New coalition against France--Sweden--Russia--Austria joins the
Alliance--Napoleon heads the Army in Germany--Ulm surrendered by
Mack--Vienna taken--Naval Operations--Battle of Trafalgar--Battle
of Austerlitz--Treaty of Presburg--Joseph Buonaparte King of
Naples--Louis Buonaparte King of Holland--Confederation of the
Rhine--New Nobility in France.
On the 27th of January, 1805, Napoleon, in his new character of Emperor,
addressed a letter (as he had done before at the commencement of his
Consulate) to King George III. in person; and was answered, as before,
by the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. The new Emperor's
letter contained many well-turned sentences about the blessings of
peace, but no distinct proposition of any kind--least of all any hint
that he was willing to concede Malta. The English minister, however,
answered simply, that in the present state of relations between the
cabinet of St. James's and that of St. Petersburg, it was impossible for
the former to open any negotiation without the consent of the latter.
This sufficiently indicated a fact of which Napoleon had just suspicion
some time before. The murder of the Duke d'Enghien had been regarded
with horror by the young Emperor of Russia; he had remonstrated
vigorously, and his reclamations had been treated with indifference. The
King of Sweden, immediately after he heard of the catastrophe of
Vicennes, had made known his sentiments to the Czar: a strict alliance
had been signed between those two courts about a fortnight before
Napoleon wrote to the King of England; and it was obvious that the
northern powers had resolved to take part with Great Britain in her
struggle against France. The Consul now made the _Moniteur_ the vehicle
of continual abuse against the sovereigns of Russia and Sweden; and the
latter caused a note to be handed to the French minister at Stockholm,
complaining of the "indecent and ridiculous insolence which _Monsieur
Buonaparte_ had permitted to be inserted" in that official journal.
The cabinets of London, Petersburg, and Stockholm were parties in a
league which had avowedly the following objects: to restore the
independence of Holland and Switzerland: to free the north of Germany
from the presence of French troops: to procure the restoration of
Piedmont to the King of Sardinia; and, finally, the evacuation of Italy
by Napoleon. Until, by the attainment of these objects, the sway of
France should be reduced to limits compatible with the independence of
the other European states, no peace was to be signed by any of the
contracting powers; and, during several months, every means was adopted
to procure the association of Austria and Prussia. But the latter of
these sovereigns had the misfortune at this time to have a strong French
party in his council, and, though personally hostile to Napoleon, could
not as yet count on being supported in a war against him by the hearty
goodwill of an undivided people. Austria, on the other hand, had been
grievously weakened by the campaign of Marengo, and hesitated, on
prudential grounds, to commit herself once more to the hazard of arms.
Alexander repaired in person to Berlin, for the purpose of stimulating
the King of Prussia. The two sovereigns met in the vault where the great
Frederick lies buried, and swore solemnly, over his remains, to effect
the liberation of Germany. But though thus pledged to the Czar, the King
of Prussia did not hastily rush into hostilities. He did not even follow
the example of the Austrian, whose forbearance was at length wholly
exhausted by the news of the coronation at Milan, and the annexation of
Genoa to the empire of France.
The government of Vienna no sooner heard of this new aggrandisement,
than it commenced warlike preparations, rashly and precipitately,
without making sure of the co-operation of Berlin, or even waiting until
the troops of Russia could perform the march into Germany. But this
great fault was not the greatest. The Emperor haughtily demanded that
the Elector of Bavaria should take the field also; nay, that he should
suffer his army to be entirely incorporated with the Austrian, and
commanded by its chiefs. The Elector, who had a son travelling in
France, resisted anxiously and strenuously. "On my knees," he wrote to
the Emperor, "I beg of you that I may be permitted to remain neutral."
This appeal was disregarded. The Austrian troops advanced into Bavaria,
where they appear to have conducted themselves as in an enemy's country;
and the indignant Elector withdrew his army into Franconia, where he
expected the advance of the French as liberators.
This unjustifiable behaviour was destined to be severely punished. No
sooner did Napoleon understand that war was inevitable, than he broke up
his great army on the coast opposite to England, and directed its march
upon the German frontier; while Massena received orders to assume, also,
the offensive in Italy, and force his way, if possible, into the
hereditary states of Austria. The favourite scheme of Carnot was thus
revived, and two French armies, one crossing the Rhine, and the other
pushing through the Tyrolese, looked forward to a junction before the
walls of Vienna.
