last article of this treaty was of very great military importance. It provided that, during the suspension of arms, neither of the armies should send detachments into Germany.

The proposal for the armistice was first made, as already intimated, by General Melas. Bonaparte's answer to the Austrian general's message, respecting terms, was remarkably laconic: "The Austrian army shall immediately retire within the line which it should occupy, according to the treaty of Campo-Formio." He immediately dispatched a messenger, with an offer of a general peace to the emperor, on the same basis.

While the treaty for an armistice was drawn up, Bonaparte prepared to return to Milan, in order to re-organize the Cisalpine republic. Before he set off, he sent General Melas a present of a Turkish sabre, brought from Egypt. Gen. Melas said, to the aid-de-camp who delivered it to him—“ I am sorry peace is so long delayed: I shall contribute my efforts to obtain it, that I may go and see Bonaparte at Paris. I would even go to see him in Egypt."

The prisoners made by the Austrians were restored on the 16th of June. Immediately after, Immediately after, the chief consul, escorted by a body of chasseurs, hastened to Milan, where he recognized and declared the Cisalpine republic to be a free and independent nation. He established a provisional administration, and a consulto for preparing for the republic a constitution and legislature, which he confided to Marliani, Sacchi, and Goffredo. He gave orders for respecting religion, and the property of all citizens without distinction. Citizens, who had fled from their country, were invited to return; with the exception of such as had

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used arms against the Cisalpine republic, after BOOK IV. the treaty of Campo-Formio. All sequestrations were taken off, whether placed upon property pos- CHAP. VI. sessed either under the title of ancient property, or in virtue of legal acquisition, under whatever pretext; and, on whatever occasion the said sequestrations might have been ordered. The citadel of Milan having agreed to surrender, the garrison, to the number of 4000, marched out with the honors of war. The full half of these being French and Piedmontese, came over to the French with arms and baggage, and colours flying. A magnificent Te Deum was celebrated in the cathedral of Milan, in gratitude for the success of the French arms, and particularly the triumphs of Bonaparte, the great patron and protector of religion. At this solemnity, amidst an immense number of people, the chief consul, General Berthier, and all his chief staff, were present.

Bonaparte, in a conference he had with the clergy at Milan, advised them to preach and practise the morality of Jesus Christ. In a sofemn speech, pronounced at Milan, he said, "that Lombardy and Liguria should form only one republic." In a letter to the other two consuls, (Cambeceres and Le Brun,) he said he attended Te Deum in Milan, "in spite of what the ATHEISTS, of Paris might say.

After Italy was re-conquered, by the quick passage of the Alps, the battle of Maringo, and the surrender of all the strong places in Lombardy, Piedmont, and Genoa, Berthier, as well as the first consul, returned to Paris, and Massena was succeeded in the command of the army by General Brune.

A DIVISION which took place in the cabinet of Vienna, proved, at this critical period, peculiarly unfavorable to the house of Austria. The Archduke Charles, whose courage and patriotism had rendered him extremely popular, perceiving he was thwarted in his plans, had determined to resign; and, as the chief effort was intended to be

made in Italy, Field-marshal Kray was left, with an ill-appointed army, to defend Germany.

For the purpose of effectually carrying on the combined campaign of Italy and Germany, it had been agreed upon between Bonaparte and Moreau, that the latter should, by a series of feigned attacks, occupy the attention of Generat

BOOK IV. Kray, strike terror into the heart of Germany, alarm the Austrians for the safety of the capital, CHAP. VII. and, at the same time, maintain a communication, and send seasonable reinforcements to the French 1800. army in Italy.

On the 25th of April, the French army crossed the Rhine in four great divisions, under their respective commanders, General St. Susanne, General St. Cyr, General Moreau, and General Lecourbe. The division under General St. Susanne advanced to Offenburgh, while General St. Cyr, who had crossed the Rhine at Old Britac, advanced to Fribourg. The manoeuvres of St. Cyr seemed to indicate an intention to form a junction with St. Susanne; and, of course, that the plan of Moreau was, to penetrate through the Black Mountains, by the valley of Kintsing, towards Donaweschingen. The movement of General St. Susanne, however, was only a feint, for he received orders, on the 27th, to return from Offenburgh to Kehl, and, marching up from thence along the banks of the Rhine, by forced marches, he arrived at Fribourg on the 30th of April. General St. Cyr, who had reached Fribourg without losing a man, pursued, meanwhile, that course of march which was necessary to form the junction of the whole army, between Shwetlingen and Schaffhausen, near the lake of Constance. The division under the immediate command of Moreau, crossed the Rhine at Basle, and proceeded, without any considerable opposition, to the point where the various divisions were to meet. General Lecourbe, with the division under his command, crossed the Rhine between Schaffhausen and Stein, and, after some fighting and making a great number of prisoners, the whole army, with the exception of the corps under Gen. St. Susanne, was assembled at, and in the environs of, Schaffhausen.

