt to the accountable persons was reduced on the day of ihe catastrophe to 23 millions. There were in the chest, to the amount of 73 millions, bills of M. Detprez's, a species of money which M. Desprez gave instead of cash, and which was current so long as his credit, upheld by the bank, re- mained intact, but which had now become worthless paper. The Company owed 14 millions more for bills of the central cashier. (We have adverted elsewhere to these effects, devised for the purpose of facilitating the movements of funds between Paris and the provinces.) These 14 millions, taken from the portfolio, had not been followed by any payment either of M. Desprez's bills or any other assets. M. Desprez, for his personal management during the few days of his par- ticular service, remained debtor of 17 mil- lions. Lastly, among the commercial effects with which the Company had furnished the Treasury, for various payments made at a distance, there was bad paper to the amount of 13 or 14 millions. These five different sums, of 23 millions, taken directly from the accountable persons, 73 millions in Desprez's [Jan. i&06. bills, now worth nothing, 14 millions in fcifl* of the central cashier, for which no equivalent had been furnished, 17 millions of M. Des prez's personal debit, lastly, 14 millions in pro tested bills of exchange, composed the 141 millions of the total debit of the Company. The state, however, was not doomed to lose this important sum, because the operations of the Company, as we have just said, had a real foundation, the commerce in piastres, which had lacked nothing but precision in the cal- culations. It had furnished supplies to the French land and naval forces to the amount of 40 millions. The house of Hope had bought about 10 millions' worth of those famous piastres of Mexico, and was at this moment transmitting the amount to Paris. The Company possessed, besides immovable property, Spanish wool, corn, some good cre- dits, the whole amounting to about 30 mil lions. These various sums comprehended real effects to the worth of 80 millions. Thus 60 millions yet remained to be found in order to balance the debt. The equivalent of this sum really existed in the portfolio of the Com- pany in credits upon Spain. Napoleon, after obliging the United Mer- chants to give up to him all that they possess- ed, required that the French Treasury should be put into the Company's place in regard to Spain. He enjoined M. Mollien to treat with a particular agent of the Prince of the Peace, M. Isquierdo, who had been for some time in Paris, and performed the functions of ambas sador, much more than Messieurs d'Azara and Gravina, who had nothing but the title. The court of Madrid had no refusal to oppose to the conqueror of Austerlitz ; besides, it was really debtor to the Company, and conse- quently to France herself. Negotiations were, therefore, commenced with her, to secure the repayment of those 60 millions, which repre- sented not only the subsidies left unpaid, but the provisions with which her armies had been supplied, and the corn which had been sent to her people. The Treasury was likely, in consequence, to be entirely reimbursed, thanks to the 40 millions in anterior supplies, the 10 millions coming from Holland, the stores existing in the warehouses, the immovables seized, and the securities which Spain was about to give, and part of which the house of Hope offered to discount There remained, nevertheless, a double gap to fill, arising from the old arrear of the budgets, which we have estimated at 80 or 90 millions, and from resources which the Company had absorbed for its use. But every thing had become easy since the victo- ries of Napoleon, and since the peace, which had been the fruit of them. The capitalists, who had ruined the Company, by requiring 1 per cent per month, (that is to say, 18 per cent, per annum) to discount the effects of the Treasury, offered to take them at per cent, and soon began to dispute them with each other at $, that is to say at 6 per cent per an- num. The bank, which had withdrawn part of its notes from circulation, since it had done with M. Desprez, which, besides, saw the me- tals ordered to be purchased all over Europe Jan. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 109 daring the great distress pouring into its cof- fers the bank was enabled to discount all that was desired at a moderate, yet sufficiently ad- Viirtageous rate. Though a certain amount of ihe effects of the Treasury, belonging to 1606, had been previously alienated for the use of the Company, the greater part of the effects corresponding to that service remained intact, and were about to be discounted on the best conditions. But victory had not only procured credit for Napoleon; it had also pro- cured for him material wealth. He had im- posed upon Austria a contribution of 40 mil- lions ; adding to this sum 30 millions, which he had taken directly from the chests of that power, the sum which the war had brought him in, may be computed at 70 millions. Twenty millions had been expended on Ihe spot, for the subsistence of the army, but at the charge of the Treasury, with which Na- poleon purposed to make a regulation, the spirit and disposition of which we shall pre- sently explain. There remained, then, 50 millions, which were coming, partly in gold and silver, in the artillery wagons, partly in good bills of exchange on Frankfort, Leipzig, Hamburg, and Bremen. As the garrison of Hameln was to return to France, in conse- quence of the cession of Hanover to Prussia, it was ordered to bring, along with the Eng- lish mri'eriel taken in Hanover, the produce of the bills of exchange due at Hamburg and Bremen. An imposition of 4 millions had been laid on the city of Frankfort, instead of the contingent which it should have furnished, like Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria. France was, therefore, about to receive, besides con- siderable effects, large quantities of the pre- cious metals, and, in regard to specie as to every thing else, abundance was about to suc- ceed the momentary distress, which the sin- cere alarms of commerce and the affected alarms of jobbers had produced. Napoleon, whose organizing genius would neveY leave to things the character of accident, and tended incessant'y to convert them into durable institutions, had projected a noble and beneficent creation, founded on the most legi- timate profits of his victories. He had re- solved to create with the war contributions a fund for the army, which he would not touch from any motive whatever, not even for his own use: for his civil list, administered with perfect order, was adequate to all the expenses of a magnificent court, and even to the for- mation of a particular fund. It was from this army fund that he proposed to take pensions for his generals, for his officers, for his sol- diers, and for their widows and children. He desired not to enjoy his victories alone; he purposed that all those who served France and her vast designs should acquire not glory only, but prosperity ; that those who, by dint of heroism, had got so far as to have no con- cern for themselves on the field of battle, should have none on account of their families. Finding, in the inexhaustible fertility of his mind, The art of multiplying the utility of things, Napoleon had invented a combination, which rendered that fund quite as profitable to the finances as to the army itself. What had hitherto been wanting was a lender, to lend to the government on good conditions. The army fund would be that lender, whose demands upon the state Napoleon would him- self regulate. The army was to have 50 mil- lions in gold and silver, besides 20 millions which the budget owed it for arrears of pay and, lastly, besides a large amount in materiel of war conquered by it. The artillery wagons were bringing from Vienna 100,000 muskets, 2000 pieces of cannon. The whole of the materiel of war and contributions formed a sum of about 80 millions, of which the army was the proprietor, and which it could lend to the state. Napoleon purposed that all that was disposable should be paid over to the Sinking Fund, which should open a separate account, and employ this sum either in dis- counting obligations of receivers-general, bills at sight, bills of customs, when the capitalists should require more than 6 per cent., or in buying up national domains when they were at a low price, or even in taking rentes, if it thought fit to make a loan to fill up the arrear. This combination, therefore, was to have the double utility of procuring for the army an advantageous interest for its money, and for the government all the sums that it should have need of, at a rate which would not be usurious. Napoleon immediately gave orders for the execution of various important measures by means of the funds which he had at his dis- posal. One consisted in collecting a dozen millions in cash at Strasburg, in case of the renewal of military operations; for, if Austria had signed the peace, Russia had not begun to negotiate, Prussia had not yet sent the ratifi- cation of the treaty of Schonbrunn, and Eng- land continued to be actively engaged in her diplomatic intrigues. He enjoined, moreover, that some millions should be kept in reserve at the Sinking Fund, and that the number of these millions should remain unknown, to be employed on a sudden, whenever speculators were disposed to be extortionate. The thought that the Treasury ought to take upon itself this sort of expense, as a man submits to that of a spare granary, in order to be provided against the seasons of dearth, and that the in- terest lost by this kind of hoard would be a useful sacrifice, and one by no means to be regretted. Lastly, the foreign moneys which were brought back requiring to be recoined and converted into French money, he ordered them to be divided among the different mints, in proportion to the want of specie in each locality. These first dispositions commanded by the moment being carried into effect, Napoleon desired that attention should be paid without delay to a new organization of the Treasury, to a new constitution of the Bank of France, and gave this twofold commission to M. Mol- lien, who had become minister of the Trea- sury. M. Gaudin, who still retained the port- folio of the finances, for we must bear it in mind that, at this period, the Treasury and the Finances formed two distinct ministries M. Gaudin received orders to present a plan for liquidating the arrear, for definitively equaliz- K 110 HISTORY OF THE [Jan. 1806. ing the receipts and the expenditure, in the double hypothesis of peace and war, even though for this purpose it should be necessary to recur to the imposition of new taxes. After attending to the finances, Napoleon busied himself about bringing the army back to France, but slowly, so that it should not march further than four leagues a day. He had ordered that the wounded and the sick should be kept till spring in the places where they had received the first attendance, and that officers should stay with them to superintend their cure ; and for this essential object he had recourse to the chests of the army. He had left Ber- thier at Munich with instructions to attend to all these details, and to preside over the ex- changes of territory, always so difficult among the German princes. On this latter point Berthier was to concert with M. Otto, our representative at the court of Bavaria. Napoleon then thought of taking measures against the kingdom of Naples. Massena, taking with him 40,000 men drawn from Lom- bardy, received orders to march through Tus- cany and the southernmost part of the Roman State to the kingdom of Naples, without list- ening to any proposal of peace or armistice. Napoleon, uncertain whether Joseph, who had refused the vice-royalty of Italy, would accept the crown of the Two Sicilies, gave him only the title of his lieutenant-general. Joseph was not to command the army ; it was Mas- sena alone who had that commission; for Na- poleon, though he sacrificed the interests of policy to family considerations, did not so easily sacrifice to them the interests of mili- tary operations. But Joseph, once introduced into Naples by Massena, was to seize the civil government of the country and to exercise there all the powers of royalty. General Molitor was at the same time de- spatched towards Dalmatia. On his rear he had General Marmont to support him. The latter was commissioned to receive Venice and the Venetian state from the hands of the Austrians. Prince Eugene had orders to go to Venice, and to take upon himself the admin- istration of the conquered provinces, without yet annexing them to the kingdom of Italy, though they were subsequently to be united with it. Before he decided upon this defini- tively, Napoleon wished to conclude various arrangements with the representatives of the kingdom of Italy, which would have run counter to an immediate union. Lastly, Napoleon, wishing to excite the spirit of his soldiers, and to communicate that excitement to all France, ordered that the grand army should be assembled at Paris, to receive there a magnificent fete, which was to be given by the authorities of the capital. It was impossible to convey a better conception of the nation treating the army than by charg- ing the citizens of Paris to treat the soldiers of Austerlitz. While he was thus engaged in the adminis- tration of his vast empire, and attending to the concerns of peace, after having been engaged in those of war, Napoleon had also his eyes fixed on the consequences of the treaties of Presburg and Schonbrunn. Pruspia, in par- ticular, had to ratify a treaty most unforeseen by her, since M. de Haugwitz, who came to Vienna to dictate conditions, had submitted on the contrary to receive them, and, instead of any constraint imposed upon Napoleon, had brought back a treaty of alliance offensive and defensive with him; all this compensated, it is true, by a rich present, that of Hanover. It would be difficult to form a conception of the astonishment of Europe, and of the differ- ent sentiments, satisfaction and chagrin, grati- fied avidity and confusion, which prevailed in Prussia when made acquainted with the treaty of Schonbrunn. Hints had frequently been thrown out to the public in Berlin, that ai one time France, at another Russia, was offering to the king the electorate of Hanover, which, besides having the advantage of rounding the so irregularly defined territory of Prussia, had the advantage of securing to her the control of the Elbe and the Weser, as well as a deci- sive influence over the Hanseatic cities of Bremen and Hamburg. This offer, so fre- quently announced, was now a realized acqui- sition, a certainty. It was a subject of great satisfaction for a country which is one of the most ambitious in Europe. But, to counter- balance this gift, what confusion we must not mince the matter what disgrace, would attend the conduct of the court of Prussia! While yielding against its will to the solicita- tions of the coalition, it had engaged to unite itself with it, if in a month Napoleon had not accepted the mediation of Prussia, and sub- mitted to the conditions which she pretended to impose upon him, and this was equivalent to an engagement to declare war against him. And, all at once, finding Napoleon in Moravia, not embarrassed but all-powerful, she had turned to him, accepted his alliance, and re- ceived from his hands the fairest of the spoils of the coalition Hanover, the ancient patri- mony of the Kings of England. We must confess that honour is banished from the world, if such things are not punished with a signal reprobation. Accordingly, the Prussian nation, we must do it this justice, felt how severely such conduct was to be con- demned, and, notwithstanding the value of the present brought by M. Haugwitz, received it with chagrin in its heart and humiliation on its brow. The disgrace, however, would have been effaced from the memory of the Prus- sians, and would have left place only for plea- sure at the conquest, if other sentiments had not come and mingled with that of remorse, to poison the satisfaction which they ought to have felt. Though profoundly jealous of the Austrians, still the Prussians, seeing them beaten, felt themselves Germans; and, as Ger- mans are not less jealous of the French than the Russians, or the English, they beheld our extraordinary triumphs with mortification. Their patriotism, therefore, began to awake in favour of the Austrians, and this sentiment, united with that of remorse, filled the nation with intense discomfort. Of all the classes, the army was the one which manifested these dispositions the most openly. In Prussia, the army is not impassible as .in Austria; it re- flects the national passions with extreme vivid Jan. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. Ill ness ; it represents the nation much more than the army represents it in the other countries of Europe, France excepted; and it then re- presented a nation whose opinion was already very independent of its sovereigns. The Prus- sian army, which felt to a high degree the sen- timent of German jealousy, which had hoped for a moment that the career of war would be opened to it, and which found it suddenly closed by an act difficult to be justified, cen- sured the cabinet without reserve. The Ger- man aristocracy, which saw the Germanic empire ruined by the peace of Presburg, and the cause of the immediate nobility sacrificed to the sovereigns of Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, the German aristocracy, occupy- ing all the high military ranks, contributed greatly to excite discontent in the army, and carried back the exaggerated expression of this discontent either to Berlin or to Potsdam. These passions burst forth more especially about the queen, and had converted her coterie into a focus of boisterous opposition. Prince Louis, who reigned in this coterie, launched out more than ever into chivalrous declama- tions. All is not done for the alliance of two countries, when their interests do not agree : the self-love of both ought also to harmonize, and this last condition is not very easily re- alized. The Prussians were then the only people in Europe whose policy could agree with ours, but great indulgence would have been needed for the excessive pride of these heirs of the great Frederick, and, unluckily, ' the weak, ambiguous, sometimes dishonoura- ble conduct of their cabinet did not command that respect which their susceptibility required. Napoleon, after six years' fruitless relations ; with Prussia, had accustomed himself to have no consideration for her. He had recently proved it by passing through one of her pro- vinces (authorized, it is true, by precedents) without even giving her notice. He had just proved it still more strongly, in appearing so little hurt by her wrongs, that, after the con- vention of Potsdam, when he would have had a right to be incensed, he gave her Hanover, thus treating her as fit only to be bought. She was, and ought to have been, deeply wounded by this proceeding. The human conscience feels all the re- proaches that it has deserved, especially when , it is spared them. All the severe things to i which she had exposed herself on the part of Napoleon, Prussia imagined that he had ex- pressed. It was asserted in Berlin that he had ; said to the Austrian negotiators, when they ! propped themselves upon the support of Prussia "Prussia! why she is to be had by the best bidder ; I will give her more than you, and bring her over to my side." He had thought so, perhaps said so, to M. de Talley- rand, but he affirmed that he had not said so to the Austrians. Be this as it may, this expres- sion was repeated everywhere in Berlin as true. The fault of Prussia in all this was not to have deserved the respect which she desired to ob- tain ; that of Napoleon, not to grant it her without her having deserved it. One has not allies any more than friends, unless upon con- dition of sparing their pride as much as their I interest, upon condition of perceiving their faults, nay of feeling them deeply, and not committing the like against them. M. de Haugwitz, though he came with full hands, was therefore received with very dif- ferent feelings, with anger by the court, with pain by the king, with a mixture of content and confusion by the public, and by nobody with complete satisfaction. As for M. de Haug- witz himself, he made his appearance without embarrassment before all these judges. He brought back from Schonbrunn what he had invariably advised, the aggrandizement of Prussia founded on the alliance of France. His only fault lay in having given way for a moment to the empire of circumstances, which subjected him to the grievous contrast of be- ing now the signer of the treaty of Schonbrunn. But it was his unskilful successor, his ungrate- ful disciple, M.de Hardenberg, who had brought about these circumstances by so complicating the relations of Prussia, in the space of a few months, that she could \iot extricate herself from these complications but by clashing con- tradictions. Besides, M. de Haugwitz, if he had been hurried away for a moment, had been less so than anybody ; and, after all, he had just saved Prussia from the abyss into which she had been wellnigh plunged. Neither must it be forgotten that at Potsdam, seduced as the court was by the presence of Alexander, it had been strongly recommended to M. de Haug- witz not to hurry Prussia into a war before the end of December, and that, on the 2d of December, he had found him whom he came to control or to fight, victorious, irresistible. He had been placed between the danger of a fatal war and a contradiction amply paid for: what would they have him do? For the rest, he said, nothing was compromised. Ground- ing himself on the extraordinary nature and the unforeseen circumstances of the situation, he had entered with Napoleon into such en- gagements only as were conditional, subject more