The rashness which had characterised the conduct of the Cabinet of
Vienna, was fatally followed out in that of its general, Mack: instead
of occupying the line of the river Inn, which, extending from the Tyrol
to the Danube at Passau, affords a strong defence to the Austrian
territory, and on which he might have expected, in comparative safety,
the arrival of the Russians--this unworthy favourite of the Emperor left
the Inn behind him, and established his headquarters on the western
frontier of Bavaria, at Ulm.
Napoleon hastened to profit by this unpardonable error. Bernadotte
advanced from Hanover, with the troops which had occupied that
electorate, towards Wurtzburg, where the Bavarian army lay ready to join
its strength to his; five divisions of the great force lately assembled
on the coasts of Normandy, under the orders of Davoust, Ney, Soult,
Marmont, and Vandamme, crossed the Rhine at different points, all to the
northward of Mack's position; while a sixth, under Murat, passing at
Kehl, manoeuvred in such a manner as to withdraw the Austrian's
attention from these movements, and to strengthen him in his belief that
Napoleon and all his army were coming against him through the Black
Forest in his front.
The consequence of Buonaparte's combinations was, that while Mack lay
expecting to be assaulted in front of Ulm, the great body of the French
army advanced into the heart of Germany, by the left side of the Danube,
and then, throwing themselves across that river, took ground in his
rear, interrupting his communication with Vienna, and isolating him. In
order that Bernadotte and the Bavarians might have a part in this great
manoeuvre, it was necessary that they should disregard the neutrality of
the Prussian territories of Anspach and Bareuth; and Napoleon, well
aware of the real sentiments of the court of Berlin, did not hesitate to
adopt this course. Prussia remonstrated indignantly, but still held back
from proclaiming war; and Napoleon cared little for such impediments as
mere diplomacy could throw in the way of his campaign. He did not,
however, effect his purpose of taking up a position in the rear of Mack
without resistance. On the contrary, at various places, at Wertenghen,
Guntzburg, Memingen, and Elchingen, severe skirmishes occurred with
different divisions of the Austrian army, in all of which the French had
the advantage. General Spangenburg and 5000 men laid down their arms at
Memingen; and, in all, not less than 20,000 prisoners fell into the
hands of the French between the 26th of September, when they crossed the
Rhine, and the 13th of October, when they were in full possession of
Bavaria and Swabia, holding Mack cooped up behind them in Ulm--as
Wurmser had been in Mantua, during the campaign of Alvinzi.
But Mack was no Wurmser. Napoleon's recent movements had perplexed
utterly the counsels of the Austrians, whose generals, adopting
different views of the state of the campaign, no longer acted in unison.
Schwartzenberg, and the Archduke Ferdinand, considering further
resistance in Bavaria as hopeless, cut their way, at the head of large
bodies of cavalry, into Bohemia, and began to rouse the inhabitants of
that kingdom to a levy _en masse_. The French Emperor, perceiving that
they had for the present escaped him, drew back upon Ulm, invested that
town on every side, and summoned Mack to surrender.
The garrison consisted of full 20,000 good troops; the place was amply
victualled and stored; the advance of the great Russian army could not
be distant; the declaration of war against Napoleon by Berlin was hourly
to be expected: and the armies of Austria, though scattered for the
present, would be sure to rally and make every effort for the relief of
Ulm. Under circumstances comparatively hopeless the brave Wurmser held
Mantua to extremity. But in spite of example or argument, in terror or
in treachery, General Mack capitulated without hazarding a blow.
On the 16th he published a proclamation, urging his troops to prepare
for the utmost pertinacity of defence, and forbidding, on pain of death,
the very word _surrender_ to be breathed within the walls of Ulm. On the
17th he signed articles by which hostilities were immediately to cease,
and he and all his men to surrender themselves prisoners of war within
ten days, unless some Austrian or Russian force should appear in the
interval, and attempt to raise the blockade. After signing this
document, Mack visited, in person, the headquarters of Napoleon; and,
whatever the nature of their conversation may have been, the result was,
a _revision_ of the treaty on the 19th, and the formal evacuation of Ulm
on the 20th. Twenty thousand soldiers filed off, and laid down their
arms before Napoleon and his staff.--Eighteen generals were dismissed on
parole; an immense quantity of ammunition of all sorts fell into the
hands of the victor; and a waggon filled with Austrian standards was
sent to gratify the vanity of the Parisians.
