CHAP. XXXVI.

DISAPPOINTMENT OF BONAPARTE AT THE ESCAPE OF SIR JOHN MOORE HE LEAVES SPAIN TO MAKE WAR AGAINST AUSTRIA-HIS BEHAVIOUR TO THAT POWERCOMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR-BONAPARTE JOINS HIS ARMY-SEPARATES THE AUSTRIAN ARMIES, AND COMPLETELY DEFEATS THEM -TAKES VIENNA CROSSES THE DANUBE-REPULSED''AT ASPERN-HIS CRITICAL SITUATION-OUT-GENERALS THE ARCHDUKE CHARLESDEFEATS THE AUSTRIANS AT WAGRAM-SIGNS AN ARMISTICE CONCLUDES A PEACE AT PRESBURG -REFLECTIONS,

BONAPARTE having secured the capital of Spain, turned his hopes and attention to the capture of the army under Sir John Moore, who, he observed, was the only general in Spain worthy to cope with him. After employing every stratagem he could invent, in order to detain and entice the British general to advance in Spain, he suddenly left Madrid at the head of 40,000 men, while Soult and Junot were on the front and right flank of the British army, which did not exceed 27,000 men. But Sir John Moore perceived the dangers with which he was surrounded before it was too late, and with much activity and skill avoided the snare. Bonaparte pursued with great eagerness; but finding he could not come up with Sir John Moore, he gave up the pursuit, which he committed to three of his marshals, with orders to effect the destruction of the British. But the pursuit ended at Corunna, in the complete discomfiture of about 30,000 Frenchmen, elate with hope, by half the number of British soldiers, emaciated and feeble by the dreadful sufferings they had undergone in their retreat. But the native vigour of Britons sup

plied the want of refreshment and rest. The slaughter of the French was immense. England had, however, to lament the fall of the gallant Sir John Moore, and of many of his brave companions in arms.

When the French emperor found the British army had escaped, he conceived that there was no other object in Spain that required his presence. He therefore left the conquest of the peninsula to be completed by his armies, and returned to France in order to prepare for war with Austria.

It has always been the policy of Bonaparte to ruin the countries which he has conquered, and to whom he has granted peace, by slow degrees. He never fulfils the treaties he signs, and if complaint be made, it is answered by menace and insult. Austria had long suffered these insults; and even her neutrality during the war between France and the combined powers of Prussia and Russia, had excited no sentiments of gratitude in the breast of Bonaparte. He rather grew more haughty, more imperious, and more insulting to that court; with whom he evidently sought a quarrel, be demanding a free passage for his troops through Austria into Turkey, which he had determined to conquer, and by excluding the Austrian ambassador from his secret conference with Alexander at Erfurth. Having completed his arrangements for war, he demanded of Austria to disband her new Jevies, and to prevent the circulation of news respecting the Spanish war in his dominions, Austria had now no alternative except war or the surrender of her independence. She chose the former, and having appointed the Archduke Charles generalissimo, prepared for the contest.

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Information that the Austrians had crossed the Inn having been conveyed to Paris by the telegraph, Bonaparte left that city on the 12th of April, 1807, and arrived at Donawarth on the 17th, from which place he removed his head-quarters to Ingolstadt on the following day. Movements immediately began to take place among the French armies, while the

Austrians endeavoured to out-manoeuvre them at Landshut, and surprise them in their march towards Ratisbon.

On the 19th the Duke of Auerstadt advanced to the village of Pressing, where he met a division of the Austrian army; and an engagement immediately took place, which ended in the defeat of the latter. On the same day another French corps attacked an Austrian division in front, while the Bavarian troops under the command of the Duke of Dantzic fell upon their rear. The French, in this action, were equally successful. These, however, were partial and insignificant attacks, apparently commenced by the French generals for the purpose of preparing the way for a general engagement, and of trying the steadiness and courage of their German allies. Bonaparte, during the few days he had been with his army, had made himself completely acquainted with its position; with the situation of the country; the advan→ tages it afforded for offensive warfare, and the particular mode of attack which a regard to that situation, and a quick perception of the blunders of his enemy, pointed out.