expressly than usual to the ratification of his court. People might, if they were so bold as they boasted of being, as alive to ho- nour, as insensible to interest, as they pretended to be, they might refuse to ratify the treaty of Schonbrunn. He had- forewarned Napo- leon; he had told him that, treating without having instructions, he treated without binding himself. They might choose between Hanover and war with Napoleon. The position was still the same as it had been at Schonbrunn, save that he had gained the month, which had been declared necessary for the organization of the Prussian army. Such was the language of M. de Haugwitz, exaggerated on a single point, namely where he alleged that he had been placed between the acceptance of Hanover and war. He would, in fact, have been able to reconcile Prussia with Napoleon without accepting Hanover. It is true that Napoleon would have distrusted this demi-reconciliation, and that from defiance to war it was but a step. The enemies of M. de Haugwitz censured him on another point. In keeping himself at Vienna, they said, less aloof from the Austrian negotiators, in making common cause with them, he would have been 112 HISTORY OF THE [Jan. 1806. better able to withstand Napoleon, and to de- sert less ostensibly the European interests espoused at Potsdam, or not to desert them but with the consent of all. But that presup- posed a collective negotiation, and to this Na- poleon objected so strongly that to have insisted upon this point would have been another way to lead to war. It was therefore war, and no- thing but war, wiih a terrible adversary, before the fixed term of the end of December, against the well-known wish of the king, and against the most positive interests of Prussia, that, as M. de Haugwitz alleged, had stared him in the face at Schonbrunn. The embarrassment of this position, then, was much greater for others than for himself; and, besides, he had an imperturbable firmness, mixed with tranquillity and urbanity, which would have sufficed to support him in presence of his adversaries, had he even committed the blunders which he had not. Thus M. de Haugwitz, without being discon- ceVted by the cries that rang around him, with- out even insisting on the adoption of the treaty, as a negotiator attached to the work of which he was the author might have done, never ceased repeating that the cabinet was free, that it could choose, but with a perfect know- ledge that it must choose between Hanover and war. He left to others the embarrassment of the contradictions of Prussian policy, and reserved for himself nothing but the honour of. having brought back his country into the track, from which it ought never to have been made to swerve. Happy this minister had he continued in that line, and not subsequently marred that situation himself, by inconsisten- cies, which ruined him, and wellnigh ruined his country. The enthusiasts, whether sincere or affected, of Berlin, said that this gift of Hanover was a perfidious gift, which would involve Prussia in an everlasting war with England, and ruin the national commerce ; that it was purchased, besides, by the sacrifice of fine provinces long attached to the monarchy, such as Cleves, Anspach, and Neufchatel. They asserted that Prussia, which, in ceding Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchatel, had ceded a population of '300,000 inhabitants to obtain one of 900,000, had made a bad bargain. According to them, if she had obtained Hanover without giving up any thing, without losing either Neufchatel, or Anspach, or Cleves, and even acquired something to boot, the Hanseatic cities, for instance, then there would be nothing to re- gret. The defection, thus paid for, would have been worth the while ; but Hanover was no- thing since they had it. At any rate, they added, Prussia was disgraced, covered with infamy in the eyes of Europe. The common country, Germany, was given up to foreigners. These last censures were more specious ; but yet it might have been urged in reply that still vorse things had been done in the last parti- >ion of Poland, and almost as bad in the re- ceut partition of the Germanic indemnities. And yet nobody had cried shame upon them ! Moderate persons, very numerous among the wealthy population of Berlin, without re- peating all these declamations, dreaded the reprisals of England upon Prussian com- merce, were pained for the character of Prussia, felt real mortification at the triumph of the French armies over the German armies, but dreaded above all a war with France. Such were at bottom the sentiments of the king, who, with the heart of a sound, patriotic, but moderate German, hesitated between these contrary considerations. He was racked with regret at the thought of the fault which he had committed at Potsdam, which reduced him to the necessity of an absolutely disgraceful in- consistency, the only objection that could be alleged against the fine present of Napoleon. And then, though he was not deficient in per- sonal courage, he dreaded war as the greatest of calamities ; he beheld in it the ruin of the treasure of Frederick, foolishly squandered by his father, carefully collected again by himself, and already broken into by the late armament ; above all he beheld in it, with a sagacity which fear often imparts, the ruin of the monarchy. Frederick William besought Count Haugwitz to enlighten him with his intelligence, and Count Haugwitz incessantly repeated to him, not knowing what else to say, that they had the choice between Hanover and war, and that, in his opinion, any war against Napoleon would be attended with disaster ; that the Rus- sian and Austrian armies were not inferior, whatever people might say, to the Prussian army, which would not do better, perhaps not so well as they, for at this moment it was much less habituated to war. A council was held, to which were sum- moned the principal personages of the mon- archy, Messieurs de Haugwitz, De Hardenberg, De Schulenburg, and the two most illustrious representatives of the army, Marshal de Mol- lendorf, and the Duke of Brunswick. The discussion was very animated, though without any mixture of court passions ; and, yielding to the force of the everlasting argument of Count Haugwitz, which consisted in repeating j that they could refuse Hanover if they chose I to go to war, the council adopted a middle course, that is to say the very worst they could have done. They decided to adopt the treaty with modifications. M. de Haugwitz strongly opposed this resolution. He said that he had taken advantage of circumstances at Schon- j brunn, and that he had obtained of Napoleon what he should not obtain a second time ; that the latter would regard the modifications made in the treaty as a last success of the party ini- mical to France ; that he would at last cease ! to reckon at all upon the Prussian alliance, j that he would act in conseqence, and that, hold- ing himself to be disengaged by a ratification ! given with reservations, he would place Prussia between worse conditions and war. M. de Haugwitz was not listened to. It was alleged that" the modifications introduced, whether good or bad, saved the honour of Prussia, for they proved that they did not aw up treaties from the dictation of Napoleon. This reason, of so little value, made an im- pression upon those who had need to deceive themselves ; and, after several alterations had been made in it, the treaty was adopted. The first of these altercations plainly indi- Feb. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 11.' cated the sentiments of those who had pro- posed them, and the nature of their embarrass- ment. The expression offensive and defensive given to the alliance contracted with France was struck out of the treaty, in order that the Prussian cabinet might appear before Russia with less confusion. Comments were added to explain in what cases it would deem itself obliged to make common cause with France. It demanded information concerning the late arrangements projected in Italy, and which were to be comprehended in the reciprocal guarantees stipulated by the treaty of Schon- brunn ; for it made a point of not formally approving what was about to be consummated at Naples, that is to say, the dethronement of the Bourbons, the clients and proteges of Russia. These modifications signified that though obliged to enter into the policy of France, Prus- sia would not enter frankly into it ; that, above all, she would not enter into it so far as not to be able to explain her conduct at St. Petersburg and at Vienna. The intention was too visible to be favourably interpreted at Paris. To these modifications were added some others still less honourable. These were not written, it is true, in the new treaty, but M. de Haugwitz was commissioned to propose them verbally. The Prussian cabinet desired, in gaining Hanover, not to cede Anspach, which was the only concession of any importance required by Napoleon, and which formed the Franco- nian patrimony of the house of Brandenburg. It desired the annexation of the Hanseatic cities, a valuable accession from its commer- cial importance, and, in thus filling the mea- sure of the greediness of the Prussian nation, it flattered itself that it should stifle the voice of honour in it and disarm the public opinion. This done, M. de Laforest, minister of France, charged as such with the exchange of the rati- fications, was sent for. This minister knew his sovereign too well to venture to ratify a treaty in which such alterations had been made. He refused at first to do so, but the solicitations addressed to him became so press- ing, and M. de Haugwitz represented to him so forcibly the necessity of chaining the court of Berlin, to save it from its continual varia- tions, and to snatch it from the suggestions of the enemies of France, that M. de Laforest con- sented to ratify the modified treaty, sub spe rati, a usual precaution in diplomacy, when one is de- sirous to reserve the pleasure of the sovereign. It was, therefore, necessary to refer to Paris, to obtain the approval of these new tergiver- sations of the court of Prussia. M. de Haug- witz seemed to have succeeded with Napoleon, and he was considered as the fittest person to be sent to France to allay the storm that was foreseen. M. de Haugwitz long declined such a mission ; but the king assailed him with such urgent entreaties, that he could not forbear to make up his mind to go to Paris, and to con- front a second time that crowned and victori- ous negotiator, with whom he had treated at fechOnbrunn. He set out, therefore, sending before him letters couched in the mildest and most obsequious language, to prepare for him- self a less unfavourable reception than that which he had reason to apprehend. Voi.. II. 15 Napoleon, when apprized of these last shuf- fling tricks of Prussian politics, saw in them what he could not help seeing, new weaknesses towards his enemies, new efforts to keep on good terms with them, while taking occasion at the same time to make some advantage by him. He felt, on account of this policy, less consideration than before, and, what was a great misfortune for Prussia and for France, he utterly despaired from this time of a Prussian alliance. Add, to this, that, upon reflection, he was sorry for what he had granted at Schon- brunn. The gift of Hanover, indeed, had been granted with too great precipitation, not that it could be better placed than in the hands of Prussia, but to dispose of it definitively was rendering the struggle with England more rancorous ; it was adding to irreconcilable in- terests at sea irreconcilable interests on land, for old King George III. would have sacrificed the richest colonies of England rather than his German patrimony. Assuredly, if it was ascertained that England was for ever implacable, and could not be pacified but by force, it would then be right to go all lengths against her, and Hanover would be extremely well bestowed, if it were to cement a powerful and sincere alliance, capable of rendering continental coalitions impossible. But none of these suppositions appeared ac- tually true. There were rumours of great discouragement in England, of the speedy death of Mr. Pitt, of the probable accession of Mr. Fox, and an immediate change of system. Napoleon, therefore, on learning the last pro- ceedings in Prussia, was disposed to replace every thing on the old footing with her ; that is to say, to restore Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchatel, and to take back Hanover from her, to be kept in reserve. At the point to which things had arrived, either through the fault of men or through the fault of events, the best thing that could be done was, in fact, to revert to terms of civility without intimacy, and to take back what each had given to the other. Napoleon, in recovering Hanover, would have in his hands the means of treat- ing with England, and of seizing the only oc- casion that was likely to present itself, foi putting an end to an inauspicious war, the per- manent cause of universal war. This was his first idea, and would to heaven that he had acted upon it ! He gave instruc- tions in this spirit to M. de Talleyrand. He desired that he might be represented to M. de Haugwitz, as more irritated than he was at the liberties taken with France ; that France should be declared to be completely disen- gaged, and that she would keep herself free, either to take back Hanover, to make it a pledge of peace with England, or to place every thing on a new footing with Prussia, for concluding a more comprehensive and more solid treaty with her. 1 1 We quote the following letter which precisely ex- presses the idea of Napoleon on this occasion. " To M. de Talleyrand. " Paris, Feb. 4, 1806. "The ministry in England hag been entirely changed since the death of Mr. Pitt ; Mr. Fox baa the portfolio of 114 HISTORY OF THE [Feb. 1806. M. de Haugwitz arrived at Paris on the 1st of February. He employed, both with M. de Talleyrand and with the Emperor, all the art with which he was endowed, and that art was great. He laid great stress on the embarrass- ments of his government, placed between France and coalesced Europe, inclining more frequently toward the first than hurried away sometimes towards the second by court pas- sions; which must be comprehended and ex- cused. He exhibited the Prussian govern- ment, painfully returning from the fault com- mitted at Potsdam, needing for this to be supported, encouraged, by the courtesy of the French government ; he so well depicted him- self as the man who was striving alone in Berlin to bring back Prussia to France, and having a right on this account to be aided by the kindness of Napoleon, that the latter gave way, and unfortunately consented to renew the treaty of Schonbrunn, but on somewhat harder conditions than those which King Frederick William had just refused. " I will not constrain you," said Napoleon, to M. de Haugwitz; "I still offer you to replace things on their former footing, that is, to take back Hanover, and to restore Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchatel to you. But, if we treat, if I cede Hanover to you anew, I shall not cede it on the same conditions, and I shall require you, moreover, to promise me to become a faithful ally of France. If Prussia is frankly, publicly on my side, I have no more European coalitions to fear, and, without a European coalition on my hands, I will soon settle mat- ters with England. But I want nothing short of this certainty to induce me to make you a present of Hanover, and to feel convinced that I act wisely in giving it to you." Napoleon was right, saving on one point, that was in making Prussia pay for Hanover by new compensations, in not giving it to her, on the contrary, on the most advantageous conditions ; for there are no better allies than those who are fully satisfied. M. de Haugwitz, who was sincere in his desire to unite France and Prussia, promised Napoleon all that he Mhe foreign affairs. I desire you to present to ine this evening a note founded on this idea: "The undersigned minister of foreign relations has received express orders from his majesty the Emperor to informM.de Haugwitz,at his first interview, that his ma- jesty cannot consider the treaty concluded at Vienna as existing, from default of ratification within the prescribed tiiije ; that his majesty does not allow to any power, and least of all to Prussia for experience proves that he must speak plainly and without circumlocution a right to modify and interpret according to its own interest the different articles of a treaty ; that it is not exchanging ratifications to have two different versions of the same treaty, and that the irregularity appears still greater if one considers the three or four pages of memorial added to the ratifications of Prussia ; that M. de Laforest, his majesty's minister charged with the ratifications, would be culpable had he not himself observed all the irregular- ity of the proceeding of the court of Prussia, but that he had accepted the exchange only on condition of the ap- probation of the Emperor. ' The undersigned is, therefore, charged to declare tb.it his majesty does not approve it, in consideration of the sanctity due to the execution of treaties. "But, at the same time, the undersigned ia charged to ueciare that his inajety is still desirous that the differences required, and promised it with all the appear- ances of the greatest sincerity. To his pro- mises he added some very pertinent insinua- tions respecting certain slights of Napoleon towards Prussia, the necessity of paying some regard to the dignity of the king, in the first place for the sake of the king himself, who, notwithstanding his timidity, was at bottom susceptible and irritable, and also for the sake of the nation and the army, which identified themselves with the sovereign, and took highly amiss whatever looked, like a want of respect for him. M. de Haugwitz said, that the viola- tion of the territory of Anspach in particular had on this account an effect that was to be I extremely regretted, and caused the nation to I go halves with the court in the excitement j wh ch had led to the deplorable treaty of Potsdam. These observations were just and striking. ;But, if Prussia needed to have respect paid her, Napoleon needed to be satisfied with her I before he paid her respect, and to experience : esteem before he showed it. Here was a '. double difficulty, which none had yet found j means to surmount: would they be more suo ' cessful after this accommodation 1 That was \ unfortunately very doubtful. A second treaty, more explicit and more | stringent than the former, was drawn up. I Hanover was given to Prussia as formally as ! at Schonbrunn, but on condition of occupying | it immediately and in right of sovereignty. A i new and arduous obligation was the price of jthis gift: it consisted in closing the Weser ! and the Elbe against the English, and in clos- ing those rivers as straightly as the Fiench had i done when they occupied Hanover. In ex- change, Prussia granted the same cessions as at Schonbrunn ; she gave the Franconian principality of Anspach, the remnant of the duchy of Cleves, situated on the right of the | Rhine, and the principality of Neufchatel, forming one of the cantons of Switzerland. An advantage promised to the King of Prussia in the treaty of Schonbrunn was suppressed in this, for the benefit of the King of Bavaria. which have arisen in recent circumstances between France and Prussia should be amicably settled, and that the old friendship which existed between them should subsist as formerly ; he is even desirous that the treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, if it is compatible with the other engagements of Prussia, should subsist between the two countries and insure their connection." This note, which you will present to me this evening, shall be delivered to-morrow in the conference, and on no pretext whatever do I leave you at liberty to ouiit to de liver it. You comprehend, yourself, that it has two objects : to leave me free to make peace with England, if, a few days hence, the accounts which I am receiving are con- firmed, or to conclude a treaty with Prussia on a wider basis. Let the wording be stern and plain, but you will add viva vote all the modifications, all the softenings, all the illusions, which shall make M. de Haugwitz believe that it is an effect of my temper which is irritated at this form, but that, at bottom, I am in the same sentiments as ever towards Prussia. My opinion is that, in the present circumstances, if Mr. Fox is really at the head of th foreign affairs, we cannot cede Hanover to Prussia but by a comprehensive system, capable of securing us from the fear of a continuance of hostilities. Feb. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 115 According to the first treaty, the Franconian principality of Bayreuth, contiguous to that of Anspach, and to be retained by Prussia, was to be limited in a more regular manner by taking out of that of Anspach a district containing 20,000 inhabitants. There was no further question about this district. Lastly, the obligations imposed upon Prussia were extended. She was obliged to guarantee not only the French empire as it was, with the new arrangements concluded in Germany and Italy, but she was further required to guaran- tee explicitly the future results of the war commenced against Naples, that is to say, the dethronement of the Bourbons and the then presumed establishment of a branch of the Bonaparte family on the throne of the Two Sicilies. This was certainly the most disa- greeable of the recent conditions imposed upon Prussia, for it rendered the situation of the king towards the Emperor Alexander more difficult than ever, on account of the professed protectorship of Russia, in respect to the Bourbons of Naples. It is unnecessary to say that the guarantees were reciprocal, and that France promised to support Prussia with her armies, and to insure to her all her acqui- sitions past and present, including Hanover. This second treaty was signed on the 15th of February. Thus all that Prussia had gained by attempt- ing to modify the treaty of Schonbrunn, was to be deprived of the additions of territory which were at first to have been added to Bayreuth, to be compelled to a very dangerous act, the closing of the Elbe and Weser, lastly to be obliged to avow publicly what was about to be consummated at Naples. The only results, in short, were more obligations and fewer ad- vantages. M. de Haugwitz could not have done better, unless he had placed things in Iheir former state, which would assuredly have been preferable, for he would have spared Prussia the embar- rassing engagements of a patched up and insin- cere alliance. It is true that he would then have deprived her of the illusion of a brilliant acquisition, extremely useful for covering in a moment all the meanness of Prussian policy. Be this as it may, M. de Haugwitz would not himself carry to Berlin this bitter fruit of the tergiversations of his court, and he resolved to send thither M. de Lucchesini, minister of Prussia in Paris. It did not suit him to solicit the adoption of a spoiled work, and to take upon himself alone the responsibility of the resolution which was proposed to be adopted. He wished to leave to his sovereign, to his col- ^agues, and to the royal family, who interfered in so indiscreet a manner in affairs of state, the business of choosing between the treaty of Schonbrunn, made a great deal worse, and war; for it was evident this time that Napo- leon, put out of patience by a new rejection, ii' he did not take fire immediately, on account of a refused alliance, would treat Prussia in such a manner in all the European arrange- ments that war would very soon become inevitable. He therefore sent M. de Lucchesini, whose luperior he was, to Berlin, and for a few days took his place as minister at Paris. He charged him to carry the treaty to his court to explain to it the exact state of thihgs in France, to represent the real dispositions of Napoleon, who was ready to become, accord- ing to the manner in which it behaved, either a powerful and sincere ally, though embarrass- ing from his spirit of enterprise, or a formi- dable enemy, if he was forced to regard Prus- sia as a second Austria. M. de Haugwitz did not commission M. de Lucchesini to solicit in his name the adoption of the new treaty. He wished for nothing more, for he was already disgusted with a task which had become too ungrateful, and with the fatigue of a responsi- bility that was too vexatious. He remained therefore in Paris, treated with the highest distinction by Napoleon, studying attentively that extraordinary man, and per- suading himself more and more every day of the justice of his own policy, and of the pre- sent and future interests which Prussia and France alike compromised by not knowing how to agree. In Europe, every thing was going on accord- ing to the wishes of the fortunate victor of Austerlitz. The army which he had sent to Naples, under the apparent command of Jo- seph Napoleon, and under the real command of Massena, marched directly for the goal. The Queen of Naples, striving once more to dispel the storm gathered by her faults, im- plored all the courts, and successively de- spatched Cardinal Ruffo and the heir-apparent to the crown to meet Joseph, and to try to make a treaty, whatever might be the condi- tions. Joseph, bound by the imperative com- mands of his brother, refused Cardinal Ruffo, received with respect the solicitations of Prince Ferdinand, but did not halt for a mo- ment in his march for Naples. The French army, 40,000 strong, passed the Garigliano on the 8th of February, and advanced, formed into three corps. One, that of the right, under General Reynier, went to blockade Gaeta; an- other, that of the centre, under Marshal Mas- sena, marched upon Capua ; the third, that of the left, under General St. Cyr, directed its course through Apulia and the Abruzzi, to- wards the Gulf of Tarento. On this intelli- gence, the English embarked with such preci- pitation, that they had wellnigh brought their allies, the Russians, into danger. The former fled to Sicily, the latter to Corfu. The court of Naples took refuge at Palermo, after having completely emptied the public coffers, and even those of the Bank. The prince royal, with the best troops that were left in the Neapolitan army, had betaken himself to the Calabrias. Two Neapolitan gentlemen were sent to Capua to treat for the surrender of the capital. A convention was signed, and Joseph, escorted by Massena's corps, appeared before Naples. He entered the city on the 15th of February, with- out any disturbance of order, the population of the lazzaroni having made no resistance. The fortress of Gaeta, though included in the convention of Capua, was not surrendered by the Prince of Hesse-Philippsthal, who was governor of it. He declared that he won'd de- fend himself there to the last extremity Tbf 116 HISTORY OF THE [Feb. 1806. strength of this place, a sort of Gibraltar, con- nected only by an isthmus with the continent of Italy, rendered it, in fact, capable of a long resistance. General Reynier carried the ex- ternal positions with great boldness, and strove to coop up the enemy closely in the place, till he should be supplied with the materiel neces- sary for undertaking a regular siege. Joseph, master of Naples, was only at the beginning of the difficulties which he had to encounter. Though he assumed as yet only the quality of Napoleon's lieutenant, he was not the less in all eyes the designated sovereign of the new kingdom. There was not a ducat in the chests ; all the military stores had been carried off; the principal functionaries were pone. It was requisite to create at once finances and an administration. Joseph had good sense, mildness, but no part of that pro- digious activity with which his brother Napo- leon was endued, and which would have been necessary here to found a government. He fell, nevertheless, to work. The gran- dees of the kingdom, more enlightened than the rest of the nation, as is the case in all countries at all civilized, had been ill-treated by the queen, who reproached them with being too much inclined to liberal opinions, and who kept them in fear of the lazzaroni, ignorant and fanatic, whom she incessantly threatened to let loose upon them: the usual conduct of roy- alty, which everywhere props itself upon the people against the aristocracy, when symp- toms of resistance appear among the latter. The grandees, therefore, gave a good reception to the new government, for which they hoped for a discreetly reforming administration, and one determined to, afford equal protection to all classes. Joseph, finding them animatec with favourable sentiments, studied still more to draw them to him, and restrained the lazza- roni by the dread of severe executions. Be- sides, the naipe of Massena made disturber tremble. A gale drove a Neapolitan frigate and cutter, with several transports, into Na pies. In this manner some military stores and other things of considerable value were recovered. The forts were armed, contribu butions were levied, and a very clever Corsi can, M. Salicette, sent by Napoleon to Naples was placed at the head of the police. Joseph applied to his brother for assistance in money to enable him to overcome these first diffi culties Eugene, viceroy of upper Italy, had receivec the Venetian States from the hands of Austria He had entered Venice, to the great satisfac tion of the inhabitants of that ancient queen of the seas, who found in their annexation to an Italian kingdom, constituted on wise prin- ciples, a certain compensation for their lost independence. General Marmont's corps, de- scending from the Styrian Alps into Italy, had proceeded to the Izonzn. and formed a reserve ready to penetrate into Dalmatia, if this junc- tion of forces should become necessary. Ge- neral Molitor, with his division, had made a 'apid march towards Dalmatia, to take posses- ;ion of a country to which Napoleon attached great value, because it was contiguous to the Turkish empire. That general had entered he town of Zara, the capital of Dalmatia. 3ut he had still a great extent of coast to tra- verse before he reached the celebrated mouths of the Cattaro, the southernmost and the most mportant of the positions of the Adriatic, and he hastened his march, in order to awe by the error of his approach the Montenegrins, who lad long been in the pay of Russia. For the rest, the court of Vienna, sighing for :he retreat of the French army, was disposed to execute faithfully the treaty of Presburg. That court, exhausted by the last war, which was the third since the French Revolution, terrified by the blows which it had received at Ulm and at Austerlilz, had, undoubtedly, not renounced the hope of raising itself again someday; but, for the present, it was resolved to introduce some order into its finances, and to let many years elapse before it again tried the fortune of arms. The Archduke Charles, having again become minister of war, was di- rected to seek a new system of military orga- nization, which, without too great a reduction offeree, should produce savings that could be no longer deferred. The government, there- fore, lost no time in executing the late treaty of peace, in paying the contribution of 40 mil- lions, either in specie or bills of exchange, in seconding the removal of the cannon and of the muskets taken at Vienna, that the succes- sive retreat of the French troops might speed- ily be accomplished. This retreat was to ter- minate on the 1st of March, with the evacua- tion of Braunau. Napoleon, who had left Berthier at Munich to superintend the return of the army, a return which he purposed to render slow and com- modious, had enjoined that faithful performer of his orders to repair to Braunau, and not to restore that fortress till he had received posi- tive intelligence of the delivery of the mouths of Cattaro. He had established Marshal Ney, with his corps, in the country of Salzburg, that he might live there as long as possible at the expense of a province destined to become Austrian. He had established Marshal Soult's corps on the Inn, a cheval on the archduchy of Austria and Bavaria, and living upon both. The corps of Marshals Davout, Lannes, an Bernadotte, being too great a burden to Bava- ria, whose inhabitants began to be weary of it, were marched towards the new countries ceded to the German princes our allies: and, as no term was fixed for the delivery of these countries, still dependent on litigious arrange- ments, there was a founded pretext for keep- ing them there for some time. Bernadotte's | corps was therefore removed into the province ! of Anspach, ceded by Prussia to Bavaria. It there had space to extend itself and to subsist Marshal Davout's corps was transferred to the bishopric of Eichstudt and the principality of ! Oettingen. The cavalry was divided among ' the different corps. Those which had not suf- | ficient space to supply them with subsistence, had permission to spread themselves among the petty princes of Suabia, whose existence I was rendered problematical by the treaty of Presburg, which required new changes in the Germanic constitution. The troops of Lannes, divided between Marshal Mortier and General Feb. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 117 Oudinot, were quartered in Suabia. Oudi- not's grenadiers proceeded through Switzer- land towards the principality of Neufchatel, to take possession of it. Lastly, Augereau's corps, reinforced by Dupont's division and General Dumonceau's Batavian division, was cantoned around Frankfort, ready to march for Prussia, if the last arrangements concluded with her were not followed up by sincere and definitive proceedings. These different corps were in excellent con- dition. They began to feel the effect of the rest which had been granted them ; they were recruited by the arrival of young conscripts, in- cessantly setting out from the banks of the Rhine, where the depots had been united under Marshals Lefebvre and Kellermann. Our sol- diers were fitter, if possible, for war, than be- fore the late campaign, and excessively proud of their recent victories. They proved them- selves humane towards the people of Germany, rather boisterous, it is true, prone to boast of their exploits ; but, this noise over, sociable to the highest degree, and presenting a singular contrast to the German auxiliaries, who were much harder towards their countrymen than we ourselves were. Unfortunately, Napoleon, from a spirit of economy, useful to his army, detrimental to his policy, allowed the soldiers to be paid only part of their pay, retaining the remainder for their benefit, to be paid them subsequently after their return to France. He required that provisions should be furnished them by the countries in which they were en- camped, in lieu of that part of their pay which was withheld, and this was a very heavy bur- den to the inhabitants. If the provisions had been paid for, the presence of our troops, in- stead of being a burden, would have become an advantage; and Germany, which knew that they had been brought upon its soil through the fault of the coalition, would have had on that account none but kindly feelings towards us. It was, therefore, an ill-judged saving, and the benefit resulting from it for the army was not equivalent to the inconveniences that were liable to arise from the sufferings of the occu- pied countries. Napoleon like wise caused the expenditure for clothing to be deferred, in order to new clothe the soldiers when they should repass the Rhine, and come to participate in the festivities which he was preparing for them. They, for their part, were perfectly satisfied, and cheerfully submitted to wear their old clothes, and to receive but little money, saying that, when they returned to France, they should have new clothes and plenty of savings to spend. For the rest, if the people complained of the prolonged stay of our troops, the petty princes had finally invoked their presence as a benefit, for nothing was to be compared with the vio- lence and the spoliations committed by the German governments, especially those which possessed any strength. The Grand-duke of Baden and the King of Bavaria had laid their hands on the possessions of the immediate no- bility, and, though they acted without any con- sideration, their haste was humanity compared with the violence of the King of Wurtemberg, who carried rapacity to such a length as to cause all the fiefs to be seized and plundered, as at the time when the cry in France was, War with the mansions, peace urith the cottages. His troops entered the domains of princes, enclosed in his kingdom, upon pretext of seizing the possessions of the immediate nobility. Having a right to a portion only of the Brisgau, the King of Wurtemberg had occupied nearly the whole of it But for the French troops, the Wurtembergers and the Badenars would have come to blows. Napoleon had appointed M. Otto, minister of France, at Munich, and Berthier, major-general I of the grand army, arbiters of the differences ; which he foresaw between the German princes, great and small. These latter had all hastened ' to Munich, whither the Diet of Ratisbon ap- | peared to have transferred its seat, and there solicited the justice of France, and even the presence, how burdensome soever it might be, of French troops. On all sides arose inextri- I cable disputes, which apparently it would be impossible to settle without new moulding the I Germanic constitution. Meanwhile detach- ments of our soldiers held possession of the places in litigation, and every thing was refer- red to the arbitration of France and her minis I ters. At any rate, Napoleon did not make a i handle of these disputes to prolong the stay of his troops in Germany, for he was impatient to ; order the return of the army, and to collect it l around him at Paris ; and for this he awaited only the entire occupation of Dalmatia, and the definitive answer of the court of Prussia. That court, obliged to decide definitively upon the modified treaty of Schonbrunn, at length took its resolution. It accepted this treaty, which had become less advantageous since its double remodelling in Berlin and in Paris, and received, with confusion on its brow, with ingratitude in its heart, the gift of Hano- ver, which at any other time would have filled it with joy. What, indeed, could be done? There was no other course to take but to close the business by acceding to the 'proposals of France, or to make up its mind at once to war, war, for which the Prussian army boastingly cried out, and which its leaders, more consi- derate, and above all the king, dreaded as a ruinous experiment. As for choosing war, it ought to have decid- ed on this when Napoleon quitted Ulm, to bury himself in the long valley of the Danube, and to have fallen upon his rear, while the Austro- Russians, concentrated at Olmutz, were draw- ing him into Moravia. But the Prussian army was not ready then ; and, after the 2d of De- cember, when Count Haugwitz conversed with Napoleon, it was too late. It was much later now that the French, assembled in Suabia and Franconia, had but a step to take to invade Prussia, now that the Russians were in Poland, and the Austrians in a completely disarmed state. To accept the gift of Hanover on the con- ditions attached to it by France was, therefore, the only possible resolution. But this was a singular mode of commencing an intimate alliance. The treaty of the 15th of February was ratified on the 24th. M. de Lucchesini set out immediately for Paris with the ratifi- 118 HISTORY OF THE [Feb. 1S06. cations. M. ae Haugwitz, on his part, left Paris to return to Berlin, highly pleased with the personal treatment which he had received from Napoleon, promising him anew the faith- ful alliance of Prussia, but anticipating most arduous trials, at sight of all the difficulties which then swarmed in Germany, at the sight, more especially, of those petty German princes prostrate at the feet of France, to save them- selves from the exactions with which they were overwhelmed by the more powerful or the more favoured princes. On his arrival in Berlin, M. de Haugwitz found the king deeply dejected at his situation, deeply afflicted by the difficulties opposed to him by the court, more excited and more in- temperate than ever. The audacity of the discontented was carried to such a length, that, one night, all the windows in the house of M. de Haugwitz were broken by rioters, who were generally believed to belong to the army, and who were publicly, but falsely, said to be agents of Prince Louis. M. de Haugwitz affected to disdain these manifesta- tions, which, very insignificant in free coun- tries, where one winks at while despising these excesses of the multitude, were strange and serious in an absolute monarchy, espe- cially when they could be imputed to the army. The king considered them as a serious matter, and declared publicly his intention to be severe. He gave formal orders for a search after the culprits, whom the police, either from being implicated itself or powerless, did not succeed in discovering. The king, driven to extremity, manifested a firm and decided de- termination, which overawed the discontented, and particularly the queen. He gave the lat- ter to understand that his resolution was taken, that the welfare of the monarchy had commanded him to take it, and that every body about him must assume an attitude con- formable to his policy. The queen, who, for the rest, was devoted to the interest of the king, her husband, was silent, and, for a mo- ment, the court presented a decorous aspect. M. de Hardenberg quitted the ministry. This personage had become the idol of the opposition. He had been the creature of M. de Haugwitz, his partisan, his imitator, and the most zealous advocate of the French alli- ance, particularly in 1805, when Napoleon, from his camp at Boulogne, offered Hanover to Prussia. Then M. de Hardenberg regarded it as the most brilliant of glories to ensure this aggrandizement to his country, and com- plained to the French ministers of the hesita- tions of his sovereign, who was too back- ward, he said, in attaching himself to France. Since then, having seen that scheme mis- carry, he had thrown himself, with the impe- tuosity of an intemperate character, into the arms of Russia, and, unable to extricate him- self from this error, he loudly declaimed against France. Napoleon, informed of his conduct, committed a great fault in regard to him, which he repeated more than once, and which was to mention him in his bulletins, by making an offensive allusion to a Prussian min- ister, seduced by the gold of England. The im- putation was unjust. M. de Hardenberg was no more seduced by the gold of the English than was M. de Haugwitz by the gold of the French : it was most indecent in an official document, and bespoke too strongly the license of the sol- dier conqueror. It was this attack which pro- cured for M. de Hardenberg the immense po- pularity which he enjoyed. The king allowed him to retire with testimonies of considera- tion, which did not take the character of a po- litical disgrace from his retirement. But, while he removed M. de Hardenberg, Frederick William associated with M. de Haugwitz, a second, who was not much bet- ter: this was M. de Keller, whom the court considered as one of its own, and who gave himself out publicly as inspector over his superior. It was a sort of satisfaction granted to the party hostile to France ; for, in absolute governments, rulers are frequently obliged to give way to opposition, just as in free govern- ments. Frederick William did still more; he endeavoured to keep on good terms with Rus- sia, to explain honourably to her the interested inconsistencies which he had committed. Since Austerlitz, the cabinet of Berlin had been very chary of communications with St. Petersburg. After all the boastings of Pots- dam, Russia could not but be ashamed of her defeat, and Prussia of the manner in which she had kept the oath sworn on the tomb of the great Frederick. Silence was for the mo- ment the only fitting relation between the two courts. Russia, however, had once broken it to declare that her forces were at the disposal of Prussia, if the treaty of Potsdam, divulged, should bring a war upon her. Since that time she had said nothing, nor Prussia either. It was requisite at last to come to an expla- nation. The king pressed the old Duke of Brunswick to go to St. Petersburg, to oppose his glory to the censures which the conduct pursued at SchOnbrunn and continued in Paris could not fail to call forth. This respectable prince, devoted to the house of Brandenburg, set out, therefore, notwithstanding his age, for Russia. He went not to declare frankly that Prussia had at length espoused the French alliance, which would have been difficult, but yet preferable to a continuation of ambiguities, already very pernicious : he went to say that if Prussia had taken Hanover, it was that it might not be left in the hands of France, and to spare herself the mortification and danger of seeing the French appear again in the north of Germany; that, if she had accepted the term alliance, it was to avoid war, and that this term was intended to signify nothing but neutrality: that neutrality was the best course for both of them; that Russia and Prussia had nothing to gain by war; that, by persisting in that system of implacable hostility against France, they fostered the commercial mono- poly of England, and that it was not very sure that they were not also fostering the conti- nental domination of Napoleon. Such was the language which the Duke of Brunswick was to hold at St. Petersburg. We must return to the young emperor, who, hurried into war by vanity and against the secret whispers of his reason, had served at Austerlitz such a sorry apprenticeship to arms. Feb. 