The catastrophe of Ulm, striking new terror into the Prussian counsels,
prevented the violation of the territory of Anspach from being
immediately followed by the declaration of war, for which Buonaparte
must have made up his mind when he hazarded that measure. Meantime
success had attended Massena in his advance from Lombardy towards the
Venetian states, where the Archduke Charles commanded an army of 60,000
men for Austria. The Archduke, after sustaining various reverses, was
forced to abandon Italy; and retreated, though slowly and leisurely,
before Massena, through the strong passes of the Carinthian mountains.
Nor had Marshal Ney, whom Napoleon had detached from his own main army
with orders to advance in the Tyrol, been less successful than Massena.
The Archduke John, who commanded in that province, was beaten like his
brother; and the outposts of the army of Massena from Italy and that of
Ney from the Upper Rhine, at length met and saluted in triumph at
Clagenfurt. The Archduke Charles, understanding how Ney was prospering
in the Tyrol, had given up the design of retreating by that way into
Germany, and proceeded through the Carinthian Mountains towards
Hungary. Prince John now followed his brother's example; and, the
remains of those two armies thus coalescing in a distant region, the
divisions of Ney and Messena came to be at the immediate disposal of
Napoleon, who was now concentrating his force for the purpose of
attacking Vienna.
While the victorious corps of Ney thus secured his right--Murat, on his
left, watched the Austrians who had made their way into Bohemia; and
Augereau, who had now advanced at the head of a large reserve from
France, remained behind him in Swabia, to guard the passes from the
Voralberg, in case of any hostile movement from that mountainous
province, and, at the same time, to be ready for action against the
Prussians, should that army at length receive orders to take part in the
war, and cross the Danube. Thus guarded, as he judged, against any
chance of having his communications intercepted in the rear or flanks,
Napoleon himself, with the main body, now moved on the capital of the
German Emperor. Austrian and Russian troops, to the number of 45,000,
had been thrown together with the view of relieving Ulm, and advanced
considerably for that purpose ere they heard of the treacherous
capitulation of Mack. They now retired again before the movement of
Napoleon, halting, indeed, occasionally, and assuming the aspect of
determination; but, whenever the outposts met, losing heart, and
continuing their progress towards Moravia:--for there, at length, the
Czar, with his principal army, had made his appearance; and there,
around that standard, every disposable force was now to be rallied. The
Emperor Francis himself, perceiving that Vienna was incapable of
defence, quitted his capital on the 7th of November, and proceeded to
Brunn, in Moravia, the headquarters of Alexander.
On the same evening Count Giulay reached Napoleon's headquarters at
Lintz, with proposals for an immediate armistice and negotiation.
Buonaparte refused to pause unless the Tyrol and Venice were instantly
ceded to him. These were terms to which the Austrian envoy had no
authority to submit. On the 13th of November, accordingly, the French
entered Vienna, and Napoleon took up his residence in the castle of
Schoenbrunn, the proud palace of the Austrian Caesars. General Clarke was
appointed governor of the city; and the Elector of Bavaria was
gratified with a large share of the military stores and equipments found
in its arsenals.
But the intoxication of this success was to be sobered by a cup of
bitterness--and from a hand which had already dashed more than one of
Napoleon's proudest triumphs.
When Buonaparte took up arms again, and devoted every energy of his mind
to the descent upon England, Spain, the next maritime power after
France, professed, indeed, neutrality,--but by some of her proceedings
raised the suspicion that her fleet was really destined to act along
with that of the invader. The English government resolved to bring this
matter to the test: and a squadron of four ships demanded a similar
force of the Spaniards to yield themselves into their keeping as a
pledge of neutrality. The British squadron sent on such an errand ought,
on every principle of policy and humanity, to have been much stronger
than that which Commodore Moore commanded on this occasion. The
Castilian pride took fire at the idea of striking to an equal foe; and,
unhappily, an action took place, in which three of the Spanish ships
were captured, and one blown up. This catastrophe determined, as might
have been expected, the wavering counsels of Madrid. Spain declared war
against England, and placed her fleets at the command of the French
Emperor.
