the officers of his staff, commanded the reserve, which was composed of the ten battalions of the imperial guard, and the ten battalions of the grenadiers of Oudinot, with forty pieces of cannon.

At sun-rise (it was a fine autumnal day) the battle began. Bonaparte rode along the front of his army, and by his language and gestures encouraged and animated his troops. The soldiers, elevating their hats upon the points of their bayonets, answered in loud shouts, Long live the emperor !" At the same instant a firing was heard upon the right, Russians, in attempting to turn the enemy's flank, had been unexpectedly opposed and stopped by the corps under Marshal Davoust, which had marched for that purpose to Ragern.

The

Opposite the right wing of the Flench army were situated the village and heights of Pratzen. This position was of the utmost importance in the present situation of the two armies. It formed a communication between the centre of the Russians and the division which had marched to the left. It was evident, therefore, that if the French could make themselves master of Pratzen, this division would be cut off, the main army taken in flank, and the event of the day be at once decided. Accordingly the first operations of the French were directed against Pratzen, and the whole of the right wing under Marshal Soult advanced in two columns towards that position. It happened that a column of Russians had just marched from Pratzen toward the right of the French army, and another column was advancing to occupy the position from which the former had withdrawn, when the French suddenly appeared. The Russians were confounded; they expected to have been the assailants, and they found themselves unexpectedly attacked in the midst of their movements. The object of the French was apparent; and General Kutusow, sensible of its importance, commanded the advanced guard of the fourth Russian column immediately to occupy the heights. At the same moment a third column of the French, forming a part of the centre, advanced towards the right of Pratzen.

The attention and force of the Russians were divided.

In the

mean time Marshal Soult continued to advance, and, overpowering by the immense superiority of his force the troops which were opposed to him, made himself master of the heights. The Russian division which had marched to the left was thus completely seperated from the main army. It was evident that the battle was lost unless the communication could be restored. In this emergency the imperial guard, commanded by the archduke Constantine, was ordered to advance. It fell with great fury upon a battalion of the French, which was instantly routed. Marshal Bessieres was ordered to hasten at the head of the French guards to repair this disaster. The two corps were soon engaged: the fate of the day depended upon the issue of this contest; and the struggle was fierce and desperate. The Russians were at length broken, several of the guard, and among the rest prince Repnin, were taken prisoners, and great numbers were left dead upon the field.

As soon as Marshal Soult found himself in secure possession of the heights of Pratzen, he directed his attention towards the left division of the Russians. This corps was now opposed in front by Marshal Davoust, on the left by General Gudin, and by the troops under Marshal Soult upon the right. In this situation the Russians attempted to retire. They were pursued and closely pressed by Bonaparte, and several partial actions took place. But every hour added to their perplexity. Several detached corps were already cut off: they had been compelled to abandon a great part of their artillery; and their situation, thus removed from the main army, was wholly without resource. The confusion incidental to snch circumstances gradually increased, and their retreat, at first conducted with some regularity, was at length converted into a general and disorderly flight. The French relate that great numbers were drowned in attempting to pass the ice which covered the lakes, in the neighbourhood of the field of battle. Many were slain in the pursuit; and the

rest laid down their arms, and were made prisoners of war. In the mean time the main army was engaged with the centre and left wing of the French, commanded by marshals Bernadotte and Lannes. But the allies fought to great disadvantage. By the separation of the Russian division, their left flank was exposed without defence to the attack of the enemy; and they were disconcerted and discouraged by the unexpected failure of their plans. Notwithstanding these difficulties, the troops displayed great gallantry and spirit; but at length, after a long and obstinate contest, the allies gradually retired, leaving Bonaparte in the undisputed possession of the field.

The loss in this engagement fell principally upon the Russians, and is said by the French to have amounted to twentytwo thousand in killed and wounded, and twenty thousand prisoners. In opposition, however, to this statement, it is asserted in the official account afterwards published at St. Petersburg, that the entire loss in the campaign did not exceed on the part of the Russians 17,000 men. The two commanders, Kutusow and Buxhovden, with several other generals, and a great number of officers of all ranks, were wounded; several were among the slain, and many were taken prisoners. One hundred pieces of cannon and forty-five standards fell into the hands of the enemy.

