treachery. England had thence to contend with the fleets of France and Spain united, an alliance which inspired Bonaparte with great hopes. But In the spring of 1805, whilst the clouds of hostility were gathering against him from the north, Bonaparte took a journey to Milan, in order to exchange his title of president of the Cisalpine republic for that of king of Italy. Here, received with enthusiasm, he placed upon his own head, in great ceremony, he crown of Charlemagne, called iron, from a nail of the true cross which it contains. "God gave it me," exclaimed he; beware who dares to touch it." He ordered a splendid review to take place on the plains of Marengo, and, to mark his attention to minutiæ, he had brought from Paris the same gray frock-coat which he had worn at that memorable battle. the general's habit had lain by since he had donned the imperial mantle, and worms had eaten it. Genoa, of late the Ligurian republic, was now, by a stroke of the pen, incorporated with the empire of France. This formed one of the complaints of Austria, then pressed by England and Russia to coalesce with them, and arm. But Bonaparte had acquired the habit of filching towns, and adding territory to territory. It was incurable and inevitable; and his amazement was, that people could find fault with a thing so natural. His object in seizing Genoa is announced in one of his letters to Le Brun, whom he appointed governor. That amiable man had mitigated his stern orders to press the naval popuation of the port. The emperor wrote him the following reprimand:* . "In uniting Genoa to the empire, I was induced neither by the revenue, nor by the land forces she might contribute. I had but one object in view, viz. 15,000 seamen. It is then going against the very spirit of my feeling to be lenient or backward in raising and levying this force. You are too mild, too merciful. How can you govern people without disconenting them? What would you do, if you were charged with forcing the conscripts of a couple of French departments to march to the army? I tell you, that in matters of government, force means justice as well as virtue. As to discontent of the Genoese, I am not the man to listen to such remonstrances. Think you I am decrepit enough to fear them. My answer is, Seamen, seamen, and still seamen. Govern but * See "Opinions et Ecrits Politiques" of the late duc de Plaisance, edited and published by his son. t † "Vous savez bien qu'en fait de gouvernement justice veut dire force comme vertu." What an apt motto for the man, and for his reign! 1805. NAVAL ENCOUNTERS. to collect seamen-dream but of them. from me, but say that I will have seamen. his holy guard! 191 Say what you will This most characteristic letter shows the reliance he placed on a naval struggle, and his hopes of so weakening, if not vanquishing, England by sea, as to render his project of invasion possible. It was now that he formed the project of distracting the attention of England, and scattering her fleets, by dispatching his in different directions, some to the West Indies, some to the ports of Spain, in order to effect an union betwixt all, and form a naval force capable of giving battle to the British with great superiority of numbers. The progress of fleets, however, could not be ordered or calculated in the cabinet or over a chart. A hundred chances were against the execution of a scheme which at best was almost hopeless. For in naval actions betwixt French and English, as in land battles betwixt French and Austrians, numbers served to increase the disorder and rout of the unskilful combatant. This was soon proved. The French squadron of twenty vessels, which had gone round by the West Indies to the chosen rendezvous in the Channel, fell in on its return with a much inferior British force under Sir Robert Calder. The French, were, nevertheless, defeated; and the English admiral, instead of meeting with approbation for his victory, was severely reprimanded at home for not annihilating the superior numbers of the foe. Napoleon himself was in the mean time at Boulogne, facing England, indeed, and menacing her with invasion; but with his looks all the time directed to the east and north of Europe. He was not in the least ignorant of the coalition, or the war brewing against him; and although his tent was pitched on the heights of Boulogne, the map upon that tent-table, the object of his meditation, was the map of Austria. Even before he took the journey to Milan, he told Bourrienne, in sending him envoy to Hamburgh,—“ Go, I have views with respect to Germany, in furthering which you may be useful. It is there I intend to strike England. I must deprive her of the continent. I have larger ideas on this point; though they are not yet ripe. There is not enough of similitude amongst the nations of Europe. European society has need of being regenerated; and to accomplish this, there is need of one power superior and dominant over all others, to be a bond of union, and to constrain them to peace amongst each other." Such were the theories with which Napoleon veiled his ambition. Some men have dreamed and insisted on the necessity of uniting the several governments of Italy under one monarch, one despot if requisite, in order to give that unhappy land union and independence, preparatory to liberty. Bonaparte applied the scheme to Europe; but with no such generous aim. His ideas were at any rate turned towards warring upon the continent, at the same time that he remained with his army at Boulogne. A conversation of his with Bourrienne displays his real opinions on this subject. "Those who believe in the seriousness of my menace of invasion are tools. They do not see the thing in its true light. I can, without doubt, disembark in England with 100,000 men, fight a great battle, win it; but I must reckon on 30,000 killed, wounded, or prisoners. If I march upon London, a second oattle awaits me; suppose me again successful, what am I to do in London with an army diminished by three fourths, without hope of reinforcements? It would be madness. Without superiority of naval force, such a project is impracticable. No: this great reunion of troops, that you behold, has another aim. My government must be the first of Europe, or it must fall." However hostile were the intentions of Napoleon towards the still independent powers of Europe, these anticipated him in declaring war. In April, 1805, an alliance was concluded hetwixt Russia and England. Hanover and Naples were to be the points, to the