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 119 He had given little cause for being talked of during the last three months, and had hidden in his distant empire the confusion of his defeat. A general outcry was raised in Russia against the young men who, it was alleged, governed and compromised the empire. These young men, placed, some in the army, others in the cabinet, had fallen out with one another. The party of the Dolgoroukis accused the party of the Czartoryskis, and reproached it with having ruined every thing by its misbe- haviour towards Prussia. They would have done violence to her, said the Dolgoroukis : they had, therefore, estranged instead of draw- ing her nearer, and her refusal to join the coalition had prevented its success. It was in a particular interest that they had so acted; it was to wrest the Polish provinces from Prus- sia, and to reconstitute Poland, a mischievous dream, for which the Polish Prince Czartoryski was evidently betraying the emperor. Prince Czartoryski and his friends main- tained with much more reason that it was those presumptuous soldiers, who could not wait at Olmutz for the expiration of the term fixed for the intervention of Prussia, that had insisted prematurely on giving battle, and op- posing their twenty-five years' experience to the skill of the most consummate general of modern times that it was these presumptuous and incapable soldiers who were the real authors of the disasters of Russia. The old Russians, dissatisfied, condemned both the youthful parties ; and Alexander, ac- cused of allowing himself to be guided some- times by the one, sometimes by the other, had become, at this period, an object of little consi- deration for his subjects. He had been deeply dejected in the first days after his defeat, and, if Prince Czartoryski had not several times roused him to a sense of his own dignity, he would have manifested too plainly the profound despondency of his spirit. Prince Czartoryski, though he had his share in the inexperience common to the young men who governed the empire, was nevertheless consistent and serious in his views. He was the principal author of that system of European arbitration which had led Russia to take arms against France. That system, which, with Russian statesmen, was in reality but a mask thrown over their national ambition, was with that young Pole a sincere and cordially em- braced idea. He wished Alexander to per- severe in it; and, if it was a great presump- tion in men so young to pretend to control Europe, especially in presence of the powers which were then disputing the empire over it, it was a still greater levity to give up so soon what had been so rashly undertaken. Prince Czartoryski had addressed to the young emperor, once his friend and beginning to become again his master, noble and re- spectful remonstrances which would do honour to a minister of a free country, which must do him much more honour where resistance to power is an act of rare devotedness and des- tined to remain unknown. Prince Czartoryski, recapitulating to Alexander his hesitations, his weaknesses, said, " Austria is abased, but she detests her conqueror; Prussia is divided between two parties, but she will finally yield herself up to the German sentiment which predominates in her. In managing these powers, wait till the moment arrives when one or the other shall be ready to act. Till then you are out of reach : you can remain some time without making either peace or war, and thus wait till circumstances permit you either to resume arms or to retreat with advantage. Cease not to be allied with Eng- land, and you will oblige Napoleon to concede to you what is your due." Deeply sensible of the greatness of Napo- leon, since he had met him on the field of battle of Austerlitz, Alexander thus replied to Prince Czartoryski : " When we pretend to assail this man we are children presuming to tackle a giant." And he added that, without Prussia it would be impossible to renew the war, for without her there was no chance of maintaining a successful war. Alexander had conceived a singular esteem for the Prussian army, for this single reason, that it had not yet been beaten by Napoleon. That army, in fact, was then the illusion and the hope of Europe. With that Alexander was ready to commence the struggle afresh, but not without it. As for England, he ceased to hope for any very efficacious support from her. He feared that, after the deaih of Mr. Pitt, announced as cer- tain, after the accession of Mr. Fox, announced as near at hand, hatred of France would be extinguished, if not in the hearts of the Eng- lish, at least in their policy. However, the remonstrances of Prince Czartoryski, stimu- lating the pride of Alexander, had raised his spirit, and he was resolved, before he delivered his sword to Napoleon, to make him wait for it. But though useful, the lessons of his young censor were annoying to him, and that to such a degree as to induce him to seek, among the aged persons of his empire, a complaisant servant without capacity, to cover with a great age and to execute with submission his per- sonal will. It was already said that his fa- vour was fixed on General Budberg. The conduct recommended by Prince Czar- toryski was, nevertheless, followed very punc- tually. Russia again placed herself in com- munication with Austria; she seemed to have forgotten the coolness of Holitsch, expressed to that court great sympathy in its misfortunes, and high consideration for the power that was yet left it ; she even undertook to negotiate in London to obtain payment for her of a year's subsidy, though the war had lasted only three months. As for Prussia, she avoided every thing that could have offended her, abstaining, nevertheless, from approving her acts. The Duke of Brunswick had arrived in the first days of the month of March. He was most cordially received, he was loaded with atten- tions, which seemed to be addressed to his person, to his age, to his military glory, and by no means to the court of which he was the re- presentative. His reception was cooler when he began to converse on political affairs. He was told that Russia could not approve of the conduct of Prussia in accepting Hanover from the hand of the enemy of Europe ; that, for the rest, the peace which she had made with 120 HISTORY OF THE [March, 1806. France was a false peace, neither solid nor durable; that Prussia would soon be forced to adopt a resolution too long delayed, and at last to draw the sword of the great Frederick " Then," said the Emperor Alexander to the Duke of Brunswick, " I will serve under your command, and glory in learning the art of war in your school." An attempt, however, was made to com- mence with the old duke a negotiation destined to be kept profoundly secret. Upon pretext that the conditions would not be faithfully kept by France, it was proposed to conclude a sub-alliance with Russia, by means of which Prussia, if she were dissatisfied with her French ally, might have recourse to her Russian ally, and would have at her disposal all the forces of the Muscovite emperor. What was offered was nothing less than treason against France. The Duke of Brunswick, wishing to leave be- hind at St. Petersburg dispositions favourable to Prussia, consented not to conclude such an engagement, but to propose it to the king. It was agreed that this negotiation should be left open, and that it should be carried on secretly and unknown to M. de Haugwitz, thr&ugh the medium of M.de Hardenberg,the same minister who was apparently disgraced, and who con- tinued under hand to treat upon the most im- portant affairs of the monarchy. While Prussia Avas thus seeking to explain her conduct to Russia, she attempted also to excuse herself in London for the occupation of Hanover. Nothing was more singular than her manifesto to the Hanoverian people and her despatch to the court of London. To the Hanoverians she said that it was with pain she took possession of that kingdom posses- sion for which she paid by a severe sacrifice, that of her provinces on the Rhine, in Franco- nia, and in Switzerland; but that she did so to insure peace to Germany, and to spare Han- over the presence of foreign armies. After addressing to the Hanoverian people these words without frankness and without dignity, she said to the English cabinet that she did not take Hanover from England, but that she received it from Napoleon, whose conquest Hanover was. She received it, she added, against her will, and as an exchange that was 'forced upon her for provinces which were the object of her keenest regret; that it was one of the consequences of the imprudent war which Prussia had always blamed, which had been undertaken contrary to her advice, and the consequences of which the allies must im- pute to themselves, for, in combating it unsea- sonably, they had raised up that colossal power which took from one to give to another, and which did violence as well to those whom it favoured with its gifts as to those whom it despoiled. England was not to be satisfied with such reasons. She replied in a manifesto, in which she overwhelmed the court of Prussia with in- vectives, declared it miserably fallen under the yoke of Napoleon, unworthy of being listened to, and as contemptible for its greediness as foi its dependence. Still the British cabinet, that it might not appear in the eyes of the na- tion to bring an additional enemy upon its hands, for an interest belonging exclusively to the royal family, said that it would have suffered this new invasion of Hanover, the inevitable result of the continental war, if Prussia had confined herself to a mere occupation; but that this power, having announced the closing of the rivers, had committed a hostile act, an act supremely injurious to English commerce, and that in consequence it declared war against her. Orders were given to all the ships of the royal navy to take all vessels sailing under the Prussian flag. Great was the consequent perturbation in Germany; for the vessels of the Baltic usually covered themselves with that flag, which was more respected than the others by the lords of the sea. The ascendency of the battle of Marengo had reconciled England with Napoleon, the ascendency of that of Austerlitz brought her back to him once more, for the victories of our land armies were means of disarming her quite as sure though less direct. The first of these victories had produced the resignation of Mr. Pitt, the second caused his death. This great minister, having resumed his seat in the cabi- net in 1803, for no more than two years, ap- peared there only to drink deeply of mortifica- tions. Having returned without Mr. Wyndham and Lord Grenville, his former colleagues, without Mr. Fox, his recent ally, he had had to fight in parliament his old and his new friends, in Europe Napoleon, become emperor, and more powerful than ever. At his voice, so well known to the enemies of France, the cry of arms had rung on all sides ; a third coali- tion had been formed, and the French army had been drawn away from Dover to Vienna. But this third coalition once dissolved at Aus- terlitz, Mr. Pitt had seen his plans frustrated, Napoleon at liberty to return to Boulogne, and the keen anxieties of England about to be renewed. The idea of again seeing Napoleon on the shores of the Channel engrossed all minds in England. Reliance was still placed, it is true, on the immense difficulty of the passage, but people began to fear that nothing was impos- sible with the extraordinary man who shook the world; and they asked if it was worth while to^risk such chances, for the sake of ac- quiring an island more, when they already had all India, when they held the Cape of Good Hope and Malta too firmly to be dispossessed of them. They said to themselves that the battle of Trafalgar had definitively insured the superiority of England on the seas, but that the European continent was left to Napoleon, that he was about to close all its outlets, that this continent, after all, was the world, and that one could not live cut off from it for ever; that the most splendid naval victories would not prevent Napoleon, taking advantage some day of some accidental circumstance, from leaving that continent to invade England. The system of war to the utmost extremity was, therefore, universally discredited among rational Englishmen, and, though that system was subsequently successful, yet they were then sensible of the danger which was great, too great for the advantages that might be gained by a prolonged struggle. March, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 12' Now, as men are the slaves of fortune, and readily take her momentary caprices for eter- nal, they were cruel towards Mr. Pitt ; they forgot the services which for twenty years that minister had rendered to his country, and the degree of greatness to which he had raised it by the energy of his patriotism, and by the parliamentary talents by which he had subjugated the House of Commons. They considered him as vanquished, and treated him as such. His enemies railed at his policy and the results which it had produced. They imputed to him the faults of General Mack, the precipitation of the Austrians in. taking the field without waiting for the Russians, and the precipitation of the Russians in giving battle without waiting for the Prussians. All this they imputed to the vehement impatience of Mr. Pitt; they affected great sympathy for Austria, while they accused him of having ruined her, and of having ruined in her the only genuine friend of England. Mr. Pitt, nevertheless, was a stranger to the plan of the campaign, and had participated in nothing but the coalition. It was he who had principally knitted it, and in knitting it he had prevented the Boulogne expedition. People gave him no thanks for it. A singular circumstance had rendered the effect of Napoleon's late victory more painful. On the day after Austerliiz, as on the day aAer Marengo, it was asserted for a few moments, before the truth was known, that Napoleon had lost in a great battle twenty-seven thou- sand men and all his artillery. But accurate information had very soon been circulated, and the members of the opposition, getting the French bulletins translated and printed, distributed and sent them to the door of Mr. Pitt and the Russian ambassador. In order to the enjoyment of all his glory, Napoleon would have had only to pass the Strait, and listen to what was said of him, of his genius, of his fortune. Melancholy vicis- situdes of this world ! what Mr. Pitt under- went at this period, Napoleon had to undergo later, and with a greatness of injustice and of passion proportioned to the greatness of his genius and of his destiny. Twenty-five years' parliamentary conflicts, consuming conflicts, which wear out soul and body, had ruined the health of Mr. Pitt. An hereditary disorder, which business, fatigues, and recent vexations had rendered mortal, caused his premature end on the 23d of Janu- ary, 1806, after having governed his country more than twenty years, with as much power as can be exercised in an absolute monarchy; and yet he lived in a free country, and yet he enjoyed not the favour of his sovereign, and had to conquer the suffrages of the most in- dependent assembly in the world. If we admire those ministers who in abso- lute monarchies have the skill to chain for a long time the weakness of the prince, the in- stability of the court, and to reign in the name of their master over an enslaved country, what admiration ought we not to feel for a man, whose power, established over a free na- tion, lasted twenty years ! Courts are ex- tremely capricious no doubt : they are not VOL. II. 16 more so than great deliberative assemblies. All the caprices of public opinion, excited by the thousand stimulants of the daily press, and reflected in a parliament where they as- sume the authority of the national sovereignty, compose that variable will, alternately servile and despotic, which it is necessary to capti- ! vate in order to reign one's self over that mul- i titude of heads which pretend to reign. To : hold sway there, it requires not only the art of flattery which wins success in courts, but also that very different art of public speaking, sometimes vulgar, sometimes sublime, which is indispensable to obtain a hearing from an ' assembly; it requires, further, that which is not an art, which is a gift, the temper with I which one succeeds in quelling and control- i ling the excited passions. All these natural j or acquired qualities Mr. Pitt possessed in the I highest degree. Never in modern times has there existed a more able leader of an assem- bly. Exposed for a quarter of a century to the impetuous vehemence of Mr. Fox, to the cutting sarcasms of Mr. Sheridan, he bore himself up with imperturbable composure, spoke at all times justly, opportunely, tempe- rately, and, when the ringing voice of his adversaries was joined by the still more power- ful voice of events, when the French Revolu- tion, incessantly disconcerting the most expe- rienced statesman and general in Europe, flung across his way either Fleurusor Zurich, or Marengo, he always knew how to restrain the excited minds of the British parliament by his firmness and by the pertinence of his answers. It is for this more particularly that Mr. Pitt was remarkable, for he had not, as we have elsewhere observed, either the organ- izing genius or the profound faculties of the statesman. With the exception of some financial institutions of disputed merit, he created nothing in England ; he was often mistaken respecting the relative strength of the European powers and the course of events, but to the talents of a great political orator he added ardent love for his country, and a pas- sionate hatred of the French Revolution. Representing in England not the titled aris- tocracy, but the commercial aristocracy, which lavished its treasures upon him in the way of loans, he resisted the greatness of France and the contagion of democratic disorders with immovable perseverance, and maintained order in his country without di- minishing liberty. He left it burdened with debt, it is true, but quiet possessor of the seas and of India. He used and abused the strength of England, but she was the sect nd power in the world when he died, and the first, eight years after his death. And what would the strength of nations be good for unless to endeavour to control one another! Vast dominations are among the designs of Providence. What a man of genius is to a na- tion, a great nation is to mankind. Great na- tions civilize, enlighten the world, and acce lerate its progress in every way. Only it is ne- cessary to counsel them to unite with strength the prudence which gives success to strength, and the justice which honours it. Mr. Pitt, so prosperous for eighteen years. 