216 UNACCOUNTABLE LETHARGY OF ARCHDUKE CHARLES. [A.D.

Clarapède, however, followed with 7,000 men in support of Coehorn, and Massena called up the divisions Legrand, Carra-St.-Cyr, and Boudet in haste, and placed batteries upon the most advantageous points to keep down the fire of the castle, which plunged its fire mercilessly into the little town; and now a frightful cannonade commenced on both sides, for General Hiller resolved to make a stubborn stand in this position. He first endeavoured to overwhelm Coehorn's advance, which he succeeded in stopping, when he re-entered the town of Ebensberg, driving the divisions Lesuire and Ficatier to take shelter in the houses. The artillery in the meantime set fire to the place, and the most dreadful carnage ensued among the assailants, both from the missiles and the flames. At this opportune moment General Legrand came up at the head of his division, and was literally obliged to order his soldiers to clear away the corpses of the fallen, and to throw them into the river, to enable him to move forward. Some one coming up to the General endeavoured to give him advice on the state of affairs. "Je n'ai pas besoin des conseils," said he, "mais de place pour ma division." He was at length enabled to release Clarapède's surviving men from their little prison, and, having cleared the town, boldly attacked the castle, under a fearful fire, and succeeded in forcing the gates. Lannes had been sent forward by the Emperor from Lambach the same morning to march upon Steyer, and the great mass of French cavalry, under General Durousel, having crossed at Wels, were now seen swarming across the plain. The Austrian commander, therefore, finding his left flank thus turned, ordered a retreat. Napoleon, hearing the noisy cannonade, immediately rode up to Massena in the midst of the fight, and was somewhat displeased at the attempt he had made to take the bull by the horns with an unnecessary waste of blood, seeing that he had already made his dispositions for turning the position of the Traun without any such necessity; but Massena proved him his just apprehensions from the troops of the Archduke on the side of the Danube, and that the principle of Hiller's defence showed that he could not have been driven off by a mere demonstration. The Emperor, therefore, was satisfied, and complimented him upon his bravery and the success of his measures. He would not, however, establish his head-quarters in a town where every imaginable stench and horror invaded the senses, but bivouacked outside in the midst of his guard. The loss on both sides, in this bloody affair, is placed at 5,000 men killed, burned, or wounded on the part of the French, and 7,000 on that of the Austrians. About 4,000 Austrians were made prisoners, many of whom were with guns and colours.

The Archduke all this time was marching leisurely through Bohemia, and had his head-quarters at Budweis when his lieutenant was gallantly endeavouring to stay the advance of Napoleon. The only hostile disposition he evidenced was the continued destruction of all the bridges over the Danube by his right wing. One point yet remained by which he could unite with Hiller to stop the march of the French army on the capital: this

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was at Krems, whither the Archduke Louis and Hiller now directed their steps, by Enns, Amstetten, and St. Polten, destroying the bridges over all the torrents descending from the Noric Alps on their march. The destruction of these bridges very much hindered the movements of the French, and it was accordingly the 7th before Napoleon established his head-quarters at the great Abbey of Mölk, upon the Danube, within a day's march of Krems. Still nothing stirred the Archduke Charles, who continued his abode at Budweis. At last, he set himself in motion and reached Zwettel, and there was even yet time for him to cross the Danube and occupy the Kahlenberg, a strong buttress of the Alps covering Vienna. But here also he allowed the French to take possession of the strong position of St. Polten, and therefore it was too late for him to cross the Danube, but still he might have ordered Hiller to get hold of the defile of Siegartskirchen, and here, at least, check for a time the French advance. Nevertheless, the only directions that issued from the Commander-in-Chief were an order to Kollowrath to effect a junction with the Archduke John and Jellalich, who were coming up with their divisions from the side of Italy, and the recall of Hiller's army to his own side of the Danube.

