HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



207 



our generositj-. Our past succes- 

 ses are a pledge of the victory 

 that awaits us. Let us then march 

 on ; and let the enemy on seeing 

 us recognize his conqueror." On 

 the 19th the different corps of the 

 French began to unite ; and gene- 

 ral Oudinot having advanced from 

 Augsburg, arrived at day-break at 

 Phaffenhoffen, attacked and drove 

 from thence 3 or 4,000 Austrians, 

 and took some hundred prisoners. 

 At Phaffenhoffen too Massena ar- 

 rived with his corps the day after. 

 On the same day, the 20th of 

 April, marshal Davoust with his 

 corps quitted Ratisbon to march 

 to Newstadt, and draw near to 

 Ingolstadt. Then it was that the 

 plan of Buonaparte was unfolded ; 

 which was to manoeuvre on the 

 enemy, whose line was extended 

 as just noticed, from the near vi- 

 cinity of Newstadt to Landshut ; 

 and to attack him at the moment 

 when, supposing himself to be the 

 assailant, he wason his march to Ra- 

 tisbon ;* to break the line of the 

 grand Austrian army, accord- 

 ing to his usual mode of warfare ; 

 and to come betweeen the arch- 

 duke Charles, and the corps com- 

 manded by his brothers. Such 

 was the strength, and such the 

 opposite designs and views with 

 which the campaign on the Da- 

 nube, of 1809, was opened, by the 

 archduke Charles on the one part, 

 and Buonaparte on the other ; the 

 two first generals of their age, and 

 at the head of greater numbers of 

 disciplined troops than had ever 

 met in Europe ! Were we in any 

 degree competent to the task, the 

 limits within which our work is 

 necessarily confined would not ad- 



mit an account of such a cam- 

 paign, which may well furnish to 

 military critics materials for vo- 

 lumes ; nor is it required in a 

 sketch of the history of Europe, 

 not military but political. It will 

 be sufficient, and probably most 

 satisfactory to our readers, just to 

 notice the principal circumstances 

 and events on which the fate of 

 the campaign turned and the influ- 

 ence and effects of this on the state 

 of nations. 



A great battle was fought at 

 Abensberg, April 20, in which 

 Buonaparte appeared in person at 

 the head of his Bavarians and 

 Wirtembergers, against the two 

 Austrian corps commanded by the 

 archduke Lewis and general Kil- 

 ler ; and another with four Aus- 

 trian corps under the archduke 

 Charles, on the 22nd, at Eckmull, 

 in which two battles, according 

 to the French accounts, 40,000 

 Austrians were taken prisoners, 

 and 100 pieces of cannon. The 

 archduke was forced to cross the 

 Danube at Ratisbon, in order to 

 form a junction with general Bel- 

 legarde, who did not arrive at that 

 river before the 24th or 25th of 

 April; nor was this any fault on the 

 part of general Bellegarde, who, 

 until he should be accurately in- 

 formed of the direction taken by 

 the French troops, could not quit 

 his position, which was intended 

 to keep them in check on the 

 frontier of Bohemia, towards Sax- 

 ony and Franconia. Some scat- 

 tered divisions of the Austrians 

 endeavoured to make a stand at 

 Ratisbon, which the archduke had 

 ordered to be covered with cavalry. 

 But after three successive charges 



they 



• First French bulletin, Ratisbon, 24th of April, 1809. 



