44 Memoirs of Napoleon, iAug. 1 7 
therefore, abandoned, and France de¬ 
clared war against Germany, which had 
been excited to commence hostilities. 
In less than six weeks, the immense 
44 army of England,” as it was trium¬ 
phantly called, was transported from 
the coast of France to the banks of 
the Danube. The rapidity of the march 
came with surprise on the* celebrated 
General Mack, who retired to Ulm, 
and quietly laid down his arms ; his 
force consisting of 30,000 foot, 3000 ca¬ 
valry, and 80 pieces of cannon. This 
capitulation, so unforeseen, was the as¬ 
tonishment of Europe. 
The Russians were at the time ad¬ 
vancing rapidly to support Austria; and, 
apprised of their march, Napoleon ad¬ 
dressed his army in an order of the 
day to the following effect: * 4 Soldiers 
of the great army, we have accom¬ 
plished a campaign in fifteen days; 
you must not stop here: that Russian 
army, which the gold of England has 
transported from the extremities of the 
world, let us go and exterminate it!’ ? 
On the 11th of November, 1805, the 
French army entered the capital of 
Austria, which Francis II. had quitted 
a few days before, to retire with the 
remnant of his broken army into Mo¬ 
ravia, where the Emperor Alexander 
joined him with the Russian army, 
which he commanded in person. 
Napoleon encountered the two Em¬ 
perors on the plain of Austerlitz on 
the 2d of December following, and 
gave them battle with his usual ar¬ 
dour. The battle was decisive in his 
favour. The allies endeavoured to hem 
in the French by their wings ; but this 
manoeuvre weakened their centre, 
which the French put to the rout. 
Francis II. was paralysed by the blow, 
and himself sued for peace. " An inter¬ 
view took place in a bivouac, on the 
26th of December; the consequence 
was, that, within three weeks, it led to 
the treaty of Presburg, a treaty which 
recognized Napoleon" King of Italy, 
master of Venice, of Tuscany, of Par¬ 
ma, of Placentia, and of Genoa. Prus¬ 
sia ceded to him the Grand Duchy of 
Berg, which he presented to Murat, and 
also, in exchange for Hanover, the Mar- 
graviate of Anspach, which Napoleon 
assigned to Bavaria. 
Having thus attained all that he de¬ 
sired, Napoleon repaired to Munich, 
where he celebrated the marriage of 
Eugene Beanharnois, his adopted son, 
with the Princess Augusta Amelia, of 
Bavaria. This was the first of those 
alliances which afterwards aggrandized 
his reign, and strengthened his power, 
embarrassing all the cabinets of Eu¬ 
rope. In the night of the 26tli of Ja¬ 
nuary, 1806, he arrived at Paris. The 
next day all the authorities hastened 
to pay their acknowledgments to him 
for the services which he had rendered 
to France.—M. Arnault, organ of the 
Institute, said, 44 Your victories have 
hunted down the barbarians of Europe; 
your treaties have shut out their male¬ 
volence, never to return; you have ex¬ 
ceeded the bounds of possibility, and, 
our historians, to be sublime, need only 
adhere to truth.” 
By these repeated victories, Napo¬ 
leon had not only raised the character 
of the French nation in a military point 
of view, but he had also secured his 
own power, both in the interior of his 
country and without. It was in conse¬ 
quence of this, that he conceived the 
project of revising the European dy¬ 
nasties, and of appointing new sove¬ 
reigns. In his first promotion of kings, 
he comprised the electors of Bavaria 
and Wirtemberg ; the electors of Sax¬ 
ony and Han overlie created kings, and. 
he gave the crown Gf Naples to his 
brother Joseph, that of Holland to his 
brother Louis, and that of Westphalia 
to Jerome. 
On the 12th of July, 1806, he signed 
at Paris the famous treaty of the con¬ 
federation of the Rhine, which gave to 
him in Germany that preponderance of 
power which had belonged to the house 
of Austria. In the month of Septem¬ 
ber following, he demanded from his 
new allies levies of men which alarmed 
Prussia, and gave Frederick reason to 
think, though "too late, that he menaced 
his existence. Already the French 
army of Hanover, combining its move¬ 
ments with that of Franconia, enve¬ 
loped the Prussian monarchy. A very 
animated correspondence was kept up 
on the subject, between the courts of 
Berlin and the Tuilleries, which, at 
the time, was supposed to relate to the 
occupation of Hanover. After the 
treaty of Presburg, that country- was to 
be occupied by Prussia, for the Mar- 
graviate of Anspach; but Napoleon, 
who had consented to the exchange, 
now wished to restore it to England, as 
one of the conditions of peace. The 
court of Berlin complained greatly of 
this arrangement, and demanded that 
the French troops should evacuate Ger¬ 
many, and a powerful Prussian army 
took*the field. Napoleon declared that 
