up with the troops in pursuit of Moore at Benevente, on
the 29th of December, and enjoyed for a moment the spectacle of an
English army in full retreat. He saw that Moore was no longer worthy of
his own attention, and entrusted the consummation of his ruin to Soult.

It excited universal surprise that the Emperor did not immediately
return from Benevente to Madrid, to complete and consolidate his Spanish
conquest. He, however, proceeded, not towards Madrid, but Paris; and
this with his utmost speed,--riding on post-horses, on one occasion, not
less than seventy-five English miles in five hours and a half. The cause
of this sudden change of purpose, and extraordinary haste, was a
sufficient one; and it ere long transpired.

CHAPTER XXVI

Austria declares War--Napoleon heads his army in Germany--Battles
of Landshut and Eckmuhl--Ratisbonne taken--Napoleon in
Vienna--Hostilities in Italy, Hungary, Poland, the North of
Germany, and the Tyrol--Battle of Raab--Battle of Wagram--Armistice
with Austria.... Progress of the War in the Peninsula, Battle of
Talaveyra--Battle of Ocana--English Expedition to Walcheren....
Seizure of Rome and arrest of the Pope.... Treaty of Schoenbrunn.

Napoleon had foreseen that Austria, hardly dissembling her aversion to
the "continental system," and openly refusing to acknowledge Joseph as
King of Spain, would avail herself of the insurrection of that country,
necessarily followed by the march of a great French army across the
Pyrenees, as affording a favourable opportunity for once more taking
arms, in the hope of recovering what she had lost in the campaign of
Austerlitz. His minister, Talleyrand, had, during his absence, made
every effort to conciliate the Emperor Francis; but the warlike
preparations throughout the Austrian dominions proceeded with increasing
vigour--and Napoleon received such intelligence ere he witnessed the
retreat of Moore, that he immediately countermanded the march of such of
his troops as had not yet reached the Pyrenees,--wrote (from Valladolid)
to the princes of the Rhenish league, ordering them to hold their
contingents in readiness--and travelled to Paris with extraordinary
haste. He reached his capital on the 22nd of January; renewed the
negotiations with Vienna; and, in the meantime, recruited and
concentrated his armies on the German side--thus adjourning, and as it
turned out for ever, the completion of the Spanish