Two of his own squadrons, meantime, had, in pursuance of the great
scheme traced for the ruin of England, escaped early in this year out of
Rochefort and Toulon. The former, passing into the West Indies, effected
some trivial services, and returned in safety to their original port.
The latter, under Villeneuve, had like fortune; and, venturing on a
second sortie, joined the great Spanish fleet under Gravina at Cadiz.
The combined fleets then crossed the Atlantic, where they captured an
insignificant island, and once more returned towards Europe. Nelson had
spent the summer in chasing these squadrons across the seas--and on this
occasion they once more eluded his grasp: but on approaching Cape
Finisterre (22nd July), another English squadron of fifteen sail of the
line and two frigates, under Sir Robert Calder, came in view: and the
allied admirals, having twenty sail of the line, three fifty-gun ships,
and four frigates, did not avoid the encounter. They were worsted,
notwithstanding their superiority of strength, and Calder captured two
of their best ships. But that they escaped from an English fleet,
howsoever inferior in numbers, without sustaining severer loss than
this, was considered as a disgrace by the British public.--Calder, being
tried by a court-martial, was actually censured for not having improved
his success more signally; a striking example of the height to which
confidence in the naval superiority of the English had been raised, at
the very time when no arm appeared capable of thwarting the career of
French victory by land.
Villeneuve and Gravina now made their way to Vigo, and thence finally to
Cadiz: while Nelson, having at length received accurate intelligence of
their motions, took the command in the Mediterranean, and lay watching
for the moment in which they should be tempted to hazard another egress.
The coasts of Spain being strictly blockaded, some difficulty began to
be felt about providing necessaries for the numerous crews of the allied
fleets; but the circumstance which had most influence in leading them to
quit, once more, their place of safety, was, according to general
admission, the impatience of Villeneuve under some unmerited reproaches
with which Napoleon visited the results of the battle off Cape
Finisterre. Villeneuve, a man of dauntless gallantry and the highest
spirit, smarting under this injury, was anxious to take the noble
revenge of victory. And, in truth, had numbers been to decide the
adventure, he ran little risk: for Nelson commanded only twenty-seven
sail of the line, and three frigates, manned in the ordinary manner;
whereas the fleet in Cadiz mustered thirty-three ships of the line, and
seven frigates; and, besides the usual crews, carried 4000 troops,
chiefly rifle-men. The result was the most glorious day in the proud
annals of the English Marine. The combined fleets sailed from Cadiz on
the 19th of October, and on the morning of the 21st--the very day after
Mack surrendered at Ulm--they came in sight of the English Admiral, off
Cape Trafalgar.
The reader is referred to the historian of Lord Nelson for the
particulars of this great action. The French and Spaniards awaited the
attack in a double line. Nelson hoisted the famous signal--"England
expects every man to do his duty"; charged in two columns, and broke
their array at the first onset. The battle, nevertheless, was sternly
contested. In the end nineteen ships of the line were taken; and of
those Spanish vessels which escaped into Cadiz, seven had been rendered
wholly unserviceable. Four French ships of the line, under Commodore
Dumanoir, made way for the Straits, and were captured a few days after
by Sir Richard Strachan, commander of the English squadron off
Rochefort. The fleets of France and Spain were annihilated: yet, great
as was the triumph, glorious and unrivalled, it was dearly
purchased--for Nelson fell, mortally wounded, early in the action. The
hero lived just long enough to hear the cheer of consummated victory;
and then breathed out his noble spirit, in words worthy of his life,
"Thank God! I have done my duty."[51]
The French and Spaniards had fought together against Nelson; but not in
the same spirit. The former were determined and malignant enemies; the
latter generous friends, hurried, by the excitement of temporary and
pardonable passion, into hostilities against the only power which could
afford their country any chance of avoiding that political slavery,
under which it was now the settled purpose of Napoleon's ambition to
crush every nation of Europe. But the unprincipled conduct of Dumanoir,
who escaped from Nelson to be captured shortly after, as has been
mentioned, by Strachan, at once brought out the different feelings
under which the two allied fleets had been acting. This French officer,
retreating with his four ships, which had had no part in the battle,
discharged his broadsides, as he passed, into English vessels no longer
capable of pursuit,--conduct which, as the victory was complete, could
have no object but that of carnage. Nay, such was the ruffian nature of
this man's soul, he fired into the Spanish ships which had yielded to
the English, thus, for the sake of trivially injuring his enemy,
sacrificing without scruple the blood of his own unfortunate friends.
