HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
A suspension of arms was ac- 
cordingly agreed upon the seventh 
of April, the duration of which 
was limited to ten days. This, 
by the French commander, was 
deemed a space sufficient to come - 
toa final determination, whether to 
accept orto refuse those terms which 
~ had been proffered to the lmperial 
courts, and from which it was now 
determined, by the French, not to 
merecede. . - 
_ In accepting the offer of an ar- 
i mistice, for the purpose of pacifica- 
_ tion, Buonaparte displayed equal 
_ moderation and judgement. Though 
the rapid career of his victories 
had met with little interruption, he 
could not but be sensible of ‘the 
extreme difficulties, if not imminent 
dangers to which he was now ex- 
posed. 
His rapid marches, across ravines 
and precipices, and over moun- 
tains, where no traces of roads 
_ existed, had compeélled him to leave 
_’ behind the greater part of his heavy 
artillery; while his army, from the 
; rigours of the season, and the con- 
_ stant state of action in which they 
" had been kept, had very sensibly 
| diminished; and though the r- 
_ mainder preserved, to the last, the 
_ same courage and ardour, yet they 
_ were insufficient to preserve the 
% vast extent of country winch they 
_had conquered; and the positions 
» which he had taken, though highly 
Beronrle for farther conquest, had 
i } . 
_hebee.: sufficiently reinforced, were 
no less fitted for the operations of 
_the enemy, which he conceived he 
_ had left behind him in the states of 
-. Venice. 
To reach Vienna by the speediest 
wig 
mee. 
- direction, the French army had to 
pass the mountains of Stiria, which 
» wise for a long extent -from the 
iy Vou. XXXIX, 
[3s 
Marh, almost within sight of this 
seat of empire. These mount¥ins, 
easily defended by the retreating 
army, and the succours which were 
pouring in from all quarters, would 
have rendered the remainder of his 
march extremely difficult. These 
difficulties might haye been ob- 
viated, by his taking a direction 
towards the Danube, by crossing 
over from the Murh to. the Ems, 
along the banks of which his army 
woald have found an easier mode of 
arriving at the end of their expedi- 
tion ; but the circuit was too long, 
and the army too much diminished, 
to suffer such a dismemberment of 
it as wauld be necessary to keep up 
its communication with Italy. The 
dangers arising from the enemy be- , 
fore him, had been well weighed 
by Buonaparte, By daring courage, 
and the boldest efforts, he had, iu 
the space of a month, led his army 
to conquests, which the most ardent 
imagination had scarce ventured to 
contemplate; but he had made no 
calculations on the outset of his ex- 
pedition,forother enemies than those 
with whom he was in openhostility, 
and therefore had nét provided re- 
sources against them. 
The best judges of military af- 
fairs expressed a degree of wonder, 
not that Buonaparte should accept 
the offer of an armistice, but that 
the Imperialists’ should make it. 
Had he advanced without a proper 
train of battering cannon against the 
works of Vienna, which might still 
have been defended, even after the 
loss of a battle in’the field, the Hun- 
garians and Austrians, collected in 
over-powering numbers, would have 
probably cut off his retreat, and his 
ruim would have been certain. It 
was not, therefore, it has been said, 
on very probable grounds, the ter- 
CD} ror 
