desperate and sanguinary than any which had taken place during the whole campaign. Napoleon, having completed his arrangements, passed the greater part of his army to the north side of the Danube.

It was the plan of the Archduke Charles to permit the passage of Buonaparte's army in that direction undisturbed, which was accordingly effected on 21st May. The forces of the Archduke amounted to about 75,000 men, with 288 pieces of cannon; the French were rather more numerous, and equally well provided with artillery. The action commenced with great fury on the left of the French line. The object on each side, in this part of the field, was the possession of the village of Asperne, which was taken and recaptured eleven times. It was here that war assumed the sternest aspect; every house, barn, and stable, was ferociously contested. Night only terminated the conflict for the possession of this village, which was set on fire, part of it being then occupied by the Austrians. In the centre, and on the opposite extremity of the line, the struggle was equally violent. On this occasion the Archduke and Napoleon were personally opposed to each other. A series of desperate assaults were made by the French infantry, and many brilliant charges of cavalry, one of which had nearly routed the third Austrian column; but the Archduke had infused a new spirit into his troops; determined to conquer or die, they finally repulsed every attack. The village of Enzerdorf was carried by them, and the day closed with the unusual spectacle of a French army, commanded by Napoleon himself, driven back from some of the positions it had occupied in the commencement of the action. The village of Essling still remained in the possession of the French; but their line was narrowed, and their ranks thinned of their best troops, particularly the cavalry. Both parties remained on the field of battle, and in the night great reinforcements were brought over by Napoleon from the island of Lobau. At four on the morning of 22d the action was renewed, and the village of Asperne again fell into the hands of the French; but it was wrested from them by the Austrians, who were in their turn partially expelled by

the French. On the centre and right wing the battle recommenced in all its horrors. At this critical moment the bridge, which Napoleon had constructed from Lobau to the north bank of the Danube, was demolished by fire ships, sent down that river by the Archduke; a circumstance which could not fail greatly to embarrass the operations of the French army. In the early part of the contest they were the assailants, but all their courage and the skill of their commander, who exposed his person to the most imminent peril, could not enable them to make a permanent impression on the Austrian line. Asperne, or rather its calcined wrecks, remained, at the close of the day, in the hands of the Austrians. By a skilful disposition of his troops, the Archduke was enabled to turn the right wing of the French army, and gradually compel them to recede. At the village of Essling the slaughter was prodigious. Five times was it assailed by the Austrians, and as often were they repelled by the French, who finally maintained it. Had the village been carried, it would have been impossible for the French army to have effected a retreat.

In the night of the 22d, the remains of that mighty host, which had threatened the annihilation of the Austrian monarchy, were transported by Napoleon, who had reconstructed the bridge at Lobau, across the Danube. So skilful were the dispositions made by Buonaparte, that he saved all his artillery, excepting three pieces. The loss on both sides was immense; the Austrians admit that the battle cost them upwards of 21,000 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The loss of the French is estimated, in Napoleon's bulletin, at 10,000 men. The Austrians swell that number to four times the amount. It is probable, after allowing for exaggeration, that it exceeded 30,000 men placed hors de combat.

The Archduke gained immortal honour by this signal defeat of the French. A dawn of liberty began to dispel the darkness of the political horizon: but the hour of the French Emperor was not yet arrived. From some unknown cause, the advantages gained by the Archduke were not improved.

The French army was rallied on the south side of the Danube, and reinforcements of every kind hastened to their assistance. On the 25th Napoleon was joined by the French army of Italy. These troops were in the beginning of the campaign unfortunate. The Austrians captured Padua and Vicenza, crossed the Adige, and threatened Venice; but the disasters of their army in Germany compelled the Archduke John, who commanded them, to retire. He was pursued by the French army, strongly reinforced. In three engagements, namely, the passage of the Brenta, at Tarvis, and at Raab, in Hungary, he was overtaken and defeated by Eugene Beauharnois, son of Josephine, by her former husband, elevated by Napoleon to the rank of a prince, and appointed viceroy, and his adopted successor in Italy. The consequences of this retreat were most important. All the country between Vienna and the frontiers of Italy, was, for the moment, lost to the House of Austria; still the situation of Napoleon was exceedingly dangerous. The brave Tyrolese, headed by the immortal Hoffer, rose in a body, and expelled the French from their territory. Colonel Schill, a Prussian partizan, raised, in concert with the Duke of Brunswick, the standard of German independence; and although neither openly recognized, nor even essentially assisted by the powers at war with France, he operated an efficacious diversion in their favour, and obliged Napoleon to devote almost all his light troops to the purpose of holding him in check.