The Archduke Louis and General Keller had very imprudently drawn their divisions to such a distance from the other corps of the Austrian army, that they at once presented a weak point of attack to the French, cut themselves off from all support, and exposed the troops under the Archduke Charles to destruction or disorder. Bonaparte immediately perceived this mistake, and resolved to profit by it. While the adjoining corps of the Austrians, who, from their situation, were most likely to support the Archduke Louis, were kept in check by the Duke of Auerstadt, he himself, at the head of the troops of Bavaria and Wirtemburg, assisted by two French divisions, attacked the archduke's corps in front. At the same time the communication of this corps, was completely cut off by a manoeuvre of the Duke of Rivoli, who, passing by Freyberg, proceeded to the rear of the Austrian army.

As the imperial guards were not yet arrived from Spain, Bonaparte assigned the post of honour to the troops of Bava

ria and Wirtemburg. He placed himself at their head, and before he commenced the attack, he addressed them in a long speech through the Prince royal of Bavaria. He reminded the Bavarians of the ancient enmity between their country and Austria;-he recapitulated the wrongs they had suffered from that country, and the haughty and tyrannical behaviour which, in the days of her power and prosperity, she had displayed towards their ancestors. They now had their revenge: they were about to experience the high and proud fate of punishing the insults and injuries offered to their forefathers, and of raising their native land above its ancient and implacable foe. To the soldiers of Wirtemburg he spoke a different language: Austria had already suffered from their courage when they hed served in the Prussian army, they had found her not invincible, they had themselves contributed in no mean degree to her defeat. He made them recollect the last campaign in Silesia; there they had met and conquered the foe, against whom he was now going to lead them. He assured them all that they possessed his confidence; and he did not doubt they would this day prove they deserved it, by driving the Austrians before them, and carrying the war into their territory.

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Amidst the enthusiasm and eagerness to distinguish them selves, which this speech inspired, Bonaparte gave the signal for battle. A brigade of light infantry, two battalions of horse artillery, and nearly the whole of the cavalry commenced the attack: the Austrians having taken up their position on very broken and intersected ground, were quickly dislodged the infantry, chiefly composed of the troops of Wirtemburg and Bavaria, formed in column, completed the defeat of the Austrians: compelled on all sides to fall back,. they retreated with great rapidity, and in no small 'confusion. In this battle the French took eight standards, 12 pieces of cannon, and 18,000 prisoners.

The flank of the Austrian army having been completely Inid open by the battle Ebensberg, Bonaparte, pursuing his

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victory, pushed immediately forward to Landshut. Austrian cavalry, having formed before the city, were attacked and driven back by the Duke of Istria; the same fate attended the Austrian infantry, who endeavoured to defend 'the bridge the French grenadiers advanced on the charge: the Austrians having set fire to the bridge, which was of wood, retreated into the town, whither they were pursued by the enemy: the town was taken, and along with it 30 pieces of cannon, 9000 prisoners, and the hospitals and magazines which the Austrians had established there.

In the mean time the main Austrian army, under the immediate command of the Archduke Charles, having made a rapid descent upon the Danube, in conjunction with the Bohemian army under General Kollowarth, entered Ratisbon, and took prisoners 1000 French, who had been left to guard the bridge at that place. Immediately afterwards he crossed to the right bank of the Danube, and occupied the very position in which his brother the Archduke Louis had been beaten on the 20th. This movement disconcerted Bonaparte: it compelled him to leave the bank of the Iser, and to measure back towards the Danube, leaving the dukes of Auerstadt and Dantzic to hold in check the remains of the Austrian army which he had just defeated. Sensible of the necessity of the most rapid movement, in order to put an immediate stop to the progress of the Archduke Charles, Bonaparte marched with such celerity, that at two o'clock on the 22d of April he arrived opposite Eckmuhl, where the four corps of the Austrian army, amounting to 110,000 men, were posted. Never before had these two chiefs been opposed to each other; neither of them had ever experienced a defeat. In each had their respective armies the utmost confidence: perhaps the remembrance of all that Bonaparte had achieved inspired more confidence into the army he commanded than was felt by the Austrian army in their general; but the Austrians did not barely confide in their commander; they remembered not merely the victories he had gained, but the virtues he had