became hopeless. Every prospect either of successful resistance or escape was at an end, and he was now menaced with a general assault on his works, which were incapable of being defended. In this extremity he agreed to capitulate, first stipulating, that he should remain unmolested until 25th October, and afterwards consenting to the surrender of his army on the 20th, provided that the corps under Ney should not advance beyond ten leagues from Ulm until the 25th. As it was the design of Napoleon to detach Ney's corps, get possession of the Tyrol, and menace the rear of the Austrian army in Italy, he readily assented to this condition; and on the 20th, the troops immediately under the command of Mack, marched out of Ulm, with the honors of war, depositing their arms on the glacis. Their number exceeded 30,000 On this occasion Buonaparte, collecting the principal Austrian officers, addressed them as follows:

men.

"Gentlemen, your master wages an unjust war: I tell you' plainly, I know not for what I am fighting; I know not what can be required of me; my resources are not confined to my present army. Those prisoners of war, now on their way to France, will observe the spirit which animates my people, and with what eagerness they flock to my standards. At a single word 200,000 volunteers crowd to my standard, and in six weeks become good soldiers; whereas, your recruits only march from compulsion, and do not become good soldiers until after several years. Let me advise my brother the Emperor, to hasten to make peace. All states must have an end; and in the present crisis he must feel serious alarms lest the extinction of the dynasty of Lorraine should be at hand." Much more of the same exulting nature passed upon this occasion, which terminated with these memorable words: "I desire nothing further upon the continent; I want ships, colonies, and commerce; and it is as much your interest as mine that I should have them."

In this manner was the ruin of the finest army which ever Austria brought into the field completed; and had Mack possessed ordinary talents and resolution, although it is probable

that the superiority of force, and still more, the ascendancy of talent, would have enabled Napoleon to conquer, he must have paid dearly for his advantage; and time might have been afforded to the Government of Austria to develop somewhat of that energy, which, in circumstances even yet more critical, enabled Maria Theresa to triumph over her enemies.

In Italy, many actions were fought in which the victory was obstinately contested. The Austrian forces in that quarter were commanded by the Archduke Charles; the French, by Massena. Slowly, and contesting every inch of ground, the Austrians withdrew their heroic commander, although constrained to retire under circumstances of great difficulty, conducted his retrograde movements with the greatest regularity, and with but trivial loss. He was not followed by Massena beyond the frontier of Carniola.

But whilst Napoleon, at the very commencement of the camhad exalted his military reputation to the zenith of glory, a purer, and therefore a brighter, splendor illumined the last moments of Nelson. The combined fleets which had escaped from Sir Robert Calder, in the vicinity of Ferrol, proceeded to Cadiz, where, united with the Spanish vessels in that harbour, they composed a force of 33 ships of the line. Lord Nelson having missed the enemy in the West Indies, and, on his return, searched for them in vain in the harbour of Cadiz, had proceeded to the north-west coast of Ireland, and finally to Portsmouth. His Lordship did not long remain in this country; but, on his arrival off Cadiz, received the command of the British Fleet from Lord Collingwood. He then practised a stratagem to allure the enemy from the harbour. In the face of day he detached Admiral Lewis, with 6 sail of the line, upon a separate service, thereby reducing his squadron to 20 sail of the line. Villeneuve fell into the snare, and in an evil hour for his country, sailed out of the harbour to offer battle on the 21st October. The action lasted four hours, but the spirit of Nelson seems to have animated every sailor in the fleet: the victory was glorious and decided, leaving in thé hands of the conquerors, 20 ships. The annals of naval war

fare do not record a more splendid achievement under such numerical disadvantages; but the price paid for the victory was deeply regretted. In Lord Nelson the country lost the phoenix of her defenders; in him was centered every great and exalted quality, the union of which constitutes an accomplished commander.

Sir Richard Strachan was the gleaner in this harvest of glory he captured four of the remaining ships, and the miserable wrecks of the combined squadron were placed for a long period hors de combat. Napoleon had incurred, or seemed to have incurred, the resentment of Prussia, by violating the neutrality of Anspach, when the army under Bernadotte traversed it in direct opposition to the strongest remonstrances of the Prussian administration.