122 HISTORY OF THE [March, 1808. was unfortunate in the last days of his life. We were avenged, we French, on that cruel enemy ; for he had reason to conclude that we should be victorious forever, to doubt the ex- cellence of his policy, and to tremble for the futurity of his country. It was one of the least gifted of his successors, Lord Castle- reagh, who was destined to enjoy our disas- ters. Amidst accusations the most diverse and the most violent, Mr. Pitt had the good fortune not to see his integrity assailed. He lived upon his emoluments, which were considerable, and without being poor, was reputed to be so. When his death was made known, one of the ministerial majority proposed to pay his debts. This motion, being submitted to parliament, was received with respect, but resisted by his old friends, who had become his enemies, and particularly by Mr. Wyndham, who had so long been his colleague in the ministry. His noble antagonist, Mr. Fox, refused to support the motion, but with grief. " I honour," he exclaimed, in a tone that moved the assembled Commons, " I honour my illustrious adver- sary, and I account it the glory of my life to have been sometimes called his rival. But for twenty years I have opposed his policy, and what would the present generation say of me if it were to see me approving a propo- sal designed to be the last and the most sig- nal homage to that policy, which I have be- lieved, which I still believe, to be prejudicial to England." Everybody comprehended the vote of Mr. Fox, and applauded the noble spirit of his language. A few days afterwards, the motion having assumed another character, parliament unani- mously voted 50,000/. sterling (1,250,000 francs) to pay Mr. Pitt's debts. It was de- cided that he should be buried at Westminster. Mr. Pitt left vacant the offices of first lord of the treasury, chancellor of the exchequer, lord warden of the Cinque ports, chancellor of the university of Cambridge, and several others of less importance. It was very difficult to supply his place, not in these different offices, for which numerous , ambitions were ready to dispute, but in that of prime minister, in which there was some- thing awful in presence of Napoleon, conque- ror of the European coalition. One idea had taken possession of all minds immediately after the renewal of the war in 1803, and at the sight of the weak ministry of Mr. Adding- ton, who then governed. The concerted op- position of Pitt and Fox against the Addington cabinet, rendered this coalition of talents more natural and more easy. Mr. Pitt desired it, but not so strongly as to overcome George III. He entered upon the ministry without Mr. Fox, and, by a sort of compensation, without his stanchest friends in the old tory system, with- out Lord Grenville and Mr. Wyndham, whom he had found too ardent to associate them again with himself. These, left out by Mr. Pitt, had been gradu- ally drawing nearer to Mr. Fox by the way of opposition, though, from the nature of their opinions, they were further from him than Mr. P'tt him^e.'.l. A common struggle of two years had contributed to unite them, and few differ- ences divided them when Mr. Pitt died. A general opinion called them together to the ministry, to replace by their combined talents the great minister whom the country had just lost; to endeavour to make peace by means of the friendly relations between Mr. Fox and Napoleon ; and to continue the struggle with all the known energy of the Grenvilles and the Wyndhams, if they did not succeed in arrang- ing with France. If, in 1803, George III. had taken Mr. Pitt, whom he disliked, in order to dispense with Mr. Fox, whom he disliked still more, he was forced after Mr. Pitt's death to submit to the empire of public opinion, and to call into one and the same cabinet, Fox, Grenville, Wynd- ham, and their friends. Lord Grenville had the office of first lord of the treasury, that is to say, prime minister ; Mr. Wyndham, that which he had always occupied, the administration of war; Mr. Fox, the foreign affairs; Mr. Grey, the Admiralty. The other departments were distributed among the friends of these political personages, but in such a manner that Mr. Fox numbered most votes in the new minis- try. This cabinet, thus formed, obtained a great majority, notwithstanding the attacks of the ousted colleagues of Mr. Pitt, Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning. It directed its immediate attention to two essential objects, the organi- zation of the army, and the relations with France. As for the army, it was not possible to leave it as it had been since 1803, that is to say, composed of an insufficient regular force, and of 300,000 volunteers, as expensive as they were ill disciplined. It was an organization of emergency, devised for the moment of dan- ger. Mr. Wyndham, who had always been sarcastic upon the volunteers, had maintained that nothing great could be done but with regular armies, which had furnished him with occasion to speak in magnificent terms of the French army Mr. Wyndham could less than any other retain the present organiza- tion. He proposed, therefore, a sort of dis- guised disbanding of the volunteers, and cer- tain changes in the troops of the line, which were designed to facilitate the recruiting of the latter. We have already seen that the Eng- lish army, like all mercenary armies, was re- cruited by voluntary enlistment. But this en- listment was for life, and rendered recruiting difficult. Mr. Wyndham proposed to convert it into temporary enlistment for a term of seven to twenty-one years, and to add to it consider- able advantages of pay. He contributed thus to procure a much stronger organization for the English army ; but he had to contend wi*h the prejudice which standing armies excite in all free natkns, with the favour which the volun- teers had acquired, and above all with the in- terests created by that institution; for it had been necessary to form a corps of officers for the volunteers, which government was now obliged to dissolve. An attempt had been made to set Mr. Wyndham at variance with his new col- league, Mr. Fox, who, participating in the po pular prejudices of his party, had formerly March, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 123 shown a greater predilection for the institution of the volunteers than for the extension of the regular army. Notwithstanding all these ob- stacles, the ministerial plan was adopted. A large augmentation to the regular army was voted; till the complete development of the new system, it was to consist of 267,000 men, 75,000 of whom were local militia, and 1 92,000 troops of the line, distributed throughout the three kingdoms and colonies. The total ex- pense of the budget still amounted to about 83 millions sterling, that is, more than two thou- sand million francs, made up by taxes to the amount of 1500 millions, and a loan, to be contracted in the course of the year, for 500. It was with these mighty resources that England purposed to appear before Napoleon, in order to negotiate. From Mr. For, from his situation, from his friendly relations with the Emperor, were expected facilities which no other could possess for tendering pacific over- tures. A fortunate accident, which Providence owed to that honest man, furnished him with a most honourable and most natural opportu- nity. A wretch, judging of the new English administration from the preceding, introduced himself to Mr. Fox, and offered to assassinate Napoleon. Mr. Fox indignantly ordered him to be seized by the door-keepers, and delivered up to the English police. He wrote immedi- ately a very noble letter to M. de Talleyrand, denouncing the odious proposal which he had just received, and offering to place at his dis- posal all the means for prosecuting the author, if his scheme appeared to involve any thing serious. Napoleon was touched, as well he might be, at so generous a procedure, and ordered M. de Talleyrand to address to Mr. Fox such an answer as the latter deserved. "I have laid your excellency's letter before his majesty," wrote M. de Talleyrand. " There," he ex- claimed, " I recognise the principles of honour and virtue which have always animated Mr. Fox. Thank him in my name, he added, and tell him that, whether the policy of his sove- reign causes us to continue much longer at war, or whether as speedy an end as the two nations can desire is put to a quarrel useless for humanity, I rejoice at the new character which, from this proceeding, the war has al- ready taken, and which is an omen of what may be expected from a cabinet, of the prin- ciples of which I am delighted to judge from those of Mr. Fox, who is one of the men most fitted to feel in every thing what is excellent, what is truly great." M. de Talleyrand said nothing more, and this was sufficient to produce a continuation of communications so nobly commenced. Mr. Fox immediately answered by a frank and cordial letter, in which, without circumlocu- tion, without diplomatic quirk, he offered peace on safe and honourable conditions, and by means as simple as they were prompt. The bases of the treaty of Amiens were much changed, according to Mr. Fox ; they were so in consequence of the very advantages obtained by France and England, on the two elements which were the ordinary theatre of their suc- cesses. It was, therefore, necessary to seek new conditions, which should not hurt the pride of either of the two nations, and which should procure for Europe guarantees of future tranquillity and safety. These conditions, if both sides chose to be reasonable, were not difficult to be found. According to anterior treaties, England could not negotiate separately from Russia, but, till the latter could be con- sulted, it was allowable to commit to chosen agents the task of discussing the interests of the belligerent powers, and paving the way to their adjustment. Mr. Fox offered to appoint immediately the persons who should be charged with this mission, and the place where they were to meet. This proposal delighted Napoleon, who, at bottom, wished for a reconciliation with Great Britain, for from her every war proceeded, like water from its source, and there were few direct means of conquering her, one alone excepted, extremely decisive, but extremely precarious, and practicable for him only, an invasion. He was sincerely rejoiced at this frank overture, and accepted it with the great- est cordiality. Without entering into any explanation of the conditions, he intimated in his reply that France would not dispute much with England the conquests which she had made, (she had retained Malta, as it will be recollected, and taken the Cape,) that France, on her side, had said her last word to Europe in the treaty of Presburg, and that she claimed nothing further; that it would, therefore, be easy to lay down the bases, if England had not particular and inadmissible views relative to commercial interests. "The Emperor is persuaded," said M. de Talleyrand, " that the real cause of the rupture of the peace of Amiens was no other than the refusal to conclude a commercial treat}'. Be assured that the Emperor, without refusing certain commercial advantages, if they are possible, will not admit of any treaty prejudicial to French industry, which he means to protect by all duties or prohibitions that can favour its development. He insists oa having liberty to do at home all that he pleases, all that is deemed beneficial, without any rival nation having a right to find fault with him." As for the intervention of Russia in tht treaty, Napoleon directed a positive declara- tion to be made that he would not permit it. The principle of his diplomacy was that of separate peace, and this principle was equally just and ably conceived. Europe had always employed the medium of coalitions against France; it would be favouring them to admit of collective negotiations, for it would be lend- ing one's self to the essential condition of every coalition, that which forbids its members to treat separately. Napoleon, who, in war, strove to meet his enemies separated from each other, in order to beat them in detail, could do no other than strive in diplomacy to meet with them in the same position. Accord ingly, he had opposed absolute refusals to all offers of negotiating collectively, and he was right, with the salvo to depart from this prin- ciple of conduct, in case Mr. Fox should be bound by engagements which wou.d not per- mit him to trat -yithout Russiv Napoleou, 124 HISTORY OF THE [April, 1808 after he had laid down the principle of a sepa- rate negotiation, enjoined his minister to inti- mate further that he was ready to choose for the place of the negotiation, not that Amiens which reminded one of bases of peace hence- forward abandoned, but Lille, and to send a minister plenipotentiary thither immediately. Mr. Fox instantly replied that the first con- dition which had been agreed upon at the outset of these parleys was, that the peace should be equally honourable for both nations, and that it would not be so for England, if she treated without Russia, for she had formally engaged by an article of a treaty (that which had constituted the coalition of 1805) not to conclude a separate peace. This obligation was absolute, according to Mr. Fox, and could not be eluded. He said that, if France had a principle, that of not authorizing coalitions by her manner of negotiating, England had an- other, that of not suffering herself to be excluded from the continent by lending herself to the dissolution of her continental alliances; that, on this point, people in England were quite as jealous as they could be in France on the sub- ject of coalitions. Mr. Fox, who accompanied each of his official despatches with a private letter full of frankness and honour, an example which M. de Talleyrand followed on his side Mr. Fox finished with saying that the negotia- tion would perhaps be stopped by an absolute obstacle, which he sincerely regretted, but that, at any rate, the war would be honourable and worthy of the two great nations which waged it. He added these remarkable words: " I am sensible to the highest degree, as I ought to be, to the obliging expressions which the great man whom you serve has used in regard to me. Regret is unavailing, but, if he could see, with the same eye that I behold it, the true glory which he would have a right to acquire by a just and moderate peace, what happiness would not result from it for France and for all Europe! " C. J. Fox. " London, April 23, 1806.'' Amidst this rancorous, one might say fero- cious contest, when one reviews the sangui- nary scenes which have marked it, the mind loves to dwell on that noble and kindly inter- course, to which a man as generous as he was eloquent gave rise for a moment, between the two greatest nations of the globe, and the heart is filled with painful, inconsolable regret. Napoleon was himself deeply touched by the language of Mr. Fox, and he was i-incerely desirous of peace. M. de Talleyrand, though mistaken in regard to the system of our al- liances, was never wrong on the main point of the policy of the time, and he ceased not for a moment to believe that, at the height of greatness to which we had attained, peace was our primary interest. He found a courage to say this which he had not in general, and he earnestly pressed Napoleon to seize the unique occasion offered by the presence of Mr. Fox in office, to negotiate with Great Britain. For the rest, he had no difficulty to gain a hearing, for Napoleon was not less disposed than him- seif to profit by this alike fortunate and unex- pected occasion. Circumstances, moreover, assisted to over- come the obstacle which seemed to stop the negotiation at its outset. There was more than one reason to believe, from reports which came from the Duke of Brunswick and from the consul of France at St. Petersburg, that Alexander, uneasy about the consequences of the war, mistrusting the silence of the British cabinet towards him, and the personal disposi- tions of Mr. Fox, wished for the re-establish- ment of peace. The consul of France had sent to Paris the chancellor of the consulate to report what he had learned, and every thing seemed to encourage a hope of opening a direct negotiation with Russia. In this case, Mr. Fox could no longer insist on the principle of a collective negotiation, since Russia would herself have set the example of renouncing it. It was determined, therefore, to prosecute the parleys commenced by Mr. Fox, and for this purpose there was employed an agent, whom a lucky chance had just presented. To the generous words exchanged with Mr. Fox were added proceedings not less generous. Ever since the apprehension of the English, ordered by Napoleon, at the time of the rup- ture of the peace of Amiens, by way of re- prisals for the seizure of French vessels, many members of the highest families in Eng- land had been detained at Verdun. Mr. Fox had applied for the release of several of them on parole. His solicitations had been cheer- fully complied with, and though, not daring to insist upon all of them in an equal degree, he had classed them according to the interest which he felt for them, Napoleon resolved to grant them all, and the English designated by him had been released without any exception. In return for this noble proceeding, Mr. Fox had selected, for the purpose of releasing them, the most distinguished prisoners taken at the battle of Trafalgar, the unfortunate Villeneuve, Captain Lucas, the heroic com- mander of the Redoutable, and many others, equal in number to the English set at liberty. Among the prisoners restored to Mr. Fox was one of the richest and one of the cleverest English noblemen, Lord Yarmouth, afterwards Marquis of Hertford, a stanch Tory, but an intimate friend of Mr. Fox's, a decided parti- san of peace, which enabled him to live abroad and enjoy the pleasures of the Continent, of which he was deprived by the war. This young nobleman, acquainted with the most brilliant of the youth of Paris, in whose dis- sipations he partook, was well known to M. de Talleyrand, who liked the English nobility, especially such of them as had talents, ele- gance, and dissolute habits. Lord Yarmouth was pointed out to him as particularly con- nected with Mr. Fox, and as well worthy of the confidence of both governments. He sent for him, told him that the Emperor was sin- cerely desirous of peace, that they must set aside the ceremony of diplomatic forms, and come to a frank explanation upon the condi- tions acceptable on both sides ; that these con- ditians could not be very difficult to find, since France would no longer dispute with England what she had conquered, that is to say, Malta and the Cape ; that the question, therefore, was April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 125 reduced to a few islands of little importance ; that, in regard to France, she spoke out in a clear and straightforward manner ; she desired that, besides her natural territory, the Rhine and the Alps.no power should henceforth con- test with her the whole of Italy, including the kingdom of Naples, and her alliances in Ger- many, on condition of restoring their independ- ence to Switzerland and Holland, as .soon as peace should be signed ; thai, consequently, there was no serious obstacle to an immediate reconciliation of the two countries, since both must be disposed to concede the things just specified ; that, relative to the difficulty arising from the form of the negotiation, collective or separate, they should soon find a solution of that, thanks to the inclination shown by Russia to treat directly with France. There was one capital point on which no explanation was given, but respecting which France gave to understand that in the end she should tell her secret, and tell it in such a manner as to satisfy the royal family of Eng- land that was Hanover. Napoleon had actually determined to restore it to George III., and it was the recent conduct of Prussia which had provoked him to this serious resolution. The hypocritical language of that court in its manifestoes, tending to re- present it to the Hanoverians and to the Eng- !i.-h as an oppressed power which had been forced with the sword at its throat, to accept a fine kingdom, had transported him with anger. He was for tearing that moment the treaty of the 15th of February, and obliging Prussia to replace every thing on the former footing. But for the reflections which time and M. de Talleyrand suggested, he would have made a disturbance. Another more recent circum- stance had contributed to detach him entirely from Prussia, that was the publication by Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Pitt's retiring colleagues, of the negotiations of 1805. The latter were intent on avenging the memory of their illus- trious leader, by showing that he had had no- thing to do with the military operations, though he had had the greatest share in the formation of the coalition of 1805, which had saved Eng- land, by causing the breaking up of the camp of Boulogne. But, in defending the memory of their leader, they had compromised most of the courts. Mr. Fox had reproached them with it in the House of Commons with extreme vehemence, and had attributed to them the change in all the relations of England with the European powers. There was in fact a universal outcry against English diplomacy in the cabinets, which found themselves de- nounced to France by this imprudent publica- tion. On this occasion, an unlucky light had been thrown on the conduct of Prussia. Her hyp< critical and recentdeclarations to England relative to Hanover, the hopes which she had held out to the coalition, before and after the events of Potsdam, were all divulged. Napo- leon, without complaining, had ordered the in- sertion of these documents in the Moniteur, leaving every one to guess what he ought to think of them. But the opinion of Napoleon in regard to ! Napoleon ordered it to halt on the Inn, to re- Prussia was formed. He no longer considered ' arm Brannau, to re-establish itself, and lo 1.2 her worth the trouble of a prolonged contest with England : he was determined lo restore Hanover to the latter, and to offer Prussia one of two things, either an equivalent to Hanover to be found in Germany, or the restitution of what he had received from her, Anspach, Cleves, and Neufchatel. There the cabinet of Berlin would reap what it had sown, and would meet with no more fidelity than it had mani- fested. Still Napoleon was ignorant of the secret negotiation begun with Russia through the medium of the Duke of Brunswick and M. de Hardenberg. Without completely explaining, the French government gave Lord Yarmouth to under- stand that the peace would not depend on Hanover, and he set out, promising to return soon with the secret of Mr. Fox's intentions. A singular event, which for some days im- parted to things a strong appearance of war, contributed on the contrary to turn them to peace, by accelerating the resolutions of the Russian cabinet. The French troops ordered to occupy Dalmatia, had hastened their march to the mouths of the Cattaro, to preserve them from the danger with which they were threat- ened. The Montenegrins, whose bishop and principal chief subsisted on the bounty of Russia, were greatly agitated on learning the approach of the French, and had sent for Admiral Siniavin, the same who had conveyed from Corfu to Naples and from Naples to Corfu the Russians sent to overrun the south of Italy. That admiral, informed of the oppor- tunity which offered to seize the mouths of the Cattaro, had hastily embarked a few hundred Russians, joined them to a body of Montene- grins who had descended from their moun- tains and appeared before the forts. An Aus- trian officer who occupied them, and a com- missioner charged by Austria to surrender them to the French, declaring that they were constrained by a superior force, delivered them up to the Russians. This allegation of a su- perior force was wholly unfounded, for, in the forts of Cattaro there were two Austrian bat- talions very capable of defending them even against a regular army possessing the means of siege, of which the Russians were destitute. This perfidy was chiefly the deed of the Aus- trian commissioner, Marquis de Ghisilieri, a most artful Italian, blamed afterwards by his government, and put upon his trial for this dishonourable act. When the report of this fact, transmitted to Paris by an extraordinary courier, reached Napoleon, he was extremely irritated, for he attached infinite importance to the mouths of the Cattaro, not so much on account of the advantages, though very positive, of their ma- ritime position, as for their vicinity to Turkey, on which they enabled the holder to exercise an influence, either protective or repressive. But he was angry with the cabinet of Vienna alone, for it was that cabinet which ought to deliver the territory of Dalmatia to him, and which was the only debtor in regard to him. The corps of Marshal Sonlt was on the point of repassing the Inn and evacuating Brnunau. 