necessity of wresting this important position from the allies, and directed sixty thousand men to turn their right flank, fifty thousand to manœuvre on the left, while he in person, at the head of his Imperial guard and the corps of Soult assailed them in front. As it was impossible for Kutusoff to maintain his ground against such overwhelming numbers, he resolved to abandon the capital and withdraw to the left bank of the river.

Skilfully concealing his intention from the enemy, he moved his whole army across the Danube at Mautern, over the only bridge which traverses that river between Lintz and Vienna; and having burned it behind him, succeeded, for some days at least, in throwing an impassable barrier be tween his troops and their indefatigable pursuers. He continued his retreat in good order until he reached the vicinity of Stein, where, on the 11th of November, his rear-guard was attacked by the whole advanced division of Mortier's corps. The combat soon became warm; fresh troops arrived on both sides, and the grenadiers fought man to man with undaunted resolution. Toward noon, intelligence was spread that the Russian division of Doctoroff had, by a circuitous march, gained Mortier's rear; and the latter, finding himself thus attacked on both sides, and separated from the remainder of his corps, resolved to dislodge this new assailant. He accordingly made a spirited attack on Doctoroff's troops, but he was unable to force them from their position until after several hours of hard fighting, during which he lost three eagles and two-thirds of his men. Dupont at length came up with the remainder of his corps and forced the Russians

to retreat.

Napoleon now ordered Lannes and Murat to advance upon Vienna and endeavor to gain possession of the bridge over the Danube. At the same time, the Emperor Francis retired from his capital, after confiding the charge of it to Count Wurbna, his grand chamberlain. The citizens were overwhelmed with consternation when they found themselves deserted by the Emperor, and assembled in tumultuous crowds demanding arms to defend the capital; but it was too late. The means of resistance no longer remained; and a deputation was sent to Napoleon's head-quarters to treat for a surrender.

Retaining a sufficient force to secure the occupation of Vienna, Napoleon ordered Murat, Bernadotte and Mortier to follow up Kutusoff's retreat, and prevent his junction with the Archduke Charles. Murat, deeming it improbable that he could overtake Kutusoff, had recourse to a stratagem, and sent a flag of truce to the Russian head-quarters, announcing that an armistice had been concluded at Vienna: but the wily Russian proved an overmatch for Murat in diplomacy. He professed great joy at the news, which he knew could not be true, and not only pretended to enter cordially into the negotiation, but sent the Emperor's aid-de-camp, Winzingerode, to propose terms of peace. Murat fell into his own snare; for while he stayed his pursuit to consider these proposals, Kutusoff, after ordering Bagrathion to remain behind with eight thousand men, pushed forward the main body of his army to Znaim, where he was enabled to open communications not only with the Austrians, but also with the reënforcing Russian troops.

Napoleon was greatly enraged when he found that his generals had been thus foiled, and ordered an immediate attack on Bagrathion's rearguard. This brave Russian commander soon found himself assailed in front and on both flanks by Oudinot, Murat, Lannes and Soult, with no

less than forty thousand men; yet he maintained his position for twelve hours, and finally retreated in good order with five thousand of his troops, leaving behind him three thousand killed, wounded or prisoners. Nothing now could prevent the junction of the allied forces, which took place at Wischau on the 19th of November. Their entire strength amounted to seventy-five thousand men; and a division of the Russian Imperial guard under the Grandduke Constantine, with a detachment under Benningsen, was hourly expected, which would raise their numbers to ninety thousand.. Napoleon, when he found that the junction of the allies was inevitable, took the most energetic measures to close the campaign by a general action, and moved toward Austerlitz with all his disposable forces for that purpose. In order to gain time for the requisite concentration of his troops, he proposed to enter into a conference with Alexander for an armistice, and the Russian Emperor, equally anxious for a brief delay, dispatched an ambassador on this fruitless errand. While the negotiation was in progress, Count Haugwitz arrived with the ultimatum of Prussia; but Napoleon was not disposed to treat on this subject until he had made some further advance in the affairs of the campaign, and recommended Haugwitz to repair to Vienna and open his conference with Talleyrand. On the 1st of December, Napoleon had assembled his masses, to the number of ninety thousand veteran troops, midway between Brunn and Austerlitz. His left wing, under Lannes, was stationed at the foot of a chain of hills, having a powerful guard of cavalry. Next to these was the corps of Bernadotte, and between him and the centre were the grenadiers of Oudinot, the cavalry of Murat, and the Imperial guard under Bessières. The centre, under the command of Soult, occupied the villages near the heights of Pratzen. The right wing, under Davoust, was thrown back in a semicircle, with its reserves at the Abbey of Raygern in the rear, and its front line stretching to the Lake Moenitz. A succession of marshes covered the front of the whole position.

