HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



151 



amounting to about 12,000 men, were 

 obliged to lay down their arms. 

 The French pursued their advan> 

 tagc, and again fell in with the re. 

 mains of the-archdukc's corps, be- 

 tween Traun and Nuremberjj, on 

 whicii occasjon he took several pri- 

 soners, and the greater part of the 

 Austrian artillery. Tlie French 

 now dcMsted from the pursuit, and 

 the archduke made good his retreat 

 with the remnant of his corps, 

 chiefly cavalry. 



In the mean time Bonaparte had 

 so conipletely invested Ulm. that no 

 possibility of escape was left to 

 Mack and one third of his original 

 force, butbyopenini^apassageth rough 

 an army four times superior to his. 

 This determination was not to be 

 attempted with anj^ probability of 

 success in the then situation of the 

 two armies, whatever might have 

 been done had olTensive operations 

 been had recourse to earlier. But 

 it appears that general Mack had 

 thought very higlily of the position of 

 Ulm, and so much was he wedded to 

 this opinion, (-vhieh might have had 

 some weight, had the French army 

 penetrated, as it had heretofore 

 done, by the Black Forest) that he 

 overlooked the possibility of what 

 had actually occurred. 



But the great error of the Aus- 

 trian commander in chief seems to 

 have been too v. ide a dispersion of 

 the difl'erent corps composing his 

 army, io that the French were al- 

 lowed to attack them severally in 

 detail, by a force so superior as to 

 render their resistance ineffectual ; 

 whilst it may be presumed, had he 

 pursued a similar plan, and had at- 

 tacked the several divisions of the 

 French army separately, as they ad- 

 vanccd, before they had concentra- 

 ted themselves in force, the event 



might have been as favourable, as, 

 under the present circumstanses, it 

 has proved disastrous. 



The city of Ulm, occupied, as we 

 have already seen, by the Austrian 

 commander in chief, mIto had left 

 with him about thirty thousand 

 men, was now completely invested, 

 and the French troops already in 

 possession of the neighbouring 

 heights that commanded the fortifi- 

 cations, which were in themselves 

 extremely imperfect, and incapable, 

 under more favourable circum- 

 stances, of being defended for any 

 length of time. And, in point of 

 fact, general Mack seems to have 

 abandoned all idea of making such 

 an etiort. 



Bonaparte, eager to avail him- 

 self of his present advantage, in or- 

 der to hasten the surrender of the 

 place, on the 15th made prepara- 

 tions, as it were, to storm the town, 

 and issued an address to his army, 

 wherein he informs them, that " the 

 following day will be an hundred 

 times more celebrated than that of 

 Marengo, for the Austrian troops 

 were now placed in a similar situa- 

 tion. But," continues he, " mere- 

 ly to conquer the enemy would be, 

 doing nothing worthy either of 

 yoursdves or your emperor. Not 

 a man should escape, and that go- 

 vernment M'hich had violated all its 

 ensa-rements, should first learn its 

 catastrophe by your arrival under ' 

 the Avails of Vienna" 



This proclamation was immedi- 

 ately followed by a summons to 

 Mack, requiring hira to capitulate 

 without loss of time, and threaten- 

 ing, in case of refusal, to storm tiie 

 town. 



These measures had the desired ef- 

 fect, and Mack, after a short deli- 

 beration, acceded to the terms pro- 



L 4 poseJ 