126 HISTORY OF THE [April, I80a create an absolute place d'armes there. At the same time he declared to Austria that the French troops should turn back, that the Aus- trian prisoners on their march home should be detained, and that, if need were, things should be carried so far as the renewal of hos- tilities, unless one of these two satisfactions were given him ; either the immediate restitu- tion of the mouths of the Cattaro or the de- spatch of an Austrian military force to retake them from the Russians in conjunction with the French. This second alternative was not the one that he should have liked least, for it would set Austria at variance with Russia. When these declarations, made with the peremptory tone usual with Napoleon, had reached Vienna, they produced real consterna- tion there. The Austrian cabinet was in no wise implicated in this treachery of an infe- rior agent. The latter had acted without order, thinking to please his government by a perfidy against the French. Letters were im- mediately despatched from Vienna to St. Pe- tersburg, to inform the Emperor Alexander of the new perils to which Austria found herself exposed, and to declare that, unwilling on any account to see the French again at Vienna, she would rather submit to the painful neces- sity of attacking the Russians in the forts of the Cattaro. Admiral Siniavin, who had taken possession of the mouths of the Cattaro, had acted with- out orders, as well as the Marquis de Ghisilieri who had delivered them. Alexander was grieved at the position in which his ally the Emperor Francis had been placed; he was grieved at the position in which he was him- self placed, between the embarrassment of restoring and that of retaining. He was more and more annoyed by the solicitations of his young friends, who talked to him incessantly about perseverance in conduct; he was un- easy respecting the negotiations begun by Napoleon with England ; and, though the lat- ter had at length broken the silence which she had observed during the ministerial crisis, he distrusted his allies, and was inclined to fol- low the general example and to reconcile him- self with France. Accordingly, he took occa- sion from the very circumstance of the mouths of the Cattaro, which seemed rather an occa- sion for war than for peace, to commence a pacific negotiation. He had at hand the for- mer secretary of the Russian legation at Pa- ris, M. d'Oubril, who had conducted himself there to the satisfaction of both governments and who had, moreover, the advantage of being well-known in France. He was direct- ed to proceed to Vienna, and to apply there for passports to Paris. The ostensible pretex was to be business relating to the Russian prisoners, but his real errand was to treat ol the affair of the mouths of the Cattaro, and to include it in a general settlement of all the questions which had divided the two empires M. d'Oubril had orders to delay as long as possible the restitution of the mouths of the Cattaro, to give them up, nevertheless, if ther were no means of preventing a renewal o 'lostilicies against Austria; and to manage above all to re-establish an. honourable peac >etween Russia and France. It will be thought lonourable, he was told, if something, no mat- er what, is obtained for the two habitual pro- eges of the Russian cabinet, Naples and i'iedmont; for the two empires had, for the rest, nothing to dispute with each other, and were carrying on merely a war of influence. 3efore he set off, M. d'Oubril conversed with he Emperor Alexander, and it became mani- est to him that this prince was visibly much more disposed to peace than the Russian min- stry, which besides was tottering, and on the )oint of being dismissed. He set out, there- ore, inclining to that side to which his master nclined. He was furnished with double >owers, the one limited, the other complete, and embracing all the questions that he could lave to resolve. He had orders to concert with the English negotiator relative to the conditions of peace, but without requiring a collective negotiation, which, in fact, did away with the difficulties that had arisen between France and England. M. d'Oubril set out for Vienna and by his aresence restored composure to the Emperor Francis, who feared that he should either see the French come back to his country, or that ic should have to fight the Russians. The second alternative alarming him much less than the first, that prince had sent off an Aus- trian corps for the mouths of the Cattaro, with orders to second the French troops, if neces- sary. M. d'Oubril cheered him by showing his powers, and applied for passports through Count Rausmousky, in order to proceed as> speedily as possible to Paris. Napoleon desired that an immediate and favourable answer should be given to the de- mand of M. d'Oubril, but at the same time he took care to make a distinction between the affair of the mouths of the Cattaro and that of the re-establishment of peace. The affair of the mouths of the Cattaro, according to what was said on his behalf, could not be the sub- ject of any negotiation, since it related to an engagement of Austria's which remained un- executed, and respecting which France had nothing to discuss with Russia. As to the re- establishment of peace, the French govern- ment was ready to listen most cheerfully to the proposals of M. d'Oubril, for it was sin- cerely desirous to put an end to a war, alike without object and without interest for the two empires. The passports of M. d'Oubril were immediately despatched to Vienna. Napoleon thus saw Austria, exhausted by three wars, striving to avoid any new hostility against France; Russia, disgusted with a con- test too lightly undertaken, and determined not to prolong it; England, satisfied with her naval successes, thinking it not worih while to expose herself again to some formidable ex- pedition ; lastly, Prussia, stripped of all re spect, of no value in the estimation of any one. and in this state, the whole world desirous to preserve or to obtain peace, on conditions, it is true, which were not yet clearly defined, but which, whatever they were, would leave France in the rank of the first power in the world. Napoleon keenly enjoyed this situation, and April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 127 had no inclination whatever to compromise it even to gain new victories. But he meditated vast projects which he conceived that he could cause 10 spring naturally and immediately from the treaty of Presburg. These projects seemed to him to be so generally foreseen, that, upon the single condition of accomplish- ing them forthwith, he hoped to get them com- prehended in the double peace which was negotiating with Russia and England. Then his empire, such as he had conceived it in his mighty mind, would be definitively constituted and accepted by Europe. These results ob- tained, he considered peace as the completion and the ratification of his work, as the prize due to his labours and to those of his people, as the accomplishment of his fondest wishes. He was a man, in short, as he had already sent word to Mr. Fox, and he was far from being insensible to the charms of repose. With the powerful versatility of his mind, he was as much disposed to enjoy the sweets of peace and the glory of the useful arts as to transport himself again to fields of battle, to bivouac among his soldiers upon the snow. Lord Yarmouth had returned from London, with a private letter from Mr. Fox, attesting that he possessed the entire confidence of that minister, and that he might be talked to with- out reserve. This letter added, that Lord Yar- mouth should receive powers, as soon as there should be a well-founded hope of an arrange- ment. M. de Talleyrand had then informed him of the communications established with Russia, and had thus proved the inutility of insisting on a collective negotiation, when Russia lent herself to a separate negotiation. As for the pretension of England not to be ex- cluded from the affairs of the continent, M. de Talleyrand offered Lord Yarmouth an official recognition of an equal right for both, powers of intervention and guarantee in continental and maritime uffnirs. 1 Thus the question of a sepa- rate negotiation seemed to be a question no longer, and the conditions of peace themselves appeared to present no further insoluble diffi- culties. England wished to retain the Cape and Malta ; she also showed a desire to keep our establishments in India, such as Chander- nagor and Pondicherry, the French islands of Tobago and St. Lucia, and above all the Dutch colony of Surinam, Mtuated on the American continent. Among these different possessions, Surinam alone was of any importance, Pondi- cherry being but a mere wreck of our ancient power in India ; Tobago and St. Lacia were not of sufficient value to induce a refusal. Respecting Surinam, England did not abso- lutely insist. As for our continental con- quests, assuredly as important as our maritime conquests, she was ready to concede all of them to us, without excepting Genoa, Venice, Dalmatia, and Naples. Sicily alone appeared to form a difficulty. Lord Yarmouth, explain- ing himself confidentially, said that England was tired of protecting those Bourbons of Naples, that imbecile king, that mad queen ; that, nevertheless, since they possessed Sicily de facto, for Joseph had not yet conquered it, 1 The words of the despatch. one would be obliged to demand it for them, but that this would be a question which would depend on the result of the military operations already undertaken. In case, however, Sicily should be taken from them, Lord Yarmouth added, that an indemnity must somewhere be found for them. It was tacitly implied that, in return for these various concessions, Han- over should be restored to England. But on. both sides the matter was reserved without being formally mentioned. Sicily, therefore, was the only serious diffi- culty, and yet the immediate conquest of the island, upon condition of an indemnity, how- ever insignificant it might be, would be capa- ble of arranging every thing. Passports had been sent to M. d'Oubril; it was not known what pretensions he might bring, but they could not be essentially different from the Eng- lish pretensions. Napoleon clearly perceived that, by not hur- rying the negotiations and by accelerating, on. the other hand, the execution of his plans, he should attain his twofold aim, that of consti- tuting his empire as he pleased, and of obtain- ing the confirmation of its establishment by the general peace. From the first, in preferring the title of em- peror to that of king, he had conceived a vast system of empire, on which vassal royalties should be dependent, in imitation of the Ger- manic empire, an empire so enfeebled that it no longer existed but in name, and which held out a temptation to replace it in Europe. The late victories of Napoleon had heated his ima- gination, and he dreamed of nothing else but of reviving the empire of the West, placing its crown on his head, and thus re-establishing it for the advantage of France. The new vassal royalties were all found, and they were to be distributed among the members of the Bona- parte family. Eugene de Beauharnais, adopted as son, become the husband of a Bavarian princess, was already viceroy of Italy, and this viceroyalty comprehended the more important half of the Italian peninsula, since it extended from Tuscany to the Julian Alps. Joseph, elder brother of Napoleon, was destined for king of Naples. Nothing more was required but to procure Sicily for him, in order to put him in possession of one of the finest kingdoms of the second order. Holland, which had great difficulty to govern itself as a republic, was under the absolute dependence of Napoleon; and he thought that he could include it in his system, by constituting it a kingdom in favour of his brother Louis. These made three king- doms to be placed under the paramountship of his empire. Sometimes, when he extended the dream of his greatness further, he thought of Spain and Portugal, which were daily giving him signs, Spain of a secret hostility, Portugal of an open hostility. But this was yet placed at a great distance in the wide horizon of his imagination. It was requisite that Europe should oblige him by some new startling achievement, like that of Austerlitz, to decide upon the complete expulsion of the house of Bourbon. It is certain, however, that this ex- pulsion began to be a systematic idea with him. Since he had been led to proclaim the 128 HISTORY OF THE [April, 180ft. dethronement of the Bourbons of Naples, he considered the family of Bonaparte as destined to replace the house of Bourbon on all the thrones of the south of Europe. In this vast hierarchy of vassal states de- pendent on the French Empire, he planned a second and a third rank, composed of great and small duchies, after the model of the fiefs of the Germanic empire. He had already con- stituted for the benefit of his eldest sister the duchy of Lucca, which he purposed to aug- ment by the addition of the principality of Massa, detached from the kingdom of Italy. He projected the creation of another, that of Guastalla, by detaching it also from the king- dom of Italy. These two dismemberments were very insignificant, in comparison with the magnificent accession of the Venetian States. Napoleon had just obtained from Prus- sia, Neufchatel. Anspach, and the remnant of the duchy of Cleves. He had given Anspach to Bavaria, in order to procure the duchy of ! Berg, a fine country, situated on the right of the Rhine, below Cologne, and comprehending the important fortress of Wesel. Strasburg, Mayence, and Wesel, said Napoleon, are the three bridles of the Rhine. He had still, in Upper Italy, Parma and Pla- centia, in the kingdom of Naples, Ponte Corvo and Benevento, fiefs disputed between Naples and the Pope, who gave him at this moment the most serious causes of displeasure. Pius VII. had not carried with him from Paris the satisfactions which he expected. Flattered by the attentions of Napoleon, he had deceived himself in his hopes of a territorial compensa- tion. Besides, the invasion of .ill Italy by the French, now that they had spread themselves from the Julian Alps to the Strait of Messina, had appeared to him to complete the depend- ence of the Roman States. He was excessively mortified at this, and showed it in all ways. He would not organize the church of Germany, which was left without prelates, without chap- ters, ever since the secularizations. He ad- ! rnitted of none of the religious arrangements j adopted for Italy. On occasion of the marriage j which Jerome Bonaparte had contracted in the United States with a Protestant, and which ! N*apoleon wished to get dissolved, the Pope ' opposed an insincere but obstinate resistance, thus employing his spiritual arms in default of temporal arms. Napoleon had sent him word that he considered himself as master of Italy, including Rome, and that he would j not suffer any secret enemy there; that he! should follow the example of those princes who, continuing faithful to the Church, had known how to control it; that he was a real Charlemagne for the Church of Rome, for he had re-established it, and he claimed to be treated as such. Meanwhile, he expressed his displeasure by taking Ponte Corvo and Bene- vento. This was the deplorable commence- ment of a baneful misunderstanding, to which Napoleon then conceived that he could set any bounds he pleased, for the interests of religion and the empire. Thus, besides several thrones to give away, ne had Lucca, Guastalla, Benevento, Ponte Corvo, Placentia, Parma, Neufchatel, and Berg, ! 1 to distribute among his sisters and his most faithful servants, with the titles of principali- ties or duchies. While giving kingdoms such as Naples to Joseph, augmentations such as the Venetian States to Eugene, he thought of creating a score of minor duchies, destined as well for his generals as for his best servants of the civil order, to form a third rank in his imperial hierarchy, and to reward in a signal manner those men to whom he owed the throne, and to whom France owed her greatness. While, in placing the imperial crown on his head, he had adjudged to himself the prize of the marvellous exploits performed by the con- temporary generation, he had raised longings in the companions of his glory, and they, too, aspired to obtain the reward of their exertions. Unfortunately, they no longer imitated the abstinence of the generals of the Republic, and frequently took what he was in no haste to give them. In Italy, and especially in the Venetian States, had recently been committed scandalous extortions, which Napoleon made a point of repressing with the utmost rigour. He had, with incredible vigilance, sought and discovered the secret of those exactions, sum- moned before him the persons who had been guilty of them, wrung from them a confession of the sums appropriated, and required the immediate restitution of those amounts, be- ginning with the general-in-chief, who was obliged to pay a considerable sum into the chest of the army. But he meant not to impose strict integrity on his generals, without rewarding their hero- ism. Tell them, he wrote to Eugene and to Joseph, about whom were employed several of the officers whose conduct he had just corrected, tell them that I will give them all much more than they could ever take them- selves; that what they would take would cover them with shame, that what I shall give them will do them honour, and will be an everlasting testimony of their glory; that, in paying themselves with their own hands, they would vex my subjects, make France the ob- ject of the maledictions of the conquered, and that what I shall give them, on the contrary, accumulated by my foresight, will not be a robbery of any one. Let them wait, he added, and they shall be rich and honoured, without having to blush for any extortion. Profound ideas were mingled, as we see, with his conceptions, apparently the most vain. He was, therefore, resolved to gratify the desire of his generals for enjoyments, but to direct it towards noble rewards legitimately acquired. Under the Consulate, when every thing still had the republican form, he had de- vised the Legion of Honour. Now that all about him assumed the monarchical form, and that he was perceptibly growing greater, he wished every one to grow great along with him. He meditated the creation of kings, grand-dukes, dukes, counts, &c. M. de Tal- leyrand, a warm advocate for creations of this kind, had, during the last campaign, assisted Napoleon much in his business, and had con- versed with him on this subject as well as upon the arrangement of Europe, which he was commissioned to negotiate at Presburg. April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 129 They two had conceived an extensive system of vassalage, comprehending dukes, grand- dukes, kings, under the paramountship of the Emperor, and possessing not empty titles but real principalities, either in territorial domains or in ample revenues. The new kings were, for the sake of the greater conformity with the Germanic empire, to retain upon the thrones which they were about to occupy, their quality of grand digni- taries of the French Empire. Joseph was to remain grand-elector, Louis constable, Eugene arch-chancellor of state, Murat grand-admiral, when they should become kings or grand-dukes. Supplementary dignitaries, such as a vice- constable, a vicegrand-elector, &c., taken from among the principal personages of the state, were to perform their functions when they were absent, and would thus multiply the offices to be distributed. The kings, who con- tinued dignitaries of the French Empire, were to reside frequently in France, and to have a royal establishment in the Louvre appropri- ated to their use. They were to form the council of the imperial family, to perform certain special functions in it during minori- ties, and even to elect the Emperor, in case the male line