conquest.

On the 6th of April, Austria declared war; and on the 9th, the Archduke
Charles, Generalissimo of armies which are said to have been recruited,
at this period, to the amount of nearly 500,000 men, crossed the Inn at
the head of six corps, each consisting of 30,000; while the Archduke
John marched with two other divisions towards Italy, by the way of
Carinthia; and the Archduke Ferdinand assumed the command of a ninth
corps in Galicia, to make head against Russia, in case that power should
be forced or tempted by Napoleon to take part in the struggle. Napoleon,
having so great an army in Spain, could not hope to oppose numbers such
as these to the Austrians; but he trusted to the rapid combinations
which had so often enabled him to baffle the same enemy; and the instant
he ascertained that Bavaria was invaded by the Archduke Charles, he
proceeded, without guards, without equipage, accompanied solely by the
faithful Josephine, to Frankfort, and thence to Strasbourg. He assumed
the command on the 13th, and immediately formed the plan of his
campaign.

He found the two wings of his army, the one under Massena, the other
under Davoust, at such a distance from the centre that, if the Austrians
had seized the opportunity, the consequences might have been fatal. On
the 17th of April, he commanded Davoust and Massena to march
simultaneously towards a position in front, and then pushed forward the
centre, in person, to the same point. The Archduke Lewis, who commanded
two Austrian divisions in advance, was thus hemmed in unexpectedly by
three armies, moving at once from three different points; defeated and
driven back, at Abensberg, on the 20th; and utterly routed, at Landshut,
on the 21st. Here the Archduke lost 9000 men, thirty guns, and all his
stores.

Next day Buonaparte executed a variety of movements, considered as among
the most admirable displays of his science, by means of which he brought
his whole force, by different routes, at one and the same moment upon
the position of the Archduke Charles. That prince was strongly posted at
Eckmuhl, with full 100,000 men. Napoleon charged him at two in the
afternoon; the battle was stern and lasted till nightfall, but it ended
in a complete overthrow. The Austrians, besides their loss in the field,
left in Napoleon's hands 20,000 prisoners, fifteen colours, and the
greater part of their artillery; and retreated in utter disorder upon
Ratisbonne. The Archduke made an