In the course of these various marches, the French took 1500 prisoners and six pieces of cannon. The division under Lecourbe likewise took, by capitulation, the castle of Hohenweil, in which there were eighty pieces of cannon. The great magazines of the Austrians were at Kampten, a town in Upper Suabia. The French general directing his march towards this point, with a view to cut off General Kray from his principal depôt, or, at least, in the mean time, to effect the main object of occupying the whole of his force and attention in Germany, drove all the Austrian advanced posts before him, and advanced to attack the imperialists at Stockach.

The masterly manoeuvres of Moreau had completely deceived General Kray, respecting the plan of attack meditated by the French. In an official account, published in the Vienna Court Gazette of the 3d of May, we find the general announcing the passage of the Rhine on the 25th; and that, in consequence of having foreseen this

manoeuvre, he had sent a great body of troops to prevent the French from following up their plan of extending themselves in the neighbourhood of Rastadt. He considered the feint made by Gen. Susanne's division as the main attack, and concentrated all his forces at Donaweschingen, at the moment when, under cover of that feint, Moreau was enabled, as just observed, to cross the Rhine, at a point which enabled him completely to turn the position of the Austrian army.

The consequences of Moreau's plan were immediate. General Kray was compelled to decamp precipitately from Donaweschingen, in order to oppose the progress of the French army, leaving in their hands, in abandoning his position at Donaweschingen, a great part of what is called the angle of Suabia. The Austrian magazines and stores were either conveyed away in haste, left behind, or destroyed. On the 3d of May, Gen. Susanne, with the left wing of the French, entered Donaweschingen, which had been evacuated by the Austrians, and pressed upon their rear; then stretching out his flanks, at the same time, to the main body of Moreau's army, they endeavoured to establish themselves in the lines of Stockach, in order to oppose the lines of the enemy. On the same day, a part of the French army attacked the post at Stockach. The force that defended it, under the orders of Prince Joseph of Lor raine, being too weak, was soon overpowered, and obliged to retreat, with considerable loss. The post at Engen was commanded by General Kray in person. He was attacked, May 4, by Moreau, who, in repeated charges, lost a great number of men. In the course of these conflicts, a body of the Austrian army, under the Archduke Ferdinand, in their retreat from Donaweschingen, were attacked, in their rear, by General Susanne's division, and nearly cut off.

The Archduke, on this occasion, displayed consummate personal bravery. By great exertions of judgment, and presence of mind, as well as valour, he was enabled to join the main army, General Kray maintained his post, and prevented the enemy from making any great impression, and kept the field during the night. But, at day-break, he thought it prudent to commence a retreat; which he had continued to the length of about fifteen miles, when he was again attacked, on the 5th, by General Moreau. Being ably assisted by Lecourbe, he made some impression on the Austrian battalions, notwithstanding their intrepid exertions; but, though superior in numbers, he did not think it proper to renew the combat on the following day. His loss was supposed to have been greater than that of General Kray. Mr. Wickham, the British narrator of these engagements, affirmed, in his dispatches, "that few prisoners were made on either side;" while Moreau asserted, that, in the two engage.

ments, the French made no less than about 10,000 prisoners. By all accounts, the loss on both sides must have been very great.

In this last action, denominated the battle of Maeskirch, the Bavarian subsidiaries fought with such spirit as excited the praise of their fellowcombatants. The Swiss regiment of Roverea also particularly distinguished itself.

Mr. Wickham reported, that, in the battle of Maeskirch, the French were repulsed. The Austrians, however, on the day after, (May 6,) retreated across the Danube to the ground between Sigmaringen and Reitlingen, a distance of at least fifteen miles farther.