Napoleon accordingly took his own measures without any further opposition. He ordered the mass of his cavalry to advance by the lowlands on the side of the Danube, to watch the enemy on both banks; and that General Bruyère with a division of light troops, both infantry and cavalry, should flank the march on the right, and observe the passes of the Styrian mountains, keeping an eye upon the troops advancing out of Italy. Marshal Lannes opened the march on the 9th, followed by the corps of Marshal Massena and Marshal Davoust in succession, that the Emperor might be ready to oppose any attempts at recovering the means of communication across the Danube in his rear. Ever mindful and provident, Napoleon, at the Abbey of Mölk, ordered the most effectual measures to be adopted for bringing up, by the streams of the Danube, supplies of every kind, as well for the rank and file as for the transport of the sick and fatigued among his soldiers. He also established pontoon bridges at Lintz and Krems, so that if requisite he might, from his side, pass the Danube, to the disquiet or annoyance of the enemy, should it enter into his future plans to make a movement into Bohemia. On the 9th Oudinot took possession of Sieghartskirchen, and Napoleon, surrounded by his guard, proceeding with the advance, arrived at the very suburb of Maria Hilf. The young Archduke Maximilian was placed in command of the armed posse-comitatus of Vienna, which, with the landwehr and a few regulars, constituted a garrison of 11,000 or 12,000 men; but nothing could less merit the name of garrison, if it were considered in the light of a protection for the capital. A summons, sent in on the 10th, was insulted and illtreated by the commonalty; but a Captain Roidot, marching forward, daringly escaladed the iron gate of the enceinte, sword in hand, and opened a way for Colbert's cavalry to enter the city at a gallop, followed by a division of the infantry under General Tharreau, who

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THE FRENCH IN POSSESSION OF VIENNA.

[A.D.

was wounded in attempting to cross the esplanade. Napoleon, seeing that there might yet be some resistance, appointed General Andreossy governor of Vienna, and issued an assuring proclamation to the inhabitants dated from the palace of Schönbrunn, where he now established his head-quarters. It was one month exactly, to a day, since the Austrian army had passed the Inn to invade Bavaria.

A deputation from the city now came to implore the clemency of Napoleon, who referred them to the Archduke Maximilian; for, notwithstanding the exertions of Andreossy, the "old town" seemed resolved to hold out, and to animate the defence the inhabitants were reminded of the famous siege of Vienna by the Turks, and of the more recent defences of Zaragoza by the Spaniards. Napoleon therefore mounted his horse on the morning of the 11th, and reconnoitred the military defences of the city from the outside. He observed that by attacking from the side of the famous promenade of the Prater he could cut off the garrison from the side of the Danube and the bridge of Thabor, and oblige the Archduke to capitulate. He immediately ordered the construction of a battery of 20 howitzers to play upon the Landstrass, and at nightfall a heavy fire of shell was opened on the city, which set fire to it in several places. The besiegers sent out two battalions to spike the battery, but in vain, and accordingly the Archduke, leaving General Oreilly to make the best terms he could for the inhabitants, quitted the city on the morning of the 12th, and destroyed the bridge of Thabor, by which he crossed the Danube to unite himself at Arnspitz with the troops of General Hiller.

The French army took possession of Vienna on the 13th, and the divisions St. Hilaire, Davoust, Oudinot, Boudet, Carra-St.-Cyr, Molitor, Le Grand, with the guard, and the Marshals Massena, Lannes, and Bessières took up their quarters in the city. Marshal Davoust was sent back to Saint Polten with his corps of 30,000 men, to be prepared for any movement from the rear from Krems, and General Vandamme with 10,000 Würtembergers was left in a tête du pont at Lintz to watch and report upon the state of affairs at Bohemia. A corps of Saxons under Marshal Bernadotte had been ordered up to join the main army, and had marched along the confines of Bohemia to Ratisbon, whence they might now be expected to arrive to relieve these two detachments, who might then be brought to Vienna to strengthen the army which might have to oppose itself to 90,000 men in close observation at a short distance of the capital of Germany. Napoleon ordered the troops left in garrison at Ratisbon, Passau, and Lintz to occupy their time ir the construction of strong defences, and sent them a considerable artillery, and supplies of all kinds, for the maintenance of their principal communications, while he directed forts to be erected at Ips, Waldsee, Mölk, and Mautern. It is well said by M. Thiers of Napoleon regarding these precautions: "Car ce capitaine qui, dans la politique avait l'imprudence de ne jamais supposer la mauvais fortune, la supposait toujours à la guerre, et se precautionnait admirablement contre elle."

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Napoleon was equally mindful of his right flank; for, although Marshal Lefebvre had been sent with 24,000 Bavarians to hold the Tyrol, yet there were apprehensions that the Archduke John would be called up from Italy to defend the existence of the Austrian monarchy. General Bruyère was sent with 3,000 troops to Baden, on the Styrian frontier, to speak words of peace to the German mountaineers, and 1,000 horsemen, under Lauriston, an aide-de-camp of the Emperor, were now sent to Marianzell, while Napoleon employed his numerous cavalry by sending Generals Montbrun, Colbert, and Marulaz, with all their forces, to Neustadt, Bruch, Presburg, and even to the lake of Neusiedel, in order to oblige the Archduke John, if he were coming up from that side, to take a circuitous march as far round as by Günz, Raab, and Komorn, in order to make the junction not only more difficult but impossible in the same space of time as the Viceroy could bring up, or send to the Emperor, the French troops out of Italy.

