HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



379 



cordingly caused his army, although 

 under very distressing circumstances, 

 to commence its retreat, on the 6th 

 of December, from the Austrian 

 states. 



Prince John of Leichtcnstein, on 

 the part of Austria, and M. de 

 Talleyrand, on the part of France, 

 •were deputed to conclude the defini 

 tive treaty. 



Although the allies sniTercd so 

 signal a defeat on the^d of Decem- 

 ber, their army .was far from being 

 annihilated, so that, by prudence 

 and fortitude, they could still at 

 least hare engaged a great proportion 

 of the French army. This obser- 

 vation strikes us the more forcibly, 

 .•when we reflect upon the state and 

 position of the detached Austrian 

 armies. The archduke Ferdinand, 

 who commanded a corps of about 

 20,000 Austrians in Bohemia, be- 

 fore intelligence could reach him 

 of the conclusion of the armistice, 

 attacked and defeated, with consi- 

 derable loss, a corps of Bararians un- 

 der general Wrede, and was rapidly 

 advancing in the rear of the French 

 army; and, almost at the same time, 

 the archduke Charles made his ap- 

 pearance from Hungary, within a 

 day's march of Vienna, on the right 

 bank of the Danube, with his army 

 in excellent order, and consisting 

 of about eighty thousand men. 

 Under these circumstances, it is to 

 be presumed, that, had the emperor 

 Francis not been so precipitate in 

 fconcluding a treaty with Bona- 

 parte, that the fortune of war might 



haTC taken a very different turn, at 

 least Austria might, doubtless, have 

 obtained conditions infinitely more 

 favourable : for, in case of defeat, or 

 even a severe check, at the distance 

 at which the French army was from 

 its frontier, it risked being totally 

 destroyed. Indeed, we are told, 

 that the archduke Charles, im- 

 pressed with this notion, was mor- 

 tifiod in the highest degree, on re- 

 ceiving intelligence, when he sum- 

 moned the city of Vienna to sur- 

 render, of this pusillanimous trans- 

 action, which incapacitated him from 

 making further efforts for the ho- 

 nour aud advantage of the house of 

 Austria and his country. 



Pending the negociation for 

 peace, the French grand army oc- 

 cupied the following positions. 

 Marshal Bernadotte resumed his 

 station in Bohemia ; marshal Mor- 

 tier remained in Moravia; marshal 

 Davoust returned to Presburg, the 

 capital of Hungary ; marshal Soult 

 occupied Vienna ; marshal Ney, 

 Carinthia ; general Marmont, 

 Styria ; and marshal Massena, Car- 

 niola ; whilst marshal Augereau, 

 with the reserve, continued in 

 Swabia. 



Thus terminated the first and last 

 campaign of the war between 

 France and the uaited powers of 

 Austria and Russia, to the severe 

 lors, discomfiture, and loss of mili- 

 tary reputation, of the latter, but 

 increasing the power, dominion, 

 and renown of the former, to a de- 

 gree not easily to be appreciated. 

 ^\2 CHAP. 



