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operation. On the whole, general Moreau being now without any alarm for the army of referve, or any restraint impofed upon his operations, by a concern for its prefervation, but, on the contrary, ftrengthened by its co-operation on the fide of the Grifons and the Tyrolefe, was now at liberty to unfold the enterprize of his character, after a difplay of the most confummate prudence. He prepared to crofs the Danube, and, if poflible, to bring general Kray to a decifive action. For this laft purpose, on the eighteenth of June, he tent the right wing of his army, under Lecourbe, over the river below Ulm, between Dillingen and the celebrated village of Blenheim: by this movement, threatening to cut off general Kray from his magazines at Donawert and Ratisbon, as well as from his expected reinforcements. The main body croffed at a point nearer to Ulm.

The motives or views of general Moreau, in this ftep, he explains in a letter addreffed to the chief conful, bearing date the twenty-fecond of June: "He had obferved," he fays, "that the Auftrian army kept close to its camp at Ulm, which gave it the advantage of eafy openings on both fides of the Danube, while it confequently prevented the French from making any confiderable progrefs in Germany. General Moreau had made a movement, in order to induce the enemy to give battle near Blaubeuven, which he declined. Fearing that general Kray might avail himfelf of that movement, in order to advance upon Memmingen, connect himself with the Tyrol, and fend down a corps of troops into Italy, that might have very much embarraffed the

chief conful, he determined to make general Lecourbe execute feveral manœuvres on the Leck, in the hopes that he fhould thereby force general Kray to march to protect Bavaria; but he continued to manoeuvre in the French rear. Imagining that an opportunity was prefented of gaining a confiderable advantage, he made an attack on Moreau's left wing, on the fifth of June, but was fo bravely oppofed by general Richenpanfe and other officers, that he was obliged to retreat with precipitation, and repass the Danube. General Moreau then formed the project of compelling him to withdraw, or come to a battle."

In the execution of this defign, a feries of actions took place for four fucceffive days, on the famous plams of Blenheim or Hockstat; in which the Auftrians loft, in killed, wounded, and prifoners, not lefs than five or fix thousand men; and the French, at leaft, as was computed, half that number. The Auftrian divifions, under the generals Sztarray and Nauendorf, being cut off from the main army, general Kray was reduced to the neceffity of leaving Ulm to the protection of a garrifon. The blockade of Ulm was now carried on by general Richenpanfe. General Kray, after feveral very fevere actions on the left fide of the Danube, retreated, with his reduced army, to Ingolftadt.

To give a detailed account of all the manœuvres and actions, through which the French croffed the Rhine, established themfelves on the left bank, and drove the main Auftrian army from their entrenched camp, near Ulm, would carry us far beyond our bounds, and would indeed

be

be the fubject of no fmall volume.
One circumftance we fhall notice,
as curious and interefting in itself,
and characteristic of that courage
and genius which was difplayed by
the French in this campaign, and
throughout the whole of the war.
The paffage of the Rhine was
both difficult and dangerous, as the
French had neither bridges nor
boats, the Auftrians having de-
ftroyed the former, and funk the
latter. After several actions, on
the eighteenth of June, in which
the Auftrians were compelled to fall
back upon Ulm, general Lecourbe
made feveral demonftrations, on
that day, on the bridge of Dillin-
gen: but, in confequence of the
reports made by his reconnoitring
parties, he determined, feriously, to
attempt the bridges of Grenfheim,
Blenheim, and Hockstadt. Eighty
naked fwimmers to be armed with
maskets and knapsacks, which were
fent after them, in two fmall boats,
took poffeffion of the villages of Gren-
theim and Blenheim, and made them-
felves masters of fome pieces of can-
non, which were manned by artillery-
men, who had passed over on ladders
placed on the wrecks of the bridge.
All of them maintained their pofitions
with extraordinary courage, while
a number of miners and bridge-
builders were employed, under the
enemy's fire, in repairing the
bridges, over which a force was
paffed to oppofe the reinforcements
which the enemy were marching
towards the points, where the ob-
ject of the attack could be no longer
doubtful. The 94th demi-brigade
paffed over after the fwimmers, and
boldly fupported themfelves until
other parties came to affift them.-
After the retreat of the Auftrian
main army, from Ulm, general Mo-

reau took poffeffion of Munich, and laid the Bavarian territories under heavy contributions. The elector was compelled to pay to Moreau a great part of the fubfidy of 500,000%. which he had received from Great Britain. After the retreat of the Auftrian army from Suabia, the French alfo took poffeffion of the principal places in the duchy of Wurtemburg, which, as well as Bavaria, was laid under fevere contribution, and treated altogether as an enemy's country. The duke and duchefs of Wurtemburg, with their family and fuite, retired to Anfpach. The French, at the fame time, by the occupation of Ell-Wangen, became mafters of the whole electorate of Treves.