The Spanish prisoners, in their indignation at this brutality, asked
their English captors to permit them to man their guns against the
retreating French; and such was the earnestness of their entreaty, and
the confidence of Englishmen in the honour of Spaniards, that these men
actually were permitted to do as they had requested. A mutual
interchange of good offices ensued. In the evening after the battle a
gale sprung up, and some of the captured vessels drifting on shore, a
number of British seamen fell into the hands of the garrison of Cadiz.
They were received as friends: for the accommodation of their wounded
the Spanish soldiers gave up their own beds. Collingwood, who succeeded
to Nelson's command, sent all the wounded Spaniards on shore to be cured
in their own country, merely taking their parole that they would not
serve again during the war: and the governor of Cadiz, with still more
romantic generosity, offered his hospitals for the use of Collingwood's
wounded seamen, pledging the honour of the Spanish name that they should
be cared for like his own men, and sent back to their admiral whenever
they had recovered. It will appear, hereafter, what illustrious
consequences the kindly feelings thus manifested were destined to
produce.
Buonaparte, when he heard of this mighty discomfiture, which for ever
put an end to all his visions of invading England, is said to have lost
that possession of himself, which he certainly maintained when the
catastrophe of Aboukir was announced to him at Cairo. Yet arrogance
mingled strangely in his expressions of sorrow.--"I cannot be
everywhere," said he to the messenger of the evil tidings--as if
Napoleon could have had any more chance of producing victory by his
presence at Trafalgar, than Nelson would have dreamed of having by
appearing on horseback at Marengo. In his newspapers, and even in his
formal messages to the senate at Paris, Buonaparte always persisted in
denying that there had been a great defeat at Trafalgar, or even a great
battle. But how well he appreciated the facts of the case was well known
to the unfortunate Admiral Villeneuve. That brave officer, after
spending a short time in England, was permitted to return to France on
his parole. He died almost immediately afterwards at Rennes: whether by
his own hand, in the agony of despair, as the French _Gazette_ asserted,
or assassinated, as was commonly believed at the time, by some of the
blood-hardened minions of Fouche's police, is a mystery not yet cleared
up; and, perhaps, never destined to be so until the day comes in which
nothing shall be hid.
The tidings of Trafalgar, after the first moment, served but as a new
stimulus to the fire of Napoleon's energy. He quitted Vienna, and put
himself at the head of his columns, which, passing the Danube into
Moravia, soon found themselves within reach of the forces of Russia and
Austria, at length combined, and prepared for action, under the eyes of
their respective emperors. These princes, on the approach of the French,
drew back as far as Olmutz, in order that a reserve of Russians, under
Bexhowden, might join them before the decisive struggle took place.
Napoleon fixed his headquarters at _Brunn_, and, riding over the plain
between Brunn and Austerlitz (a village about two miles from that town),
said to his generals, "study this field--we shall, ere long, have to
contest it."
Buonaparte has been much criticised by strategists for the rashness of
thus passing the Danube into Moravia, while the Archduke Ferdinand was
organising the Bohemians on his left, the Archdukes Charles and John in
Hungary, with still formidable and daily increasing forces on his right,
the population of Vienna and the surrounding territories ready to rise,
in case of any disaster, in his rear; and Prussia as decidedly hostile
in heart as she was wavering in policy. The French leader did not
disguise from himself the risk of his adventure; but he considered it
better to run all that risk, than to linger in Vienna until the armies
in Hungary and Bohemia should have had time to reinforce the two
emperors.
Napoleon's preparations were as follows:--his left, under Larmes, lay
at Santon, a strongly fortified position: Soult commanded the right
wing: the centre, under Bernadotte, had with them Murat and all the
cavalry. Behind the line lay the reserve, consisting of 20,000, 10,000
of whom were of the Imperial guard, under Oudinot: and here Napoleon
himself took his station. But besides these open demonstrations,
Davoust, with a division of horse and another of foot, lay behind the
convent of Raygern, considerably in the rear of the French right--being
there placed by the Emperor, in consequence of a false movement, into
which he, with a seer-like sagacity, foresaw the enemy might, in all
likelihood, he tempted; and to which he lured them on accordingly by
every engine of his craft.
