Napoleon were
divided with a curious evenness. As we have seen, the French Emperor's
defiant annexation of Genoa obliterated the anger of the Czar at Pitt's
insistence on the retention of Malta; and if Pitt's high-handed conduct
forced Spain to declare against England, yet, on the other hand,
Napoleon wantonly challenged Austria and Russia to a conflict. The first
events of the war showed a similar balance. On 20th October the French
Emperor compelled the Austrian commander, General Mack, to surrender at
or near Ulm in Swabia with almost the whole of an army of some 70,000
men. On the next day Nelson destroyed the French and Spanish fleets at
Trafalgar. So quickly did the forcefulness or ineptitude of four
commanders determine the course of events. By the end of October the
tricolour waved triumphant over Central Europe; but the Union Jack was
thenceforth scarcely challenged by sea; and Britain began to exert that
unseen but resistless pressure upon her enemy which gradually edged him
to his ruin. Consequently the appalling failures of the Third Coalition
on land only delayed the final triumph on which the serene genius of
Pitt surely counted.

At first everything seemed to favour his designs. Part of Napoleon's
army in its hurried march from North Germany towards Ulm violated the
neutrality of the Prussian principality of Anspach, apparently by
command of the Emperor. This short cut to success nearly entailed
disaster; for it earned the sharp resentment of Prussia at a time when
he especially valued her friendship. Indeed, so soon as he resolved to
turn the "Army of England" against Austria, he despatched his most
trusted aide-de-camp, Duroc, to Berlin, to tempt that Court with that
alluring bait, Hanover. Russia and England were, however, making equal
efforts in the hope of gaining the help of the magnificent army of
Frederick William III. For a time Pitt also hoped to add the South
German States, and in all to set in motion a mass of 650,000 men against
France, Austria contributing 250,000, Russia 180,000, Prussia 100,000
(later on he bargained for 180,000), Sardinia 25,000, Naples 20,000,
Sweden 16,000, and the small German States the remainder. Napoleon, on
the other hand, strove to paralyse the efforts of the Coalition by
securing the alliance or the friendly neutrality of Prussia. With
200,000 hostile or doubtful troops on her frontier, Austria could do
little, and Russia still less. Further, as he still had Fren