The Austrians, in their retreat from Maeskirch, were pursued by a division of the French, under General Ney, who took 1500 prisoners. A very serious engagement was the consequence of an opportunity afforded to the French of attacking the Austrian advanced posts, on the 9th of May, at Biberach. The result of this battle was, that the Austrians were forced to retreat, with the loss of above 1000 killed on the spot, and above 2000 prisoners.

Another desperate engagement took place on the 11th, near Memingen. On the termination of this battle, General Moreau wrote, by the telegraph, to the French minister of war, as follows: The right wing of the army, commanded by General Lecourbe, attacked the enemy on the 21st of Floreal, (11th of May,) in their position at Memingen. They were completely beaten. Memingen has been taken, more than 2000 prisoners have been made, and a great number of dead were left on the field of battle." The accounts of the Austrians stated, that the advantage in this action was on their side. However this may be, General Kray, leaving a considerable body of troops, under General Mereveldt, to keep up the communication with General Reuss in the Voralberg, retreated to Ulm, for the protection of his magazines there. At Ulm he was joined by General Sztarray, with the troops under his command, and 6000 Bavarian and Wirtemburg auxiliaries, under the orders of the Baron de DeuxPonts. The main body of the imperial army was posted at Phuel, half a league from Ulm.-This city had a garrison of 10,000 men, commanded by General Petrarsch and Major Davidovich. General Sztarray, with additional troops, raised the number of the garrison, which came under his command, to the number of 18,000. gates were guarded by the auxiliaries.

The

The French were also concentrated on the territory of the imperial city of Ulm, near Rheineck, little more than a league from Ulm. In this situation of the two armies, it seemed that the French were desirous of giving battle to General Kray, who, on the other hand, was anxious to avoid it, until the reinforcements promised, and

1800.

part of which were on their way, should arrive BOOK IV. from Austria. Six battalions of infantry, of the garrison of Vienna, were on their march, and to CHAP. VII. be followed by six more, and five squadrons of cuirassiers. The garrisons of the cities in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, were repairing partly to the Danube, and partly to the Adige, on each of which rivers there was to be formed a body of reserve. As no inviting circumstances for an attack were presented to either party, both generals contented themselves with mutual observation, while terror and consternation prevailed throughout the circle of Suabia.

But this state of inaction and repose, while it amused the Austrians with the hope of succours, was still more advantageous to the cause of the invaders, who laid the whole of Franconia and Suabia under severe contribution, intercepted the supplies, and took or destroyed not a few of the Austrian magazines, supported themselves at the expence of the Germans, kept the grand Austrian army in check, and on a constant alert, and prevented General Kray from sending any considerable detachment to Italy.

In the mean time, the plan of co-operation, concerted between Bonaparte and Moreau, began to be pretty clearly developed. While Moreau still made a shew of directing the main force of his army to the countries on the left bank of the Rhine, he began to detach part of his troops towards the Lake of Constance: whither he afterwards withdrew with the main body, with an intention to remain on the defensive, and favor, as much as possible, the operation of the campaign in Italy.

General St. Susanne, with the division of the French army under his command, had always remained on the left bank of the Danube, in the neighbourhood of Geisligen, which was his headquarters. While the attention of the Austrians was occupied by a great deal of manœuvring and skirmishing in that quarter, and other demonstrations of a design to penetrate into the heart of Germany, and to the capital, he stretched off, by degrees, along the course of the Iller, by Memingen and Kampten, to the Lake of Constance. By cutting off Prince Reuss from General Kray, and keeping the commander-in-chief so long in check, he had already enabled divisions or detachments, from his army, to get possession of Augsburgh, Lindau, Bregentz, Fieldkirk, and other posts, which might be considered as the keys of the Grisons and the Tyrole, through which countries it would now be in his power to communicate with Bonaparte, by this time descending from the summit of the Alps into the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy.

For nearly two months, Moreau had sought nothing farther than to amuse General Kray by marches and counter-marches, by threatened

BOOK IV. sieges, and sham iruptions, to alarm the Austrians for the safety of the hereditary states, and prevent CHAP. VII. them from paying any attention to the affairs of Italy. After the battle of Maringo, he was at 1800. liberty to act with more enterprise and vigour. The armistice in Italy did not extend to Germany; and the last, and one of the most important articles in the convention, as before observed, prevented either party from sending detachments to that quarter. This condition was evidently in favor of the Austrians; but there were other circumstances equally encouraging to the French commander.