Buonaparte, on learning that the Emperor Alexander was personally in the
hostile camp, sent Savary to present his compliments to that sovereign;
but really, as we may suppose, to observe as much as he could of the
numbers and condition of the troops. Savary, on his return, informed his
master that the Russian prince was surrounded by a set of young
coxcombs, whose every look and gesture expressed overweening confidence
in themselves and contempt for their opponents. All the reverses of the
previous campaign were, as they took care to signify, the result of
unpardonable cowardice among the Austrians, whose spirit had been quite
broken by the wars in Italy: but they were the countrymen of the same
Suwarrow who had beaten the French out of all Buonaparte's Lombard
conquests, and the first general battle would show what sort of enemies
the Russians were. How much of this statement is true we know not: it
was openly made at the time in one of Buonaparte's bulletins--and, what
is of more moment, he appears to have acted on the belief that Savary
told the truth. Having, ere he received it, advanced several leagues
beyond the chosen field of battle, near Austerlitz, he forthwith
retreated on that position, with a studied semblance of confusion. The
Czar sent a young aide-de-camp to return the compliment carried by
Savary; and this messenger found the French soldiery actively engaged in
fortifying their position--the very position which their Emperor had all
along determined to occupy. The account of what the young Russian saw in
the French lines gave, as Napoleon wished, a new stimulus to the
presumption of his enemy; and, having made the preparations above
described, he calmly expected the consequences of their rashness and
inexperience.
On the 1st of December he beheld the commencement of those false
movements which he had desired and anticipated. On seeing the Russians
begin to descend from the heights, on which they might have lain in
safety until the Archdukes could come to swell their array with the
forces in Bohemia and Hungary, Napoleon did not repress his rapturous
joy: "In twenty-four hours," said he, "that army is mine."
Shortly afterwards there arrived Count Haugwitz, an envoy from the King
of Prussia, who being introduced into the Emperor's presence, signified
that he was the bearer of an important communication. "Count," said
Napoleon, "you may see that the outposts of the armies are almost
meeting--there will be a battle to-morrow--return to Vienna, and deliver
your message when it is over." The envoy did not require two biddings.
Napoleon had all this year been protracting the indecision of the
Prussian counsels by holding out the delusive hope, that, were Austria
effectually humbled, the imperial crown of Germany might be transferred
to the house of Brandenburg. The old jealousies, thus artfully awakened,
had been sufficient to prevent a declaration of war from immediately
following on the violation of the territory of Anspach and Bareuth. The
intervention of the Czar had, it is not to be doubted, at length
determined the Court of Berlin to close their unworthy neutrality:--but
Haugwitz had no Prussian army in his train; and, seeing what was before
him, he certainly did prudently to defer that which had been so unwisely
as well as ungenerously put off from month to month, for one day more.
At one o'clock in the morning of the 2nd of December, Napoleon, having
slept for an hour by a watch-fire, got on horseback, and proceeded to
reconnoitre the front of his position. He wished to do so without being
recognised, but the soldiery penetrated the secret, and, lighting great
fires of straw all along the line, received him from post to post with
shouts of enthusiasm. They reminded him that this was the anniversary of
his coronation, and assured him they would celebrate the day in a manner
worthy of its glory. "Only promise us," cried an old grenadier, "that
you will keep yourself out of the fire." "I will do so," answered
Napoleon, "I shall be with the reserve _until you need us._" This
pledge, which so completely ascertains the mutual confidence of the
leader and his soldiers, he repeated in a proclamation issued at
daybreak. The sun rose with uncommon brilliancy: on many an after-day
the French soldiery hailed a similar dawn with exultation as the sure
omen of victory, and "the Sun of Austerlitz" has passed into a proverb.
The Russian General-in-Chief, Kutusoff, fell into the snare laid for
him, and sent a large division of his army to turn the right of the
French. The troops detached for this purpose met with unexpected
resistance from Davoust, and were held in check at Raygern. Napoleon
immediately seized the opportunity. They had left a deep gap in the
line, and upon that space Soult forthwith poured a force, which entirely
destroyed the communication between the Russian centre and left. The
Czar perceived the fatal consequences of this movement, and his guards
rushed to beat back Soult. It was on an eminence, called the hill of
Pratzen, that the encounter took place. The Russians drove the French
infantry before them: Napoleon ordered Bessieres to hurry with the
imperial guard to their rescue. The Russians were in some disorder from
the impatience of victory. They resisted sternly, but were finally
broken, and fled. The Grand Duke Constantine, who had led them
gallantly, escaped by the fleetness of his horse.