should become extinct, which some- times happens in reigning families. The assimilation with the German Empire was complete, and. that empire falling to ruin on all sides, liable itself to be swept away by a mere effect of the will of Napoleon, the French Empire would be there, quite ready to take its place in Europe. The empire of the Franks might again become what it was under Charlemagne, the empire of the West, and even assume that title. This was the final wish of that immense ambition, the only one which it did not realize, that for which it tor- mented the world, for which perhaps it perished. M. de Talleyrand, who, while recommending peace, sometimes flattered the passions which lead to war, frequently presented this idea to Napoleon, knowing what a profound emotion it excited in his soul. Whenever he men- tioned it to him, he saw all the fire of ambition flashing in his eyes, sparkling with genius. Swayed, however, by a sort of modesty, as on the day before that when he assumed the su- preme power, Napoleon durst not avow the full extent of his desires. The Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, to whom he opened himself more, because he was more sure of his absolute dis- cretion, had been half-intrusted with his secret wishes, and had taken care not to encourage them, because in him attachment never si- lenced prudence. But it was evident that, at the summit of human greatness, having ar- rived at that point beyond which Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne had not passed, the rest- less and insatiable spirit of Napoleon longed for something more, and that was the title of Emperor of the West, which nobody in the world had borne for a thousand years. Between the nations of the south and the west, the French, the Italians, the Spaniards, all children of Roman civilization, there exists a certain conformity of genius, manners, inte- rests, sometimes of territory, which is not Voi. IL 17 found beyond the Channel, the Rhine, and the circle of the Alps, among the English and the Germans. This conformity is an indication of a natural alliance, which the house of Bourbon, by uniting under its royal sceptre Paris, Madrid, Naples, and sometimes Milan, Parma, Florence, had partly realized. If that was what Napoleon meant, if, master of France, of that which terminated at the mouths of the Meuse and of the Rhine and at the sum- mit of the Alps, if, master of all Italy, having it in his power soon to become so of Spain, he purposed only to reconstitute that alliance of nations of Latin origin, by giving to it the symbolical form, sublime for its memorials, of the empire of the West, the nature of things, though strained, was not much outraged. The family of Bonaparte stepped into the place of the house of Bourbon, to reign in a more complete manner over the extent of the countries which that ancient house had as- pired to rule, in order to attach them by a simple bond of paramountship to the head of the family, a bond which left each of the southern nations its independence, by giving greater strength to the useful bundle of their alliance. With the genius of Napoleon, by transfusing into his policy the prudence which he displayed in war, with a very long reign, it might not perhaps have been impossible to realize this conception. But that nature of things which always avenges itself severely on those who disregard it, was foolishly out- raged, when, in his ambition, Napoleon ceased to respect the boundary of the Rhine, when he set about uniting the Germans to the Gauls, subjecting the nations of the north to the na- tions of the south, placing French princes in Germany, in spite of the invincible antipathies of manners ; and he then set before all eyes the phantom of that universal monarchy which Europe dreads and detests, which it has combated, which it will do well to combat in- cessantly, but to which it will some day per- haps be subjected, by the nations of the north, after having refused to submit to it from the hand of the nations of the west. A concatenation of events, unforeseen even by the vast and provident ambition of Napo- leon, led at this moment to the dissolution of the Germanic empire, and was about to render vacant that noble title of Emperor of Germa- ny, which had been assumed by the successors of Charlemagne instead of the title of Em- peror of the West. It was a new and fatal encouragement for the projects which Napo- leon cherished in his soul, without yet daring to reveal them. When Napoleon, in his late treaties with Austria, thought of recompensing his three* allies in South Germany, the Princes of Bava- ria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, and of putting an end to all subject of collision between them and the head of the empire by the solu- tion of certain questions left undecided in 1803, he had pronounced, but without being aware of it, the speedy dissolution of the old German empire. The providential, sometimes involuntary, almost always misconceived in- strument of that French Revolution wbJc> 130 HISTORY OF THE [April, 1806. was to change the face of the world, he had prepared, unknown to himself, one of the greatest European reforms. It will be recollected how, in 1803, France had been called upon to interfere in the inter- nal government of Germany ; how the princes, who had lost all or part of their territories by the cession of the left bank of the Rhine, had resolved to indemnify themselves by secular- izing the ecclesiastical principalities. Unable to agree about the division of these principali- ties, they had called Napoleon to their aid, in order to effect with equity and decision that partition which otherwise was impossible. Prussia and Austria had received possessions of the Church from his own hand, with a sin- gle motive for displeasure, that they had not received more. The suppression of the eccle- siastical principalities had led to the modifica- tion of the three colleges composing the Diet. About the college of the electors they had agreed, but not about that of the princes, in which Austria claimed a greater number of Catholic votes than had been granted to her. They had also agreed respecting the college of the cities, reducing the number to six, and almost entirely destroying their influence. No- thing had been decided respecting a new or- ganization of the circles charged to uphold respect for the laws in each great German province, relative to a new religious organiza- tion, rendered necessary since the suppression of a great number of sees, and indefinitely de- ferred through the ill-will of the Pope. Lastly, the serious question respecting the immediate nobility had not been resolved, because it in- terested the whole German aristocracy, and particularly Austria, which had in the mem- bers of that nobility vassals dependent on the empire, independent of the territorial princes, and rendering a number of services, of which the recruiting, authorized in their possessions, was not the least. The mediating powers of France and Rus- sia, tired of this long mediation, occupied else- where by other circumstances, had no sooner withdrawn their hands, leaving Germany half j remodelled, than anarchy seized that unhappy country. Austria, upon pretext of a right of waifs, had usurped the dependencies of the ecclesiastical possessions given as indemni- ties, and had deprived the indemnified princes of a considerable portion of what was their due. These princes, on their part, had seized the lands of the immediate nobility, and had availed themselves for this of the uncertainties of the last recess. The war of 1805 having again brought Na- poleon beyond the Rhine, he had taken advan- tage of the occasion to resolve the questions left undecided for the benefit of the princes, his allies, and he had thus created in the countries of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bava- ria, a sort of dissonance with the rest of Ger- many. But the greediness of these same allies had given rise to difficulties which ex- tended to the whole of Germany. The King of Wur'mberg, observing no moderation, had usurped the land? of the immediate nobility, as well those which had that quality as those which had not. He had arrogated to himself more than the rights of the territorial sove- reign, and had seized many of the mansions of the nobility, as if he had been their real owner. Of all those rights of feudal origin, which Austria had insisted on exercising in Suabia, and the nature of which was danger- ously arbitrary, he had declared himself the new possessor in virtue of the possession of certain feudal chief towns which the partition of Austria and Suabia had procured him, and he began to exercise them with greater vigour than the Austrian chancellery itself. The houses of Baden and Bavaria, annoyed by him, and authorized by his example, com- mitted the like excesses in their territories. The contempt of right had been carried so far as to penetrate into the sovereign principali- ties enclosed in the dominions of the three princes, upon pretext of searching in them for domains of the immediate nobility, which could not in any case belong to them, for, if those domains belonged to any other than the immediate nobles themselves, it must have been to the sovereign prince on whom they were immediately dependent. Napoleon had charged M. Otto, his minister at Munich, as umpire, and Berthier, as head of the executive power, to settle all disputes between Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, arising out of the partition of the Austrian territories in Suabia. The difficulties becom- ing more complicated, Napoleon had associ- ated with them General Clarke, to assist them in reducing this chaos to order. This all of them alike despaired of accomplishing. The princes who had suffered this violence first carried their complaints to Ratisbon ; but the ministers at the Diet, having neither courage nor authority since Austria no longer gave it to them, declared themselves unable to check the disorder spreading on all sides. Austria herself had almost reduced them to this im- potence, of which they complained, by refus- ing in the preceding year to authorize any serious deliberation, so long as the college of princes was not reconstituted according to her pleasure, and the number of Catholic votes which she claimed were not added to it. And now, definitively conquered, wholly engrossed with her own welfare, she completed the anni- hilation of the Diet, by showing that she was no further to be relied on for any efficacious aid. The Diet, therefore, was a destroyed body, receiving at most the communications that were made to it, scarcely acknowledging the receipt of them, but not deliberating oil any subject whatever. At this sight, the petty sovereign princes, the immediate nobles, exposed to all sorts of usurpations, the free cities, reduced to six or five by the gift of Augsburg to Bavaria, the secularized ecclesiastical princes, whose pen- sions were noJ paid, hastened to Munich to claim from Messieurs Otto, Berthier, and Clarke, the protection of France. These gentlemen, indignant at the spectacle of op- pression which they witnessed, had at first formed a sort of congress to reconcile all interests, and to prevent the commission of unjust acts under the shadow of the protection of France. M. Otto had conceived a plan of April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. arrangement, which France was to submit to the principal oppressors, the sovereigns of Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemberg. But he had soon discovered that he had done nothing less than frame a new plan for a Germanic constitution; and, moreover, the agents of the King of Wurtemberg, when he had submitted this plan to them, had loudly cried out against it, and declared that their master would never consent to the proposed concessions. One would have said that this prince, whom France had just made a king, whose dominions she had augmented, whose sovereign prerogatives she had doubled, was robbed by her, because she required some respect for property, and some neighbourly regard for the weakest of his neighbours. Not knowing what more to do, M. Otto had sent all to Paris, both claims and claimants, and the plan of arrangement which he had devised with the intention of justice. This reference had taken place at the end of March. Ever since that period, oppressed and op- pressors were at the foot of the throne of Na- poleon. It became evident that the sceptre of Charlemagne had passed from the Germans to the French. This was what had been said and written in all forms by the prince arch-chancellor, the last ecclesiastical elector retained by Napo- leon, and transferred by him, as it will be re- collected, from Mayence to Ratisbon. This prince, whose amiable and fickle character, and whose sumptuous propensities we have elsewhere sketched, seeking force where it existed, never ceased to beseech Napoleon to take in hand the sceptre of Germany ; and if any one had made the dangerous name of Charlemagne ring in Napoleon's ears, it was certainly he. You are Charlemagne, said he to him ; be the nthe master, the regulator, the saviour of Germany. If that name, which was not the one that best pleased the pride of Napoleon, for he had in Alexander and Caesar rivals more worthy of his genius, but which particularly flattered his ambition, because it established more relations with his plans re- lative to Europe if that name was always blended with his own, it was less from his doing than from the doing of all those who had recourse to his protecting power. If the Church wanted something of him, You are Charlemagne, said she, give us what he gave us. When the German princes of all the states were oppressed, they said to him, You are Charlemagne, protect us as he would have done. Thus ideas were suggested to him, which his ambition might not so soon have conceived, if it had been slow in its desires. But the wants of nations and his ambition then kept pace with one another. In all ages, the princes of Germany, besides the Germanic confederation, a legal authority and recognised by them, had formed particular leagues to defend such rights or such interests as were common to certain of them. All that were left of these leagues addressed them- selves to Napoleon, soliciting him to interfere in their favour, both as author and guarantee of the act of mediation of 1803, and as the signer and executor of the treaty of Presburg. Some proposed to form new leagues under his protection, others to form a new Germanic confederation under his imperial sceptre. The princes whose possessions were usurped, the immediate nobles whose lands were seized, the free cities threatened with suppression, proposed various plans, but were ready, on condition of protection, to adopt the plan that should be most generally approved. The prince arch-chancellor, fearing lest his ecclesiastical electorate, the last relic of the wreck, should be swept away in this second tempest, devised a plan to save it ; this was to form a new Germanic confederation, called to deliberate under his presidency and compre- hending all the German States, excepting Prussia and Austria. In order to interest Na- poleon in this creation, he invented two ex- pedients. The first consisted in creating an electorate attached to the Duchy of Berg, which was known to be destined for Murat, and the second to appoint immediately a coadjutor for the archbishopric of Ratisbon, and 10 choose him from the imperial family. This coadjutor, being archbishop elect of Ratisbon, future arch- chancellor of the confederation, would of course place the new Diet under the control of Napoleon. The member of the Bonaparte family was plainly pointed out by his eccle- siastical profession: it was Cardinal Fesch, Archbishop of Lyons, ambassador at Rome. 1 Without waiting for such a plan to be pro- 1 We quote the curious document which was addressed to Napoleon. " Ratisbo*, ApriH9, 1806. "Sire, The genius of Napoleon is not limited to creating the happiness of France ; Providence grants the superior j man (o the universe. The estimable German nation groans under the miseries of political and religious anar- chy : be, sire, the regenerator of its constitution. Here are some wishes dictated by the state of things ; let the j Duke of Cleves become elector, let him obtain the toll of ; the Rhine on the whole of the right bank ; let Cardinal Fesch be my coadjutor; let the annuities settled on twelve states of the empire out of the toll, be founded on some other basis. Your imperial and royal majesty will judge in your sublimity whether it is conducive to the general welfare to realize these ideas. If any ideo- logic error misleads me on this point, my heart at least attests the purity of my intentions. ' I am, with an inviolable attachment and the most , profound respect, sire, your imperial and royal majesty's most humble and most devoted admirer, "CHARLES, " Ejector Jlrch-chancellor." " The Germanic nation needs that its constitution should be regenerated ; the greater part of its laws consist only of words devoid of meaning, since the tribunal, the cir- cles, the diet of the empire, no longer -possess the means necessary to uphold the rights of property and the perso- nal safety of the individuals who compose the nation, and since these institutions can no longer protect the op- pressed against the encroachments of arbitrary power and rapacity. Such a state is anarchical ; the noonle bear the burdens of the civil condition, without enjoying its principal advantages a disastrous position for a na tion thoroughly estimable for its loyalty, its industry, it* primitive energy. The Germanic constitution can be regenerated only by a head of the empire of a great cha- racter, who shall restore vigour to the laws by concen- trating the executive power in his hands. The states of 132 HISTORY OF THE [April, 1806. posed, discussed, and accepted, the arch-chan- cellor, anxious to insure the preservation of his see by an adoption which would render its de- struction impossible, unless Napoleon chose to do an injury to the interests of his family, which it would not quietly endure, and which he was not fond of doing, the arch-chancellor, without consulting an}' person, to the great astonishment of his co-estates, chose Cardinal Fesch coadjutor of the archbishopric of Ratis- bon, and wrote to Napoleon to acquaint him wi'h this choice. Napoleon had no reason to love Cardinal Fesch, a vain and obstinate man, who was not the least troublesome of his relations, and he had no particular desire to place him at the head of the German empire. However, he permitted this strange appointment, without explanation. It was a striking symptom of that disposition of the oppressed German princes to put the new imperial sceptre into his hands. Napoleon had no intention to take, in a di- rect manner, that sceptre from ihe head of the house of Austria. It was an enterprise, which seemed to him too great for the moment, though there was little that would have frightened him since Austerlitz. But he was enlightened as to how far he might venture at that moment in Germany, and fixed as to what it was proper for him to do. For the present, he resolved to dislocate, to weaken, the German empire in such a manner that the French empire alone should shine in the west. He purposed then to unite the princes of South Germany, situated on the banks of the Rhine, in Franconia, Sua- bia, Bavaria, and to form them into a confede- ration under his avowed protectorship. This confederation should declare its connection with the German empire dissolved. As for the other princes of Germany, they might either continue in the old confederation, under the authority of Austria, or, what was more probable, they would leave it and group them- selves at pleasure, some about Prussia, others about Austria. Then the French empire, hav- ing under its formal paramountship Italy, Na- ples, Holland, perhaps some day the Spanish peninsula, under its protectorship the south of Germany, would comprehend nearly the same states which belonged to Charlemagne, and would take the place of the Empire of the West. To give it this title was no longer a mere affair of words, but yet a serious one on account of the jealousies of Europe, but to be realized some day by victory or successful negotiation. To accomplish such a project there was bat little to do, for Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Baden, were then treating at Paris, in order to arrive at some settlement of their situation, aggran- dized but uncertain. All the other princes ap- plied to be included, no matter under what ti- tle, no matter upon what condition, in the new federative system, which was foreseen and des- cried as inevitable. To be comprehended in it was to live, to be excluded from it was to perish. It was, therefore, unnecessary to ne- gotiate with any others than with the sovereigns of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, and care was taken to consult them only with a certain degree of caution, and to exclude all excepting them from the negotiation. It was~propo^ed to present the treaty ready drawn up, to such of the princes as one was desirous to retain, and to admit them to sign purely and simply. The new confederation was to bear the title of Con- federation of the Rhine, and Napoleon that of Protector. M. de Talleyrand was charged, with a very clever first clerk, M. de Labesnaudiere, to draw up the plan of the new confederation, and then to submit it to the Emperor. 