21. THE WAR IN ITALY, THE TYROL, AND POLAND.

The army of Prince Eugène had taken up their quarters, after the battle of Sacile, at the famous position of Caldiero, upon the Adige, holding Verona by the left wing under Baraguay d'Hilliers. The Emperor had sent down General Macdonald to command, under the Viceroy, and he had his head-quarters at Vago. The Archduke John, following up the retreat of the French, had advanced the Austrian army under his command as far as Vicenza, but he had been foiled in an assault on the fort of Malgherra, near Venice. On the 28th of April, he received accounts of the disasters which had befallen his brother on the Danube, and he immediately began to call back his advance, and to commence a retrograde movement towards the hereditary States. On the 1st of May, the French lookout from Caldiero perceived by the dust on the horizon that a great number of wheels were moving towards the Friuli, but as yet the Viceroy had not been apprised of the Emperor's success at Ratisbon. As soon as this was reported to Macdonald, he seized the hand of the Prince, and exclaimed: "Victoire en Allemagne, Prince, c'est le moment de marcher en avant." Orders were accordingly issued forthwith, and on the 7th they had advanced as far as the Piave, across which they found all the bridges destroyed. The Austrians, in fact, had called a halt behind this river to rest themselves, and were reposing in that security, when the dragoons of Grouchy forded the stream, surprised, and fell upon them. The Archduke resolved to defend himself, and as soon as he could rally his men he advanced, and drove back the enemy in disorder across the river. He then occupied the ground as if he intended to receive battle, resting his right on the bridge of Prinli (which he destroyed), and his left on the Rocca de Strada, where the two roads unite, which lead to Cornegliano. A considerable artillery garnished the range of hills on which his infantry stood, and his cavalry were massed on the level ground below them. Here they awaited the attack of the French. Eugène was glad to avail himself of the

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THE FRENCH ARMY CROSS THE PIAVE.

[A.D.

opportunity, now apparently in his power, of wiping out his defeat at Sacile, and resolved to attempt the passage of the river by force. At 4 in the morning of the 8th, six divisions, led by General Dessaix, cast themselves into the Piave at the fords of Lovalina and San Michele, two miles above Prinli, and crossed the stream with the water up to their armpits. The Archduke allowed the passage of the river without opposition, thinking he should thus have the advantage over the French, who would then have a rapid river in their rear in advancing to the attack. At 7 in the morning the light horse of Grouchy and Pully were received with the fire of 24 guns, and at the same time charged by the Austrian cavalry, who drove them back in great disorder. The main body had not yet crossed, but Dessaix formed his infantry in two squares, placing his artillery between them, and in this way held his ground until the Viceroy came up, who launched forward the cavalry of Grenier and Sahuc, with the infantry divisions Broussier and Lamarque. The French cavalry immediately assumed the offensive, and charged the Austrian guns, which were defended by a ditch. Led on by General Pully, they succeeded in capturing 14, and in putting to rout the cavalry who defended them, of whom three generals, Wolfskehl, Rissner, and Hager were taken prisoners, and the colonel of Att's Hussars was left for dead on the field. By 3 o'clock the whole of the French army had crossed the Piave, and had become engaged on the left bank. The Archduke John, who had lost the favourable opportunity to fight while the French army was crossing, now advanced to the attack; but the Viceroy, who had assembled 38 battalions and 4,000 cavalry, and was quite ready for any contingency, anticipated him by a march to his right. The divisions Abbec, Grouchy, and Grenier, supported by Macdonald, attacked the villages of Cima d'Olma and Teze. The Austrians saw that they could not keep their ground, but sent forward a strong column of cavalry to charge the guns of the division Broussier, but they did not succeed in capturing them. The Archduke, nevertheless, still held the mill of La Capanna, the most important point of his position, and Eugène accordingly united the divisions Lamarque and Durutte to assail it with the bayonet, which terminated the day with a complete victory. The Austrians now began to fall back on every side, and in the course of the night retreated on Cornegliano and Sacile, leaving 2,500 killed and wounded. The French bivouacked on the field. By the 11th and 12th, the same days on which Napoleon reached Vienna, the army of the Archduke John reached Venzone, and entering the gorge of Chiusa Veneta, abandoned Italy.

At this moment the army of General Marmont, comprising 10,000 or 11,000 men, marching up from Dalmatia, came out of Croatia, and proceeded by Carniola and Styria to unite with the grand army. The General was, however, in complete ignorance both of the events which had occurred in his neighbourhood and of the forces of the enemy which he might meet on his march. He moved with a long train of pack horses, carrying his supplies and sick, as he had no magazines to depend upon, and had already reached