This battle, which was styled by the French soldiers the battle of the three emperors,' terminated the campaign and the war. On the 4th, two days after the engagement, an interview took place at the French advanced posts between Bonaparte and the emperor of Austria, and an armistice was agreed upon, in which it was stipulated that the Russian army should, within a limited time, withdraw from the territories of Austria. General Savary, aid-de-camp to Bonaparte, was immediately sent to the head-quarters of the Russians. The French relate that he found the Russian army in great disorder, and without either artillery or baggage. He was in troduced to the emperor, and presented the terms of the ar

mistice. Alexander acceded to this convention, and messengers were accordingly dispatched to Marshal Davoust, and the other divisions of the French army, with orders that they should halt in the positions which they respectively occupied. Count Haugwitz, the Prussian ambassador, had arrived at Vienna on the 30th day of November, and shortly afterwards set out for the head quarters of the French army at Brunn. Bonaparte, in his conferences with this minister, expressed the warmest esteem and attachment for Prussia, and his earnest desire to preserve peace with that country. The fate of the war with the allied powers was already decided. The rapidity of these events had confounded the speculations of the cabinet of Berlin; Count Haugwitz saw the necessity of relaxing from his demands; and this dispute, which had promised such important consequences to Europe, was speedily adjusted. Bonaparte, with his usual policy and knowledge of the human heart, flattered the Prussian, and presented his master with such a boon as he foresaw would throw him completely into his arms, and render the Prussian monarch the object of general suspicion and aversion.

The armistice concluded in Moravia was followed by negociations for peace between Austria and France. Prince John of Lichtenstein, the Count de Guilay, and M. Talleyrand, the plenipotentiaries of the two powers, assembled for this purpose at Nicholsberg. The conferences, after a short time, were adjourned to the city of Presburg, and the conditions of a definitive treaty were soon settled. Bonaparte was in a situation to dictate terms to the emperor, and the latter had no alternative but to acquiesce. The provisions of this memorable treaty were of course sufficiently humiliating to Austria. It was agreed that the Venetian territory should be united in perpetuity to the kingdom of Italy:-that the royal title which had been assumed by the electors of Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, should be acknowledged by the emperor ;--that the margraviate of Burgau, the principality of Eichstadt,

the part of the territory of Passau belonging to the elector of Salzburg, the country of the Tyrol, comprehending the principalities of Brixen and Botzen, and the seven lordships of the Voralberg, the county of Hohenems, the county of Konigsegg, Rottensels, the lordships of Tetnay and Argen, and the town and territory of Lindau, should be ceded to the king of Bavaria ;-that the five cities of the Danube, to wit, Ehingen, Munderkengen, Rufflingen, Mengen, and Salgaw, with their dependencies, the city of Constance excepted, and a part of the Brisgaw, should be ceded to the king of Wurtemberg; and the remainder of the Brisgaw, and the Ortensaw, the city of Constance, and the commandery of Memau to the elector of Baden ;-that the king of Bavaria should be allowed to occupy the city of Augsburg, with its territory, and unite it to his other dominions, and that the king of Wurtemberg should be permitted to do the same with respect to the country of Borndoff. It was on the other hand stipulated in favour of the emperor, that the county of Satzburg, and of Berchtolsgaden, belonging to the archduke Ferdinand, should be incorporated with the Austrian empire; and Bonaparte engaged to procure as an equivalent for that prince the cession by the king of Bavaria of the principality of Wurtzburg. It was also agreed, in conformity with the declaration made by Bonaparte at the moment when he assumed the crown of Italy, that as soon as the parties named in that declaration should have fulfilled the conditions which it expressed, the crowns of France and Italy should be separated for ever, and should not in any case be united on the same head. It was further stipulated, that the prisoners of war, taken on both sides, should be restored within forty days from the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty ;-that in ten days from the same date, the armies of France and her allies should evacuate Moravia, Bohemia, the Vierrtel Under Vienner Wald, the Vier-Unter Manhartsberg, Hungary, and the whole of Styria; in the ten following days they should evacuate the Viertel Vienner Wald, and the Vierrtel Ober Manhartsberg; and that finally,