lect their own sovereign, refused
to recognize the empire. Hence increasing irritation arose. England,
trembling in view of the camp at Boulogne, roused all her energies to
rally Europe to strike France in the rear. In this effort she was
signally successful. Russia, Sweden, Austria, Turkey and Rome, were
engaged in vigorous cooeperation with England against France. Holland,
Switzerland and Bavaria ranged themselves on the side of Napoleon.

On the 8th of September, 1805, the armies of Austria and Russia were
on the march for France, and the Austrian troops, in overwhelming
numbers, invaded Bavaria. Napoleon was prepared for the blow. The camp
at Boulogne was broken up, and his troops were instantly on the march
towards the Rhine. In the marvelous campaign of Ulm the Austrian army
was crushed, almost annihilated, and the victorious battalions of
Napoleon marched resistlessly to Vienna. Alexander, with a vast army,
was hurrying forward, by forced marches, to assist his Austrian ally.
At Olmutz he met the Emperor of Austria on the retreat with thirty
thousand men, the wreck of that magnificent army with which he had
commenced his march upon France. Here the two armies formed a
junction--seventy thousand Russians receiving into their ranks thirty
thousand Austrians. The two emperors, Alexander and Francis, rode at
the head of this formidable force.

On the 1st of December, Napoleon, leading an army of seventy thousand
men, encountered these, his combined foes, on the plains of
Austerlitz. "To-morrow," said he, "before nightfall, that army shall
be mine!" A day of carnage, such as war has seldom seen, ensued. From
an eminence the Emperors of Russia and Austria witnessed the
destruction of their hosts. No language can describe the tumult which
pervaded the ranks of the retreating foe. The Russians, wild with
dismay, rent the skies with their barbaric shouts, and wreaked their
vengeance upon all the helpless villages they encountered in their
path.

Francis, the Emperor of Austria, utterly ruined, sought an interview
with his conqueror, and implored peace. Napoleon, as ever, was
magnanimous, and was eager to sheathe the sword which he had only
drawn in self-defense. Francis endeavored to throw the blame of the
war upon England.

"The English," said he, "are a nation of merchants. To secure for
themselves the commerce of the world they are willing to set the
continent in flames!"

The Austrian monarch, having obtained v