The allies, in their plan of attack, decided to turn the right flank of the French army so as, in case of success, to cut them off from Vienna and drive them to the Bohemian mountains; and they sought to effect this by one of the most hazardous operations in war-a flank march in column in front of a concentrated enemy, and that enemy Napoleon. Accordingly, early in the morning of December 2nd, they moved forward in five columns obliquely across the French position, while the reserve, under the Grandduke Constantine, occupied the heights in front of Austerlitz. The moment that Napoleon saw this suicidal manœuvre undertaken, he exclaimed, "That army is my own!"

A heavy mist at first enveloped both armies, and for a time obscured their movements from view; but at length the sun arose in unclouded brilliancy-that "sun of Austerlitz" which Napoleon so often afterward apostrophized, as illuminating the brightest period of his life-and the magnitude of the error committed by the allies was plainly revealed: they had abandoned the heights of Pratzen, the key to their position, and exposed the flank of their whole army, in detached masses, to the deliberate attacks of the French veterans. It was impossible, under such circumstances, that the victory could remain long in doubt. The Russian and Austrian troops fought with desperate valor against their disadvantages, and in parts of the field gained a temporary success; but in the event, almost every attack of the French prevailed; the allied army was

broken and routed at all points, and at nightfall they were retreating in almost utter disorganization, having lost in killed, wounded and prisoners, thirty thousand men, besides a hunared and eighty pieces of cannon, four hundred caissons and forty-five standards. The loss of the French did not exceed twelve thousand men.

Such was the effect produced by this great disaster that, during a council held at midnight, at the Russian Emperor's lodgings, it was doubted whether hostilities could be prolonged with any hope of success, and by four o'clock in the morning, Prince Lichtenstein was dispatched to Napoleon's head-quarters to propose an armistice. There was no difficulty in coming to an arrangement. Napoleon, notwithstanding the extent of his victory, was well aware of the danger that might yet ensue from a combination against him, of Prussia with the other European powers; he knew that the Archduke Charles, with eighty thousand troops, was already threatening Vienna, and that Hungary was rising en masse at the approach of the invaders. On the 4th of December, an interview took place between the Emperor Francis and Napoleon, which lasted for two hours, and ended in an agreement that Presburg should be the seat of the negotiations for peace, that an armistice should immediately take place at all points, and that the Russian troops should retire by slow marches to their own country. Savary was sent to the Emperor Alexander to request his consent to these terms, which he granted without hesitation, and Napoleon stopped the advance of the French columns.

On the 6th of December, the armistice was formally concluded at Austerlitz, by which it was stipulated that, until the conclusion of a general peace, the French should continue to occupy those portions of Upper and Lower Austria, Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Moravia, then in their possession; that the Russians should evacuate Moravia and Hungary in fifteen days, and Gallicia within a month; that all insurrectionary movements in Hungary and Bohemia should be stopped, and no armed force of any other power permitted to enter the Austrian territories. This latter clause was levelled at the Prussian armaments, and it afforded the cabinet of Berlin a pretext for withdrawing from a coalition into which they had entered at so untoward a period.

Alexander no sooner found himself delivered from the toils of his redoubtable adversary, than he sent the Grandduke Constantine and Prince Dolgoroncki to Berlin, offering to place all his forces at the disposition of the Prussian cabinet, if they would vigorously prosecute the war: but the diplomatist to whom the fortunes of Prussia were now committed, had very different objects in view, and he was prepared, by an act of matchless perfidy, to put the finishing stroke to that system of tergiversation and deceit, by which, for ten years, the cabinet of Berlin had been disgraced. It has already been related that Haugwitz had reached the head-quarters of Napoleon with instructions to declare war against France; but the battle of Austerlitz had changed the face of affairs, and Haugwitz resolved not only to withdraw from the coalition, but to secure a part of the spoils of his former allies; and if he could not chase the French standards beyond the Rhine, at least to wrest from England those continental possessions which she now appeared in no condition to defend. Napoleon soon ascertained the disposition of the minister, and offered to incorporate Hanover with the Prussian dominions in exchange for some of the detached southern possessions of Prussia,

which were to be ceded to France and Bavaria, provided she would abandon her doubtful policy, and enter heart and hand into the French alliance. Haugwitz eagerly accepted these proposals and signed a formal treaty for carrying them into effect.