The King of Prussia was at length prevailed on by the allies to do every thing they could desire, except to act! The fate of the war depended evidently upon his decision; but the ministers of that monarch seemed determined to sell the co-operation of their master to the highest bidder: they resolved to share the prey, keeping aloof from the combat. Napoleon, to provide for every extremity, had ordered the division under Augerau, to traverse France from Brest, and take up a position near the Lake of Constance, to watch the movements of the Prussians. Such was the relative situation of all parties, when Napoleon proceeded by rapid marches to the Inn.

The Austrian and Russian armies, which hardly amounted to 70,000 men, did not, indeed could not, offer any effectual opposition. The river being passed, the main body of the French marched with the utmost celerity on the road to Vienna, expelling the allies from every position they attempted to occupy, enfeebling them by successive losses of men, artillery, and baggage. Still no general action was fought, the allies being unwilling to hazard an encounter, the consequences of which might have been so irretrievably disastrous. Whilst Napoleon was thus driving his enemies before him on the left bank of the Danube, he detached a considerable force

to the right bank, with the design of anticipating the allies in their intended retreat upon Vienna; but the division was attacked by superior forces, and compelled to cross the river.

On the 11th November the advanced guard of the French army arrived before Vienna, which city obtained favourable terms from the victor. By a most dishonourable stratagem, Murat, pretending that an armistice was concluded, prevailed on the Austrians to spare the principal bridge, over which the army immediately passed in pursuit of the allies.

Having organized a provisional administration for Upper and Lower Austria, and made such arrangements for the security of his flanks and rear as circumstances would admit, Buonaparte quitted Vienna on the 15th November to rejoin the army which had marched into Moravia, whither the allies had retreated. At Hollebrunn, Murat and Lannes came up with the rear guard of the allies, and captured some baggage. It was now that Napoleon's own base stratagem was retorted upon himself. An aide-de-camp of the Emperor Alexander presented himself at the out-posts of the French army, and demanded time for the Russian army to separate from the Austrians and capitulate.

Murat was deceived; and the Russians gained all they wanted, time to enable them to retire in an orderly manner. The next day, however, they were attacked at Guntersdorff, and driven from the field with the loss of 2000 prisoners, 12 pieces of cannon, and some baggage waggons. Napoleon then removed to Brunn, the citadel of which capitulated; and now ensued a pause in the military operations. The reinforcements which the Russians expected, had joined them, and much diplomatic finesse was practised on both sides. Napoleon, understanding that the Emperor Alexander had arrived, sent General Savary to compliment him: that officer remained two days in the Russian camp. The observations which he made, determined the conduct of Napoleon; he affected a strong desire for peace, which he had before refused to the Emperor Francis, but upon insupportable conditions; retreated to some distance, took up a strong position in the rear, which he carefully for

tified, receiving Prince Dolgorucki, whom the Emperor Alexander had sent to him at the advanced guard. Briefly, every measure was adopted which could induce the allies to believe, that he shunned, because he dreaded, a battle.

On the other hand, the Russian army had neither provisions for the men, nor forage for the horses, neither had they any commander capable of opposing Napoleon. Necessity urged them to become the assailants; accordingly, on the 1st December they commenced an offensive movement, directing their march in separate columns, avowedly with the design of turning the flank of the French army: to this movement Napoleon made no opposition whatever; on the contrary, the cavalry under Murat retired, and at night the allies occupied a strong position in front of the French army, but separated from it by very difficult ground, which prevented an advance from that position in columns, preserving a continued connection with each other. The forces of the two armies were nearly equal, amounting, on both sides, to about 80,000 men; they were equal also in courage; in every other military quality the Russians were much inferior to the French army.

In the evening of 1st December, Napoleon issued a proclamation, in which he told the troops, that the Russian army, which they had before beaten at Hollebrunn, and which had then fled before them, had now ventured to return, in hopes of revenging the defeat of the Austrians at Ulm. This, however, he assured them would be in vain; for the French army now occupied so formidable a position, that if the allies dared to advance to the attack of the right, as seemed to be their intention, they must inevitably expose their flank to the French columns in that direction. As for himself, he promised to be every where, and to direct the movements of all the columns; at the same time pledging himself, that if victory should for a moment become doubtful, he would in person expose himself in the front of the battle. Victory, however, he considered so certain, that he pledged them his word, that this should be the last action of the campaign, after which a peace should follow, which would be worthy of France and of himself.