middle of Germany.
Austria and Russia have joined England; and our generation is again
plunged into the calamities of war. The Austrian army has crossed the
Inn; the elector of Bavaria has been driven away from his capital: all
my hopes of the preservation of peace have vanished. In this instance,
the wickedness of the enemies of the continent has fully revealed
itself. They feared the manifestations of my deep love for peace--they
feared that Austria, at the sight of the abyss they have dug under her
feet, might return to sentiments of justice and moderation, and they
have hurried her into war. I sigh in thinking of the blood that this
will cost Europe; but the French name shall derive a lustre from it.
Senators, when, at your request, at the voice of the whole French
people, I assumed the imperial crown, I received of you, and of all
citizens, a solemn engagement to preserve it pure and without stain. My
people will rush to the standard of their emperor and of his army, which
in a few days will have crossed the frontiers. Magistrates, soldiers,
citizens, are all determined to keep our country free from the influence
of England, who, if she should prevail, would grant us none but an
ignominious peace, the principal conditions of which would be,
the burning of our fleets, the filling up of our harbours, and the
annihilation of our industry." At the time Napoleon joined his "Grand
Army" at Mayence, and when the Austrians commenced operations, the
Russians had scarcely arrived in Gallicia. The Austrian army was
commanded by Field-marshal Mack, who, notwithstanding his shameful
discomfiture in the south of Italy, in the year 1799, still passed with
the Aulic Council as a great military genius. Under him were 80,000
men, with which army he took post at Ulm, thinking that Napoleon must
of necessity take the same route which Moreau had formerly taken. The
French emperor, however, finally divided his immense army into seven
corps; and before Mack was aware, an overwhelming force was in his rear.
Retreat was impossible; Mack was defeated on every hand, and he shut
himself up in Ulm, where he was soon compelled to capitulate. An
imperial bulletin announced the capture of 60,000 prisoners, two hundred
pieces of cannon, and eighty stand of colours, in a campaign of fifteen
days. Nothing now arrested the onward march of the French. Although the
Russians, commanded by Kutosow, had finally arrived on the banks of
the Ister, they were