liberating of which their armies were to be directed. Sweden joined the alliance. Prussia approved its spirit, but those of its ministers in the French interest prevailed, and preserved the neutrality. Austria was more inclined to redeem her defeats. The coronation of the French emperor as king of the Italian dominions, which she at least expected to have been left independent, alarmed Austria and gave her a right to arm. The occupation of Genoa enforced both. The British envoy was ready with offers of subsidy, the Russians with the aid of large armies, of those troops which had, under Suwarrow, driven the French from Italy. One eminent personage alone opposed war at the Austrian court; this was the archduke Charles. He saw the peril, but was not listened to. He accordingly left the war-department where he presided, and the proposals of England and Russia for a third coalition were accepted. These negotiations did not long remain a secret from Napoleon, who in vain endeavored to bring either Russia to an alliance or Austria to terms. He then turned to and secured Bavaria by a promise of aggrandizing her territory, and of himself making no acquisition beyond the Rhine. Austria in the mean time advanced her troops, and peremptorily demanded of the elector of Bavaria to unite with her. He 1805. AUSTRIA BEGINS WAR. 193 temporized; practised some deceit, and succeeded in excusing himself, and drawing off his army. The Austrians occ pied Munich. Here was the aggression that Napoleon desired; for, with out some such pretext, he feared the shame of abandoning the vaunted expedition against England. Thus, whilst Pitt precipitated Austria to hostilities prematurely, ere her allies had put forth their strength, in order to remove the French from Boulogne, he precisely served the purpose of Bonaparte. This last blunder of the English minister, with its unfortunate consequences, gave the destructive blow that put an end to his life. Napoleon affected great disappointment in abandoning his scheme of invasion, called Daru, and dictated to him at a breath the entire plan of a campaign against Austria, the march of each division, its route, the time of the arrival of each, and the point of junction. This seemed like magic and improvisation to Daru, being nevertheless the result of long and mature reflection. The several divisions instantly decamped from Boulogne, taking different directions to the Rhine. The emperor hurried to Paris, and obtained from his obsequious senate the decrees necessary for carrying on the war. The command of the advanced Austrian army was, as if by fatuity, intrusted to Mack, that pedantic tactician, who could not defend Rome with an army against a few thousand men under Championnet. He took post at Ulm, thinking that Bonaparte must necessarily take the same road which Moreau had taken. On the contrary, the French emperor divided his numerous force into seven corps, the greater number of which were ordered to march to the Danube, and cross it behind Mack. Another was to advance by the Black Forest to deceive the Austrians. Bernadotte was to rally the Bavarian army, whilst the main body gathered at Stuttgardt. Thus Mack, with 80,000 men, was advanced far from all support, whilst nearly 200,000 were marching to surround him. The French were in his rear ere he dreamed of it. Retreat was impossible. All that remained was to unite the Austrian army, and fall with its whole mass on one or two of the French corps. But, no-Mack scattered his troops round Ulm. On one road Murat met twelve battalions of Austrian renadiers, with a select body of cavalry. His numbers allowed him to surround them. Formed in a square, these brave men fought for two hours, until they were broken, slain, or taken. A similar affair took place at Guntzburg. And at length, even upon points where the Austrians were superior, their want of confidence lost them the advantage. Dupont checked them on one side; Ney on the other. The latter achieved a brilliant feat in carrying the bridge of Elchingen, at the third assault; the name was Ney's first title. Beaten in on every side, Mack was shut up with the remains of his army in the town of Ulm. The French occupied all the heights around; and Mack had nothing left but to capitulate. The general De Segur, sent to demand his submission, found nothing but disorder, and the brain of Mack in similar con. fusion. The latter had no clear idea of the state of things, till the French themselves informed him. He did not even know that Napoleon was his antagonist. He began by demanding "eight days' truce or death," and concluded by surrendering immediately. Never was so bewildered a person. Bonaparte himself was ashamed of the imbecility of his antagonist, and endeavored to remove this general impression by treating Mack and his officers with marked respect. An imperial bulletin now announced "Soldiers, in fifteen days we have made a campaign, driven the Austrians from Bavaria; of 100,000 men, 60,000 are prisoners. Two hundred pieces of cannon, 80 stand of colors, are our trophies. A second campaign awaits us. We have to combat the Russians, whom England has transported from the ends of the universe. This battle will decide the honor of the French infantry, and will tell if it be the first or the second in Europe." Whilst Bonaparte thus addressed his soldiers in words of triumph, his discourse to the Austrian generals, who were prisoners, betrayed that it was triumphs on another field and over another nation that he most desired. "Tell your master," said he, “to hasten to make peace. I want nothing on the continent. It is colonies, vessels, commerce, that I want. My conquest of them would be advantageous to me as to you.' These words were spoken on the 20th of October, the day of the surrender of Ulm. On the day after, the 21st, was fought the battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson, annihilating the fleets of Spain and France, bequeathed to Bonaparte the cruel certainty, that, if invincible on land, his great rival was equally so upon the ocean. After reconducting his ally of Bavaria to his capital, Bonaparte now advanced into Austria, his lieutenants driving all before them as they advanced. The French emperor crossed the Rhine on the 1st of October; on the 20th, Mack and his army were prisoners. On the 15th of November, Napoleon made his entry into Vienna. The Austrian emperor and his troops had retired into Moravia; for the Russians, whom Mack had expected at Ulm, were only now at Brunn. Had the war |
