614 
INSTANCES OF GRATITUDE. 
Battle OF Austerlitz.j 
This ever-niemorable battle was fought on December 2, 1806, 
the anniversary of Bonaparte’s coronation, between the French under 
bimi, and the united forces of Austria and Russia, headed by their 
respective emperors. The armies were nearly equal, about 70,000 
men each. Bonaparte, by feigning a retreat, had drawn the allies to 
a spot which he had selected as most advantageous for giving battle. 
He bivouacked on the field, after having spent most of the night in 
giving orders and visiting his posts. The battle began with the dawn. 
The allied right and centre, after a cannonade of several hours, was 
routed ; and their left, which had been more successful in the outset, 
was compelled to give way in the general confusion. The defeat was 
signal ; but the approach of night prevented any vigorous pursuit. 
The slate of tlie roads compelled the allies to abandon most of their* 
artillery ; forty standards, all their baggage and ammunition, and one 
hundred and twenty pieces of cannon, remained in the hands of the 
French. The loss in men was never fully acknowledged by either 
side ; but the carnage was by both admitted to have been msost 
dreadful. Reports have stated that of the French at 13,000, in killed 
and wounded ; that of the Austro-Russians at three times the number. 
It is certain that so many wounded were left on the field by tiie 
allies, that they could not all be dressed until tw'o days after the 
battle. 
An armistice was immediately proposed by the emperor of Austria,/ 
and an interview took place between him and Bonaparte, in a mill 
by the road side, near the village of Nasedlowdtz. 
The preliminaries of an humiliating peace were here agreed to. 
The emperor Alexander refused to become a party to its conditions, 
and succeeded, though under very distressing circumstances, to eflect 
his retreat from the Austrian states. 
Instances of Gratitude. 
Francis Frescobald, a Florentine merchant, had gained a 
plentiful fortune, of which he was liberal to all in necessity. One day 
a youn^ stranger applied to him for charity. Frescobald asked him 
what he was, and of what country “ I am,” answered he, “ a 
native of England ; my name is Thomas Cromwell, and my father-in- 
law is a poor shearman. I left my country to seek my fortune ; 
came with the French army that was routed at Gatylion, where I was 
a page to a footman, and carried his pike and bayonet.” Frescobald 
commiserating his necessities,' clothed him genteelly, took him into 
his house till he had recovered strength by better diet, and at his 
taking leave, mounted him upon a good horse, with sixteen ducats of 
gold in his pocket. Cromwell returned to England, where he got 
into the service of Cardinal Wolsey, and, after his death, he worked 
himself so effectually into the favour of Flenry VIII. that he made 
him a baron, viscount earl of Essex, and at last lord high chancellor. 
Meantime Frescobald by repeated losses was reduced to poverty; 
and some English merchants being indebted to him in the sum of 