1 Such was, as we see, the chain of events, which led France twice to intermeddle in the affairs of Germany. The first time, the inevi- table jsartition of the ecclesiastical possessions threatening Germany with a convulsion, its princes came themselves to solicit Napoleon to make this partition himself, and to add such changes as were to result from it in the Ger- manic constitution. The second time, Napo- leon called away from the shores of the ocean to the banks of the Danube, by the irruption of the Austrians into Bavaria, obliged to cre- ate allies for himself in the south of Germany, to recompense them, to aggrandize them, to restrain them at the same time when they at- tempted to abuse his alliance, was again obliged to interfere in order- to regulate the situation of the German princes who geogra- phically interested France. the empire will enjoy their domains all the better, when the wishes of the people shall be expressed and discussed in the diet, the tribunals better organized and justice ad- ministered in a more efficacious manner. His majesty, the Emperor of Austria, Francis II., would be a reputable individual for his personal qualities, but in point of fact the sceptre of Germany is slipping out of his hands, be- cause he (vis now the majority ef the diet against him; because he has violated his capitulation by occupying Bavaria, by introducing the Russians into Germany, by dismembering portions nf ihe empire to pay for faults committed in the private quarrels of his house. Let him be emperor of the east to withstand the Russians, and let the empire of ihe vest revive in the empire of Napoleon, tuck as it was under Charlemagne, composed of Italy, France, and Germany! It appears not impossible that the evils of anarchy may render the majority of the elec- tors sensible of the necessity of such a regeneration; it was thus that they chose Rodolph of flapsburg after the troubles of a long interregnum. The means of the arch- rliancellor arc extremely limited, but it is at least with a pure intention thit he reckons upon the understanding of the Emperor Napoleon, particularly on matters likely to agitate the south of Germany, more especially devoted to that monarch. The regeneration of the Germanic constitution has always been the object of ihe wishes of the elector arch-chancellor; he neither asks for nor would accept any thing for himself; he thinks that, if his ma- jesty, the Emperor Napoleon, could for a ft-w weeks, every year, personally meet the princes, who a re attached to him, at Mayence, or some other place, the seeds of Germanic regeneration would soon be developed. M. d'Hedouville has gained the entire confidence of the elector arch-chancellor, who would be glad if he wc.uld be pleased to submit these ideas in all their purity to hia majesty, the Emperor of the French, arid to his minister M. de Tallevrand. "CHARLES, " Elector Arch -chancellor." 1 It is from M. de Labesnaudiere himself, the only con tidaiit of this new creation, that we derive all these pat ticulars, supported besides by a multitude of authentic documents. April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 133 [f he had any personal view in all that he did on this occasion, it was to render vacant an august title by the dissolution of the Ger- manic empire, and to suffer the French em- pire alone to exist in the eyes of the nations. Nevertheless, the essential causes of his inter- vention were no other than the violence of the strong, the cries of the weak, and the two-fold desire, reasonable enough, to repress injustice committed in his name, and to remodel Ger- many in a manner conformable to the sugges- tions of his good sense, since he could no lon- ger withhold his interference. This intervention in the affairs of Germany, carried beyond certain bounds, was none the less a grievous fault on the part of Napoleon; to pretend to exercise a predominant influence over the south of Europe, over Italy, even over Spain, was consistent with French policy in all ages; and vast as was this ambition, sig- nal victories might justify its magnitude. But to attempt to extend his power to the north of Europe, that is to say into Germany, was driv- ing the despair of Austria to extremity ; it was kindling in Prussia a species of jealousy which France had not yet excited in her. It was taking upon himself the difficulties which were arising from the dissensions of all those petty princes among themselves; it was pass- ing for the supporter and accomplice of the oppressors, when he was the defender of the oppressed; it was setting against him those who were not favoured, without setting for him those who were ; for these latter already ex- pressed themselves in such a manner as to foreshow that, after they had enriched them- selves by us, they would be capable of turning against us, in order to purchase the preserva- tion of what they had acquired. And as for the assistance which he anticipated find- ing in their troops, it was a dangerous decep- tion ; for he might be induced to consider as auxiliaries soldiers quite ready upon occasion to turn traitors. It was a still greater fault to change the old combinations of Germany, which made Prussia an ever jealous rival of Austria, and consequently an ally of France, and all the petty princes of Germany, filled with envy of each other, thenceforward clients of our policy from which they sought support. Had France added something to the influence of Prussia, and retrenched something from that of Austria, that would have been doing enough for a century, nay it would have been all that Germany needed. Beyond this, there was nothing but an overturning of European policy, baneful rather than beneficial. If these changes were carried so far as to render Prussia all-powerful, it would be merely re- moving the danger from one place to another, transferring to Berlin the enemy whom we had always had at Vienna: if they went so far as to destroy Prussia and Austria, the ef- fect would be to rouse all Germany ; and, as for the small states, all that went beyond a just protection for certain second-rate princes, as Bavaria, Baden, Wurtemberg, usually allies of France, all that went beyond, given after a war for their alliance, was a dangerous inter- ference in the affairs of others, a gratuitous acceptance of difficulties not our own, and, under an apparent violation of foreign inde- pendence, an egregious cheat. There was but one greater fault to commit; that was to found French kingdoms in Germany. Napoleon had not yet arrived at this degree of power and of error. The old Germanic constitution, modi- fied by the recess of 1803, with some additional solutions, neglected at the time of that recess, with the former influences modified merely in their proportion, was all that was suitable for France, for Europe, and for Germany. We undertook more for the welfare of Germany than for our own ; she cherished a deep re- sentment for it, and awaited ihe moment of our final retreat to fire in rear upon our soldiers, overwhelmed by numbers. Such is the price that must be paid for faults ! Napoleon left M. de Talleyrand and M. de Labesnaudiere to arrange in secret the details of the new plan of Germanic confederation with the ministers of Baden, Wurtemberg, and Bavaria, before he began to proceed to the execution of his general plan, particularly relative to Italy and Holland, in order that the English and Russian negotiators, treating each on their own part, might find consummated and irrevocable resolutions relative to the new roy- alties which he purposed to create. The crown of Naples had been destined for Joseph, that of Holland for Louis. The insti- tution of these royalties was for Napoleon at once a political calculation and a gratification of feeling. He was not only great, he was good, and sensible to the affections of blood, sometimes even to weakness. He did not al- ways reap the reward of his sentiments; for there is nothing so exigent as an upstart family. There was not one of his relations, who, though acknowledging that it was the conqueror of Rivoli, of the Pyramids, and of Austerlitz, who had founded the greatness of the Bonapartes, nevertheless fancied that he was somebody, and looked upon himself as treated unjustly, hardly, or in a manner disproportioned to his merits. His mother, incessantly repeating that she had given him birth, complained that she was not surrounded with sufficient homage and respect; and she was nevertheless the most moderate and the least intoxicated of the females of that family. lucien Bonaparte had placed, he said, the crown upon the head of his brother, for he alone had been unshaken on the 18th of Brumaire, and for the reward of this service he lived in exile. Joseph, the meekest and the most sensible of all, said in his turn that he was the eldest, and that the def3- rence due to that title was not paid him. He was even somewhat disposed to believe that the treaties of Luneville, of Amiens, of the Concordat, which Napoleon had complaisantly commissioned him to sign, to the detriment of M. de Talleyrand, were the work of his per- sonal ability, as well as the great exploits of his brother. Louis, sickly, mistrustful, fillet with pride, affecting virtue, pretended that he was sacrificed to an infamous office, that of cloaking, by marrying her, the weaknesses of Hortense de Beauharnais for Napoleon an odious calumny, invented by the emigrants, repeated in a thousand pamphlets, and by which Louis wrongfully showed himself to be 134 HISTORY OF THE [April, 180. so prepossessed, as to cause it to be supposed ' that he himself believed it. Thus each of them conceived himself to be a victim in some way, and ill paid for the part which he had taken in his brother's greatness. The sisters of Napoleon, not daring to have such preten- sions, were restless around him, and by their rivalries, sometimes by their discontent, ruffled his spirit, a prey to a thousand other inquiet- udes. Caroline was incessantly soliciting for Murat, who, with all his levity, at least repaid the bounty of his brother-in-law with an at- tachment which at that time afforded no reason to augur his subsequent conduct, though, it is true, one may expect any thing from levity. Elisa, the eldest, transferred to Lucca, where she aspired to the personal glory of well ma- naging a little state, and who really conducted it with great ability, desired an augmentation of her duchy. In this whole family, Jerome as the young- est, Pauline as the most dissipated, were ex- empt from those exigencies, those resentments, those jealousies, which disturb the interior of the imperial house. Jerome, the irregularities of whose youth had frequently provoked the severity of Napoleon, considered him as a fa- ther rather than a brother, and received his bounty with a heart full of unmixed gratitude. Pauline, given up to her pleasures, like a princess of the family of the Caesars, beautiful as an antique Venus, sought in the greatness of her brother only the means of gratifying her loose propensities, desired no higher titles than those of the Borgheses, whose name she bore, was disposed to prefer fortune, the source of pleasure, to greatness, the satisfaction of pride. She was so fond of her brother that, when he was at war, the Arch-chancellor Cam- baceres, commissioned to govern the reigning family and the state, was obliged to send this princess news the moment he received it, for the least delay threw her into the most painful anxiety. It was the fear of seeing the children of the Beauharnais family preferred to themselves that had urged the Bonapartes to be enemies to Josephine. In this they paid no regard even to the heart of Napoleon, and tormented him in a thousand ways. The precocious greatness of Eugene, who had become viceroy and destined heir to the fine kingdom of Italy, singularly eclipsed them, and yet this crown had been offered to Joseph, who had declined it because it placed him too immediately under the control of the Emperor of the French. He wanted to reign, he said, in an independent manner. We shall see by and by inio what difficulties this fondness for independence, common to all the members of the imperial family, combined with the tendencies of the nations over whom they were called to reign, was destined to bring the government of Na- poleon, and what new causes of misfortune it added to our misfortunes. It was among all the members of his family that he had to distribute the kingdoms and the duchies of new creation. The crown of Na- ples insured to Joseph a situation sufficiently independent, and was, besides, brilliant enough to be accepted. One feels some surprise to be obliged to employ such words to characterize the sentiments with which these fine kingdoms were received by princes born so far from the throne, and so far even from that greatness which individuals sometimes owe to birth and fortune. But it is one of the singularities of the fantastic spectacle exhibited by the French Revolution and by the extraordinary man whom it placed at its head, that these refusals, these hesitations, almost this disdain of anticipated satiety, should be expressed for the fairest crowns by personages who in their youth could never have expected to wear them. Na- poleon, who had seen Joseph disdain at one time the presidency of the Senate, at another the viceroyalty of Italy, was not sure that he would accept the throne of Naples, and had at first conferred on him only the title of his lieutenant. 1 Having afterwards ascertained his acceptance of it, he had inserted his name in the decrees destined to be presented to the Senate. As for Holland, he had designated Louis, who has since told all Europe, in a book re- flecting upon his brother, how highly he was offended because he had scarcely been con- sulted upon this arrangement. In fact, Napo- leon, without concerning himself about Louis, whose will seemed to him not to be an obsta- 1 We quote the following letters, which show how Na- poleon gave crowns and how they were received : " To the Minister of War. " Munich, January 6, 1806. " Despatch General Berthier, your brother, with the decree appointing Prince Joseph to the command of the army of Italy. He will observe the most profound se- crecy, and he must not deliver the decree till the prince arrives. I say he must observe the most profound se- crecy, because I am not sure that Prince Joseph will go thither, and on this point I desire that nothing may be known." " To Prince Joseph. " Stuttgart, January 12, 1806. "My intention is that in the first days of February you should enter the kingdom of Naples, and that I should be informed in the course of February that my eagles hang over that capital. You will not make any suspension of arms or capitulation. My intention is that the Bourbons should have ceased to reign in Naples, and I wish to seat on hat throne a prince of my house, you in the first olic*. if that suits you, .another if that does not suit you. " I repeat to you not to divide your forces ; let all your army cross the Apennines, and let your three corps d'ar- mee proceed direct fr Naples, so as to meet in one day on the same field of battle. " Leave a general of the depots, of victualling, and a few artillerymen at Annum to defend that place. When Naples is taken, the extremities will fall of themselves; all that shall be in the Abruzzi must be taken en revere, and you will send a division to Tarento and one towards Sicily, to complete the conquest of the kingdom. " My intention is to leave under your command during the year, till I have made new dispositions, 14 regiments of infantry competed to the full complement of war, and 12 of French cavalry also at the full complement. "The country must supply you with provisions, cloth- ing, remounts, and all that is necessary, so as nut to cost me a sou. My troops of the kingdom of Italy shall re- main there no longer than you shall judge necesiary, after which time they shall return home. "You will raise a Neapolitan legion, into which you will admit none but Neapolitan officers and soldiers na- tives of the country, willing to attach themselves to mjr cause." April, 1806.] CONSULATE AND THE EMPIRE. 135 cle to foresee" and to conquer, had sent word lo some of the principal citizens of Holland, particularly to Admiral Verhuel, the valiant and able commander of the flotilla, to dispose Holland to renounce at length its ancient re- publican government, and to constitute itself a monarchy. This is another trait of the pic- ture which we are here presenting, that French Revolution, of setting out with endeavouring ] to convert all thrones into republics, and now exerting itself to convert the most ancient re- publics into monarchies. The republics of Venice and Genoa, become provinces of dif- ferent kingdoms, the free cities of Germany absorbed into various principalities, had al- ready demonstrated that singular tendency. The royalty of Holland was its last and most striking phenomenon. Holland, after throw- ing herself into the arms of France to escape the Stadtholder, was discontented to find her- self doomed to an everlasting war, and was deficient in. gratitude to Napoleon, who had made at Amiens and daily renewed the great- est efforts for insuring to her the restitution of her colonies. The Dutch, half English by their religion, their manners, their mercantile spirit, though enemies of England, in conse- quence of their maritime interests, had no sympathy with the government of Napoleon and his exclusively continental greatness. The most insignificant victory at sea would have charmed them much more than the most splen- did victory on land. They showed sufficient disdain for the semi-monarchical government of a grand-pensionary, which Napoleon had induced them to adopt, when he was instituting a sort of first consul in all the countries under the influence of France. This grand-pension- ary, who was M. de Schimmelpenninck, a good citizen and an honourable man, was in their eyes nothing but a French prefect, charged to commit extortions, because he demanded taxes and loans in order to defray the expenses of a war establishment. The dislike excited by this government of a grand-pensionary was the only facility which the situation of Holland afforded for procuring the acceptance of a king. Though overtaken by that weariness which, at the end of revolutions, renders peo- ple indifferent to every thing, the Dutch ex- perienced a painful feeling, on finding them- selves deprived of their republican system. However, the assurance that their laws, espe- cially their municipal laws, should be left them, the favourable reports made to them of Louis Bonaparte, of the regularity of his manners, of his disposition to economy, of the independ- ence of his character, lastly the usual resigna- tion to things long foreseen, decided the prin- cipal representatives of Holland to accede to the institution of royalty. A treaty was to convert the new situation of Holland in regard to France into an alliance between state and state. The Venetian provinces which Napoleon had not immediately united to the kingdom of Italy, that he might be more at liberty to study their resources and to employ them according to his designs the Venetian provinces, in- cluding Dalmatia, were annexed to the king- dom of Italy, upon condition of ceding the country of Massa to the Princess Elisa, to aug- ment the duchy of Lucca, and the duchy of Guastalla to the Princess Pauline Borghese, who had not yet received any thing from her brother's munificence. The latter would not keep her duchy, and sold it back to the king- dom of Italy for some millions. It was now, perhaps, the time to think of the Pope and the real cause of his discontent. At the moment when Italy was a twelfth-cake, divided with the sword, it would have been easy to reserve a share for St. Peter, and to conciliate by some temporal advantages that spiritual power, which it is dangerous to quar- rel with, even in our times of doubtful faith, and which is far more to be dreaded when it is oppressed than when it oppresses. These new monarchs ought to have been very glad to receive their states, even with a province the fewer; and Pius VII.. indemnified, might have been induced to submit with more pa- tience to be completely invested by the French power, as he was after the establishment of Joseph at Naples. At any rate, Napoleon had still Parma and Placentia to give away, and he could not have made a better use of them than by employing them to console the court of Rome. But Napoleon began to care much less for either physical or moral resistance since Austerlitz. He was extremely displeased with the Pope for his hostile underhand pro- ceedings against the new king of Naples, and he felt more disposed to reduce than to aug- ment the patrimony of St. Peter. Besides, he reserved Parma and Placentia for a use which had also its merit. He thought to make them an indemnity for some of the princes protected by Russia or England, such as the sovereigns of Naples and Piedmont, old dethroned kings, to whom he meant to throw a few crumbs from the sumptuous board around which the new kings were seated. This idea was certainly good, but there was still the fault of leaving the Pope discontented, ready to break out with vehemence, and whom it would have been so easy to satisfy, without any great detriment to the recently instituted kingdoms. It was necessary to provide for Murat, the husband of Caroline Bonaparte, and who had at least deserved by war what was about to be done for him on the score of relationship. But he, too, had his exigencies, which were rather his wife's than his own. Napoleon had thought of giving them the principality of Neufchatel, which neither husband nor wife would accept. The Arch-chancellor Cambaceres, who usually interposed between Napoleon and his family with that conciliatory patience which allays reciprocal irritations, which listens to every thing and repeats nothing but what is fit to be repeated the Arch-chancellor Cambaceres was informed in confidence of their violent displeasure. They thought themselves treat- ed with a cutting inequality. Napoleon then thought of the duchy of Berg, ceded to France by Bavaria in exchange for Anspach, increas- ed by the remnant of the duchy of Cleves, a fine country, happily situated on the right ol the Rhine, containing 320,000 inhabitants, pro ducing, all costs of administration paid, a re venue of 400,000 florins, allowing tn^