The French centre now advanced, and the charges of its cavalry under
Murat were decisive. The Emperors of Russia and Germany beheld from the
heights of Austerlitz the total ruin of their centre, as they had
already of their left. Their right wing had hitherto contested well
against all the impetuosity of Lannes: but Napoleon could now gather
round them on all sides, and, his artillery plunging incessant fire on
them from the heights, they at length found it impossible to hold their
ground. They were forced down into a hollow, where some small frozen
lakes offered the only means of escape from the closing cannonade. The
French broke the ice about them by a storm of shot, and nearly 20,000
men died on the spot, some swept away by the artillery, the greater part
drowned. Buonaparte, in his bulletin, compares the horrid spectacle of
this ruin to the catastrophe of the Turks at Aboukir, when "the sea was
covered with turbans." It was with great difficulty that the two
emperors rallied some fragments of their armies around them, and
effected their retreat. Twenty thousand prisoners, forty pieces of
artillery, and all the standards of the imperial guard of Russia,
remained with the conqueror. Such was the battle of Austerlitz;--or, as
the French soldiery delighted to call it, "the battle of the emperors."
The Prussian envoy now returned, and presented to Napoleon his master's
congratulations on the victory thus achieved. The Emperor whispered to
Haugwitz, "Here is a message, of which circumstances have altered the
address." Frederick-William, however, had 150,000 men under arms, and it
by no means suited Napoleon's views to provoke him to extremities at
this moment. He entered into a treaty with Haugwitz; and Prussia was
bribed to remain quiescent, by a temptation which she wanted virtue to
resist. The French Emperor offered her Hanover, provided she would
oppose no obstacle to any other arrangements which he might find it
necessary to form: and the house of Brandenburg did not blush to accept
at his hands the paternal inheritance of the royal family of England.
The Austrian, understanding how Prussia was disposed of, perceived too
clearly that further resistance was hopeless; and negotiations
immediately begun.
The haughty Emperor of Germany repaired to the French headquarters. He
was received at the door of a miserable hut. "Such," said Buonaparte,
"are the palaces you have compelled me to occupy for these two months."
"You have made such use of them," answered Francis, "that you ought not
to complain of their accommodation."
The humiliated sovereign, having ere this obtained an armistice for
himself, demanded of Napoleon that the Czar might be permitted to
withdraw in safety to his own states. To this the conqueror assented:
and on the 6th of December the Russians commenced their retreat.
The definitive treaty with Francis was signed at Presburg on the 15th of
December, another with Prussia on the 26th, at Vienna:--and the terms of
both arranged, on Napoleon's side, by Talleyrand, corresponded with the
signal and decisive events of the campaign.
Austria yielded the Venetian territories to the kingdom of Italy: her
ancient possessions of the Tyrol and Voralberg were transferred to
Bavaria, to remunerate that elector for the part he had taken in the
war; Wirtemberg, having also adopted the French side, received
recompense of the same kind at the expense of the same power, and both
of these electors were advanced to the dignity of kings. Bavaria
received Anspach and Bareuth from Prussia, and, in return, ceded Berg,
which was erected into a grand duchy, and conferred, in sovereignty, on
Napoleon's brother-in-law, Murat. Finally, Prussia added Hanover to her
dominions, in return for the cession of Anspach and Bareuth, and
acquiescence in the other arrangements above-mentioned.
Eugene Beauharnois, son of Josephine, and Viceroy of Italy, received in
marriage the eldest daughter of the new king of Bavaria: this being the
first occasion on which Napoleon manifested openly his desire to connect
his family with the old sovereign houses of Europe. It was announced at
the same time, that in case the Emperor should die without male issue,
the crown of Italy would descend to Eugene.