A small body of men remained organized at Dijon, after the departure of Bonaparte, and its numbers had been since very considerably increased. This body had already made a movement from Dijon towards a point from whence it could go to the assistance of either army, and now it received orders to repair to the banks of the Iller; and the success of Bonaparte's enterprise raised the spirits of Frenchmen to an enthusiasm which nothing could withstand, that was not in its nature impossible. The victories, the. conquests, and the positions of the French at this time, were indeed such as might have inspired a less sanguine and volatile nation with confidence. Switzerland was in their hands, and formed a most important point of communication between the armies in Italy and Suabia. They were in possession of both sides of the Lake of Constance. All Suabia was in their hands. A corps of troops, in Switzerland, was ready to attack the Grisons. A detachment of 25,000 men, from the Milanese, was marching through the Valtelline for the same purpose. The right wing of Moreau's army threatened the Austrian positions in the Tyrole, upon the north-west: in a word, the French armies, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Danube, and even the Lower Rhine, formed but one compact force, without any points to interrupt their correspondence, and without any obstacle to their entire co-operation. On the whole, General Moreau, being now without any aların for the army of reserve, or any restraint imposed upon his operations, by a concern for its preservation, but, on the contrary, strengthened by its co-operation on the side of the Grisons and the Tyrolese, was at liberty to display his military skill. He prepared to cross the Danube, and, if possible, to bring General Kray to a decisive action. For this last purpose, on the 18th of June, he sent the right wing of his army, under Lecourbe, over the river below Ulm, between Villingen and the celebrated village of Blenheim: by this movement, threatening to cut off General Kray from his magazines at Donawert and Ratisbon, as well as from his expected reinforcements. The main body crossed at a point nearer to Ulm.

In a letter addressed to the chief consul, bearing date the 22d of June, Moreau explained his reasons for thus acting: "He had observed that the Austrian army kept close to his camp at Ulm, which gave it the advantage of easy openings on both sides of the Danube, while it consequently prevented the French from making any considerable progress in Germany. General Moreau had made a movement, in order to induce the enemy to give battle near Blaubeuven, which he declined. Fearing that General Kray might avail himself of that movement, in order to advance upon Memingen, connect himself with the Tyrole, and send down a corps of troops into Italy, that might have very much embarrassed the chief consul, he determined to make General Lecourbe execute several manœuvres on the Leck, in the hopes that he should thereby force General Kray to march to protect Bavaria; but he continued to manœuvre in the French rear. Imagining that an opportunity was presented of gaining a con-siderable advantage, he made an attack on Moreau's left wing, on the 5th of June; but was so. bravely opposed by General Richepanse and other officers, that he was obliged to retreat with precipitation, and re-pass the Danube. General Moreau then formed the project of compelling him to withdraw, or come to a battle."

In the execution of this design, a series of ac tions took place for four successive days, on the famous plains of Blenheim or Hockstat; in which the Austrians lost, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, not less than 5 or 6000 men; and the French, at least, as was computed, half that numher. The Austrian divisions, under the Generals Sztarray and Nauendorf, being cut off from the main army, General Kray was reduced to the necessity of leaving Ulm to the protection of a garrison. The blockade of Ulm was now carried on by General Richepanse. General Kray, after several very severe actions on the left side of the Danube, retreated, with his reduced army, to Ingolstadt.

To give a detailed account of all the manœuvres and actions, through which the French. crossed the Rhine, established themselves on the left bank, and drove the main Austrian army from their entrenched camp, near Ulm, would be both tedious and uninteresting. One circumstance we shall notice, as curious in itself, and characteristic of that courage and genius which was displayed by the French in this campaign, and throughout the whole of the war.