In the mean time, the division, under the active and indefatigable Lecourbe, drove the Auftrians from Coire, and the whole of the country of the Grifons. Thus general Moreau, by transferring the feat of the war to Bavaria and the frontiers of Auftria, and by preffing clofer and clofer on the flank and rear of the Auftrians in the Tyrol, prepared the way for driving the imperalifts out of that country, left they fhould be altogether furrounded by the army under Moreau, and detachments from that of Buonaparte, through the Valtelline. Still far. ther to aggravate the evil plight of the Auftrians, an army of thirty thousand strong, French and Batavians, was on its march from the Lower to the Upper Rhine, and ready to pafs by Mentz and Duffeldorf, into Franconia.

In these circumftances, the Auftrians folicited an armiftice, which, at the defire or advice of Buonaparte, to Moreau, was, on the fif teenth of July, granted. This trace

led

led to a negociation, which was conducted, on the part of the emperor, by count St. Julian, who, on the twenty-eight of July, figned, at Paris, the preliminaries of peace, on the bafis of the treaty of Campo Formio. On the part of the French, they were figned by the minifter for foreign affairs, the ex-bifhop Talleyrand.

We have already feen the overbearing weight of thofe circumftances which induced the Auftrian government to request a fufpenfion of arms. The fame circumftances urged the neceffity of carrying the preliminaries into a definitive treaty of peace. But if the emperor had grounds for apprehenfion, there were fome alfo that tended to keep up his fpirits, and revive the pride and ambition inherent in his family. A strong difpofition to repel the aggreffive and the intolerable oppreffion of the French, whofe exactions were greater in this than they had been in any former campaign, began to manifeft itself in all the hereditary states, particularly in Hungary. And the emperor, being preffed by the British court to accept fresh pecuniary fupplies, had concluded a treaty, on the twentieth of June, by which he became indebted to Great Britain, in the fum of two millions fterling, not liable to intereft before the expiration of fix months from the adjustment of a peace between him and the French. It was alfo ftipulated that the war fhould be carried on with all poffible vigour and, that neither party fhould conclude a peace that did not also comprehend the other. His imperial majesty, faithful to this engagement, endeavoured for fome weeks to include the British nation in a treaty of general peace; and

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a temporary correfpondence was opened between the French government and the British court: but it was not productive of a formal negociation. The emperor, therefore, refufed to ratify the preliminaries that had been figned by the count St. Julian, alleging withal, that the count, in that act, had exceeded his powers.

The French government, towards the end of Auguft, informed the generals of its armies, that the emperor, having refused to fubfcribe to the conditions of the prelimina ries of peace, which had been figned by his plenipotentiary at Paris, the government was under the ne ceffity of continuing the war. The armiftice was of courfe broken off, and would cease to have effect, on the feventh of September, at one in the afternoon. The generat officers, and chiefs of corps, were inftructed to profit by this interval, to pafs the troops in review, and to difpofe every thing in fuch a manner, that they might be able to march and fight as foon as they fhould receive orders.

The emperor alfo illued a pro clamation, on the fixth of September, announcing the rupture of the armistice; which, he said, had been difcontinued by the French, unexpectedly, and without caufe. In order to give an incontrovertible proof to his own fubjects, and to all Europe, how much he had their welfare and protection at heart, he had refolved to repair in person, with his royal brother, the archduke John, to his army in Germany. His imperial majesty declared, at the fame time, that he was unalterably difpofed to accept with pleafure any reasonable propofitions, and conditions of peace. The re

folution

folution of the emperor, to put himfelf at the had of his army, was taken, no doubt, with a view to rouze the ancient courage of the Germans; and to give efficacy to proclamations, which he iffued at the fame time, for calling forth the force of the country in volunteer affocia tions. But the emperor had no fooner joined the army, which was under the immediate and fole command of the archduke John, than he made. application to the French government for a prolongation of the armiftice. The first conful, on conditions presently to be mentioned, agreed to this, declaring at the fame time that the renewal of hoftilities, or the improvement of a fufpenfion of arms into a permanent peace, would wholly depend on the rejection, or the ratification of the preliminaries concluded with Mr. de St.. Julian. The conful, at the fame time, declared that he thought it his daty, not to waste the remainder of the autumn in idle conferences, or to expofe himself to endlefs diplo matic difcuffions, without fecurities for the fincerity of the enemy's intentions. The fecurities he demanded were Philipsburg, Ulm, and Ingolftadt, with their dependent forts. This condition, though it exposed the hereditary dominions of Auftria, in a great measure, at the mercy of the enemy, beng agreed to at Hohenlinden, a fufpenfion of armis was concluded for forty-five days, commencing from the twentyfirst of September.