The negotiations between Austria and Napoleon were soon brought to a close. By the treaty of Presburg, she was in a manner isolated from France, and to all appearance, rendered incapable of again interfering in the contests of Western Europe. She was compelled to cede the Tyrol and Inviertel to Bavaria; to relinquish the Continental dominions of Venice and all her accessions in Italy, together with Voralberg, Echstadt, and various towns and lesser principalities in Germany. The electors of Wirtemberg and Bavaria were made kings of their respective provinces, and the Emperor Francis was forced to engage, both as chief of the Empire, and as co-sovereign, "to throw no obstacles in the way of any acts which the Kings of Wirtemberg and Bavaria, in their capacity of sovereigns, might think proper to adopt :" a clause which, by providing for the independent authority of these infant kingdoms, virtually dissolved the Germanic Empire. The secret articles of the treaty were still more humiliating. It was by them provided, that Austria should pay a contribution of forty millions of francs in addition to an equal sum already levied by the French in the conquered provinces, and also in addition to the loss of the immense military stores and magazines which had fallen into the hands of the victors during the war, and which were either to be sent off to France or redeemed by a heavy ransom.

This treaty was followed by a measure hitherto unprecedented in European history-the pronouncing sentence of dethronement against an independent sovereign for no other cause than his having, during the late campaign, contemplated hostilities against the Emperor of France. On the 26th of December, a menacing proclamation issued from Presburg against the House of Naples. In this document Napoleon announced that Marshal St. Cyr would march to Naples "to punish the treason of a criminal queen, and precipitate her from the throne. We have pardoned" it continued, "that infatuated king, who has thrice done everything to ruin himself. Shall we pardon him a fourth time? Shall we a fourth time trust a court without faith, without honor, without reason? No! The dynasty of Naples has ceased to reign; its existence is incompatible with the repose of Europe and the honor of my crown."

The dissolution of the European confederacy against Napoleon-which its author had so assiduously labored to construct, and from which he expected such important results-was fatal to Mr. Pitt. His health, long weakened by the fatigue and excitement incident to his position, sunk under the disappointment of this failure of his projects; and he expired at his house in London, on the 23rd of January, 1806, exclaiming with his latest breath, "Alas, my country!" Chateaubriand has said, "while all other reputations, even that of Napoleon, are on the decline, the fame of Mr. Pitt alone is continually increasing, and seems to derive fresh lustre from every vicissitude of fortune." But this eulogium was not drawn forth by the greatness and constancy merely, of the British statesman: the justness of his principles, of which subsequent events have afforded proof, is the true cause of the growth and stability of his fame. But for the despotism of Napoleon, followed, as it was, by the freedom of the Restoration, the revolt of the barricades and the military government of

Louis Philippe, his reputation for accurate judgment and foresight, in regard to foreign transactions, would have been incomplete; without the passage of the Reform Bill, and the subsequent ascendency of democratic ambition in Great Britain, his worth in domestic government would never have been appreciated. Every hour, abroad and at home, is now illustrating the truth of his principles. He was formerly admired by a party in England as the champion of aristocratic rights; he is now looked back upon by the nation as the last steady asserter of universal freedom: formerly, his doctrines were approved chiefly by the great and the affluent ; they are now embraced by the generous, the thoughtful, the unprejudiced of every rank-by all who regard passing events with the eye of historic inquiry, or are attached to liberty, not as the means of elevating a party to power, but as the birthright of the human race. To his speeches we now turn as to the oracles fraught with prophetic warning of future disaster. It is contrast which gives brightness to the colors of history; it is experience which brings conviction to the cold lessons of political wisdom; and thus, though many eloquent eulogiums have been pronounced on the memory of Mr. Pitt, all panegyrics are lifeless, compared to that furnished by Earl Grey's administration.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FROM THE PEACE OF PRESBURG TO THE FALL OF PRUSSIA.

THE peace of Presburg seemed to have finally subjected the continent of Europe to the Empire of France. The formidable coalition of the several powers was dissolved; Austria had, apparently, received an irreparable wound; Prussia, though irritated, was overawed; and the Autocrat of Russia was indebted to the forbearance of the victor for the means of escaping from the theatre of his triumph. Sweden, in indignant silence, had withdrawn to the shores of Gothland; Naples was overrun; Switzerland was silent; and Spain consented to yield her fleets and treasures to the conqueror. England, unsubdued in arms and with unflinching resolution, continued the strife; but, after the prostration of her allies, and the destruction of the French marine, the war appeared to have no longer an intelligible object; while the death of the great statesman who had ever been the uncompromising foe of the Revolution, and the soul of the confederacies opposed to it, led to an expectation that a more pacific system of government might be anticipated from his successors.

The death of Mr. Pitt dissolved the administration of which he was the head. His towering genius could ill bear a partner in power or a rival in renown. Equals, he had none; friends, few; and with the exception of Lord Melville, perhaps no statesman ever possessed his unreserved confidence. There were many men of ability and resolution in his cabinet, but none of sufficient strength to take the helm when it dropped from his hands. In addition, also, to the comparative weakness of the ministry after Mr. Pitt's decease, the state of public opinion rendered it doubtful whether any new administration, not founded on a coalition