The passage of the Rhine was both difficult and dangerous, as the French had neither bridges nor boats, the Austrians having destroyed the former and sunk the latter. After several actions, on the 18th of June, in which the Austrians were compelled to fall back upon Ulm, General Lecourbe made several demon

strations on that day, on the bridge of Villengen: but, in consequence of the reports made by his reconnoitring parties, he determined seriously to attempt the bridges of Grensheim, Blenheim, and Hockstadt. Eighty naked swimmers, to be armed with muskets and knapsacks, which were sent after them in two small boats, took_possession of the villages of Grensheim and Blenheim, and made themselves masters of some

of cannon, which were manned by artillerymen, who had passed over on ladders placed on the wrecks of the bridge. All of them maintained their positions with extraordinary courage, while a number of miners and bridge-builders were employed, under the enemy's tire, in repairing the bridges, over which a force was sent to oppose the reinforcements which the enemy were marching towards the points where the object of the attack could be no longer doubtful. The 94th demi-brigade passed over after the swimmers, and boldly supported themselves until other parties came to assist them. After the retreat of the Austrian main army from Ulin, General Moreau took possession of Munich, and laid the Bavarian territories under heavy contributions. The elector was compelled to pay to Moreau a great part of the subsidy of 500,0001. which he had received from Great Britain. After the retreat of the Austrian army from Suabia, the French also took possession of the principal places in the duchy of Wurtemburg, which, as well as Bavaria, was laid under severe contribution, and treated altogether as an enemy's country. The Duke and Duchess of Wurtemburg, with their family and suite, retired to Anspach. The French at the same time, by the occupation of Ell-Wangen, became masters of the whole electorate of Treves.

In the mean time, the division under General Lecourbe drove the Austrians from Coire and the whole of the country of the Grisons. Thus General Moreau, by transferring the seat of the war to the frontiers of Austria, and by pressing closer and closer on the flank and rear of the Austrians in the Tyrole, prepared the way for driving the imperialists out of that country, lest they should be altogether surrounded by the army under Moreau, and detachments from that of Bonaparte through the Valtelline. Still farther to aggravate the evil plight of the Austrians, an army of 30,000 strong, French and Bavarians, was on its march from the Lower to the Upper Rhine, and ready to pass by Mentz and Desseldorf into Franconia.

In these circumstances, the Austrians solicited an armistice, which, at the desire or advice of Bonaparte to Moreau, was, on the 15th of July, granted. This truce led to a negociation, which was conducted, on the part of the emperor, by Count St. Julien, who, on the 28th of July,

signed, at Paris, the preliminaries of peace on BOOK IV. the basis of the treaty of Campo Formio. On the part of the French, they were signed by the CHAP. VII. ininister for foreign affairs, the ex-bishop Talleyrand. 1800.

Such was the overbearing weight of those circumstances which induced the Austrian government to request a suspension of arms. The same circumstances urged the necessity of carrying the preliminaries into a definitive treaty of peace. A strong disposition to repel the aggressive and the intolerable oppression of the French, whose exactions were greater in this than they had been in any former campaign, began to manifest itself in all the hereditary states, particularly in Hungary; and the emperor, being pressed by the British court to accept fresh pecuniary supplies, had concluded a treaty on the 20th of June, by which he became indebted to Great Britain in the sum of 2,000,0007. sterling, not liable to interest before the expiration of six months from the adjustment of a peace between him and the French. It was also stipulated that the war should be carried on with all possible vigour : and, that neither party should conclude a peace that did not also comprehend the other. His imperial majesty, faithful to this engagement, endeavoured for some weeks to include the British nation in a treaty of general peace and a temporary correspondence was opened between the French government and the British court: but it was not productive of a formal negociation. The emperor, therefore, refused to ratify the preliminaries that had been signed by the Count St. Julien, alleging withal, that the count in that act had exceeded his powers.

The French government, towards the end of August, informed the generals of its armies, that the emperor having refused to subscribe to the conditions of the preliminaries of peace, which had been signed by his plenipotentiary at Paris, the government was under the necessity of continuing the war. The armistice was of course broken off, and would cease to have effect on the 7th of September at one in the afternoon. The general officers and chiefs of corps were instructed to profit by this interval, to pass the troops in review, and to dispose every thing in such a manner, that they might be able to march and fight as soon as they should receive orders.

The emperor also issued a proclamation, on the 6th of September, announcing the rupture of the armistice; which, he said, had been discontinued by the French, unexpectedly, and without cause. In order to give an incontrovertible proof to his own subjects, and to all Europe, how much he had their welfare and protection at heart, he had resolved to repair in person, with his royal brother the Archduke John, to his army in Germany. His imperial majesty de