There was not, during this interval, any remiffion of military preparation on either fide. Recuits were fent from the camp at Dijon to the French armies; and the Auftrians were reinforced by battalions raised in all parts of the hereditary ftates. The

French army of the Rhine, feconded on its left by the army of Augereau, and on its right by that of the Grifons, formed, on the Mayne, as far as the entry into the Tyrol, a line ready to advance on the first fignal. It was compofed of twelve divifions, comprizing at least a hundred thousand men, and was divided into four corps; of which, that under general Lecombe, confifting of three divifions, occupied Upper Suabia, Upper Bavaria, and the entry to the Tyrol. That under the immediate orders of the commander-in-chief in perfon, confifting of three other divifions, occupied the two banks of the Iller, as faras Landhut. That of general Gre nier confifting of three more divifions, held all the left banks of the Danube, nearly to Paffau, and the right bank of that river as far as the mouth of it at Altmuck: and, laftly, that of general St. Sufanne, compofed of three other divifions, occupied the country between the Mayne and the Danube, from Bamberg as far as Aix-la-Chapelle.--While the French were thus formidable in front, there was nothing to be apprehended on either of their flanks. Italy was re-conquered. Switzerland was in their poffeffion, and moulding its government just as the French pleased: and a Pruffian army maintained the neutrality of the north of Germany.

The Auftrian armies advanced to the frontiers, and occupied a chain of pufts in front of the hoftile army, bending their main force to ftrengthen their line, from the frontier of Auftria to the gulph of Vcnice. An army of thirty thoufand men was ftationed in Bohemia, under the command of the archduke Charles. The right banks of the

Mayne

Mayne were occupied by the Auftrians in great force. And an army, under the command of general Klenau, in the Upper Palatinate, was opposed to the French divifion under general St. Sufanne, whofe headquarters were at Mavence.

The pofitions and firft movements of the invading army feemed to indicate an intention of carrying the great weight of the war into Bohemia. But the grand plan of Moreau's operations was not fully or certainly developed; this winter campaign being speedily cut fhort, by decifive advantages obtained over the Auftrians. The French troops, under Augereau, drove thofe of Mayence from Afchaffenberg, on the twenty-fourth of November, and marched through Franconia towards Bohemia, to communicate with the left of the division, under general Moreau.

On the twenty-ninth, general Moreau_recommenced hoftilities, near the Inn, and carried the Auftrian works at Waffenberg. He was lefs fuccefsful in a battle, on the first of December, near Haag, where he was vigorously attacked by the archduke John, at the head of three columns. The Auftrians were repeatedly driven back, but at laft prevailed. The French were forced to retreat, with great flaughter. On the fame day, an attack was made by the French on an Auftrian poft at Rofenheim, but were repulsed, after a hot engagement. In this action, the prince of Condé's corps acquired great reputation, by their firmnefs and cool courage. On this occafion, the prince of Condé's fon, and the duke of Angouleme, were particularly diftinguifhed.

The archduke John, encouraged by thefe fucceffes, on the third of

3

December; affaulted the French poft at Hohenliaden, memorable for the laft convention, and rendered still more memorable by the battle of this day. The archduke had no fooner begun his march than there fell a heavy fhower of fnow and fleet, by which his march was fo much retarded, that only the central column had arrived at the place of deftination, at a time when all the divifions ought to have been ready for action. A divifion of the French, conducted by Richenpanse, pierced between the left wing of the Auftrians and the centre, reached the great road behind the centre, and affaulted the left flank and rear. of that column, at a moment when it had formed in front, and commenced an attack. The Auftrians, with their ufual courage and bravery, sustained the conflict for several hours: but their centre being repelled by the impetuofity of the French, great diforder enfued. Their left wing was alfo defeated: and the battle feemed to be completely decided in favour of the French, when a vigorous attempt was made, by the right wing, to turn the tide of victory.

General Grenier sustained this unexpected charge with firmnefs; and, being well fupported, threw his adverfaries into the utmoft confufion. The Auftrians were forced to retire to the heights of Ramlan, with very great lofs: and general Kinwayer, being attacked on his march, by a corps from Arding, likewife fuffered feverely in that retreat, to which he was driven by intelligence of the difafter that had befallen the main army.

According to the account of the battle of Hohenlinden, given by general Moreau, the French took eighty pieces of cannon, two

hundred

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