Other events of the same character now crowded on the scene. The king,
or rather the queen of Naples, had not failed, during the recent
campaign, to manifest the old aversion to the French cause. St. Cyr's
army, which on the first rupture of the peace of Amiens had occupied the
seaports of that kingdom, being called into the north of Italy to
reinforce Massena against the Archduke Charles, an Anglo-Russian
expedition soon landed in Naples, and were welcomed cordially by the
court. Napoleon, immediately after the battle of Austerlitz, issued a
proclamation, declaring that "the royal house of Naples had ceased to
reign for _ever_." On hearing of the decisive battle, and the retreat of
the Czar, the English and Russians evacuated the Neapolitan territories
on the mainland of Italy. Joseph Buonaparte conducted a French army
towards the frontier; the court passed over into Sicily; and Joseph was
proclaimed King of Naples.
The King of Sweden, rushing as hastily and inconsiderately as he of
Naples into the war of 1805, landed with a small army in Germany, and
besieged Hamelen, a fortress of Hanover, where Bernadotte had left a
strong garrison. This movement, had Prussia broken her neutrality, might
have been of high importance to the general cause; as events turned out,
it was fruitless. The Swedes raised their siege in confusion, on
receiving the news of Austerlitz; and Napoleon from that hour meditated
the dethronement of the dynasty of Gustavus--but this object was not yet
within reach.
The Principalities of Lucca, Massa-Carrara, and Garfagnana, were now
conferred on Napoleon's sister, Eliza (Madame Bacciochi): on Pauline,
the younger sister, who, after the death of General Leclerc, had married
the Prince Borghese, the sovereignty of Guastalla was in like manner
bestowed.
The Batavian republic had for years been in effect enslaved by France.
On pretence that her leading men, however, still yearned after the
alliance of England, and thwarted him in his designs on the commerce of
that great enemy, Napoleon now resolved to take away even the shadow of
Dutch independence. The Batavian Senate were commanded to ask Louis
Buonaparte for their king; and these republicans submitted with the
better grace, because the personal character of Louis was amiable, and
since Holland must be an appendage to France, it seemed probable that
the connection might be rendered the less galling in many circumstances,
were a prince of Napoleon's own blood constituted her natural guardian.
Louis had married the beautiful Hortense-Fanny de Beauharnois, daughter
of Josephine--so that, by this act, two members of the imperial house
were at once elevated to royalty.--They began their reign at the Hague
in May, 1806.
Another great consequence of Austerlitz remains to be mentioned. The
Kings of Wirtemberg and Bavaria, the Grand Duke of Berg, and other
sovereigns of the West of Germany, were now associated together in a
close alliance under the style of the _Confederation of the Rhine_:
Napoleon added to his other titles that of _Protector_ of this
confederacy; and the princes of the league were bound to place 60,000
soldiers at his command.
Finally, it was on his return from the triumph of Austerlitz, that
Napoleon trampled down the last traces of the revolutionary organisation
in France, by creating a new order of nobility. Talleyrand became Prince
of Benevento, Bernadotte, of Ponte Corvo, Berthier, of Neufchatel; the
most distinguished of the Marshals received the title of Duke, and a
long array of Counts of the Empire filled the lower steps of the throne.
These princedoms and dukedoms were accompanied with grants of extensive
estates in the countries which the French arms had conquered; and the
great feudatories of the new empire accordingly bore titles not
domestic, but foreign. In everything it was the plan of Napoleon to sink
the memory of the Bourbon Monarchy, and revive the image of Charlemagne,
Emperor of the West.
[Footnote 51:
"Lamented hero! when to Britain's shore
Exulting Fame those awful tidings bore,
Joy's bursting shout in whelming grief was drowned
And Victory's self unwilling audience found;
On every brow the cloud of sadness hung;
The sounds of triumph died on every tongue.
Yet not the vows thy weeping country pays;
Not that high meed, thy mourning sovereign's praise,
Not that the great, the beauteous, and the brave
Bend in mute reverence o'er thy closing grave;
That with such grief as bathes a kindred bier
Collective nations mourn a death so dear;
Not these alone shall soothe thy sainted shade,
And consecrate the spot where thou art laid--
Not these alone!--but bursting thro' the gloom,
With radiant glory from thy trophied tomb,
The sacred splendour of thy deathless name
Shall grace and guard thy country's martial fame;
Far seen shall blaze the unextinguished ray,
A mighty beacon lighting glory's way--
With living lustre this proud land adorn,
And shine, and save, thro' ages yet unborn."[52]
]
[Footnote 52: "Ulm and Trafalgar," a poem, by the Rt. Honourable George
Canning.]