The people in Germany were greatly irritated by the extortions of the French, and they were ready to rise en masse at the first convenient opportunity. From 22d May to 3d and 4th July, nothing material occurred between the two main armies. During the interval, Napoleon constructed a stupendous bridge across an arm of the Danube, from Ebersdorff to Lobau; threw up works, erected batteries, and practised every military feint to induce the Archduke to believe that he meant to cross the river at the point where the Austrians were most strongly en

trenched. This stratagem completely succeeded, and the Archduke fell into the snare. On the night between the 4th and 5th, Napoleon, with an army of at least 170,000 men, passed the Danube from the island of Lobau, over temporary bridges, turned the line of the Austrian entrenchments, and compelled the Archduke to fight him on his own ground. The force of the Austrians was greatly inferior, and probably did not exceed 120,000 men.

The day of the 5th passed over without any important action. It is evident, even from the French accounts, that they could boast of no considerable advantage; and it appears from the Austrian bulletins, that they were repulsed in an attack upon the enemy's centre. Much blood was shed on both sides without any visible result to either party. On the 6th, the battle began, and extended speedily to every part of the hostile lines. The Austrians, numerically inferior to the French, were still more inferior in artillery and cavalry; yet under these disadvantages, their line was greatly extended; an error by which Napoleon quickly profited. Still his success was dearly purchased. The centre of his army was repulsed, thrown into confusion, and would probably have been routed, had he not brought into the line a powerful battery, which scattered death through the opposite ranks. This circumstance obliged the Austrian centre to fall back about three miles, a movement that enabled the French to interpose between the enemy's centre and their wings.

At length the whole Austrian army slowly retired from the field, in the direction of Moravia. They were cautiously followed by the French. The battle of Asperne had taught them to respect the valour of their enemies. Thus ended the famous battle of Wagram.

The French bulletins assert, that on the 5th and 6th July, the Austrians lost 60,000 men, in killed, wounded, prisoners, and militia, who disbanded themselves, and 10 pieces of cannon. This statement is of course an absurd exaggeration; yet the Austrians admit of 26,000 men, but allege that the

French themselves lost upwards of 20,000. Whatever may have been the extent of the loss on either side, the consequences of the battle proved that it was a decisive defeat.

The Austrians were closely pursued, and overtaken at Znaim, where another had begun; when an armistice suspended the hostilities. The terms of this treaty were most favourable to the French; and, indeed, the situation of the Austrian army was rendered in the highest degree perilous, by the arrival of a great Russian force in Gallicia, sent by Alexander, as auxiliaries to Napoleon. The negociations for peace were protracted until the latter end of October, when they terminated in the treaty of Vienna.

By this treaty, Joseph Buonaparte was recognized as King of Spain; further territorial cessions were made to the King of Bavaria, who regained possession of the Tyrol: France acquired Trieste, and the countries bounded on the north by the river Drave; and Russia, about one-half of Gallicia, including the city and salt-mines of Cracow.

The too celebrated expedition to Walcheren took place in the interval, between the armistice of Znaim and the peace of Vienna. The history of this affair would be an episode in the present narrative. We therefore gladly dismiss the subject, only observing, that the enemies of Great Britain would alone find pleasure in recording it. Returning to Paris, Napoleon busied himself in matters of internal legislation; and the spirit of these different acts proves that he was a monopolist, and that his government had degenerated into an undisguised tyranny. He passed a decree for the registration of servants; another for establishing a censorship of the press; and a third for attaching Holland to the French empire. He likewise annexed the papal dominions to the kingdom of Italy, and established eight prisons for the reception of persons suspected of plots against the state; who were to be deprived, not only of their personal freedom, but of any power to demand an open trial. Indeed, from this period, he became intoxicated with his unexampled prosperity. He no longer sought upright and intrepid counsellors. His