Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
Napoleon, while following up his success with his customary rapidity
and advancing with his main body straight upon Vienna, despatched Ney
into the Tyrol, where the peasantry, headed by the Archduke John, made
a heroic defence. The advanced guard of the French, composed of the
Bavarians under Deroy, were defeated at the Strub pass, but,
notwithstanding this disaster, Ney carried the Schaarnitz by storm and
reached Innsbruck. The Archduke John was compelled to retire into
Carinthia in order to form a junction with his brother Charles, who,
after beating Massena at Caldiero, had been necessitated by Mack's
defeat to hasten from Italy for the purpose of covering Austria. Two
corps, left in the hurry of retreat too far westward, were cut off and
taken prisoner, that under Prince Rohan at Castellfranco, after having
found its way from Meran into the Venetian territory, and that under
Jellachich on the Lake of Constance; Kinsky's and Wartenleben's
cavalry threw themselves boldly into Swabia and Franconia, seized the
couriers and convoys to the French rear, and escaped unhurt to
Bohemia.
Davoust had, in the meanwhile, invaded Styria and defeated a corps
under Meerveldt at Mariazell. In November, Napoleon had reached
Vienna, neither Linz nor any other point having been fortified by the
Austrians. The great Russian army under Kutusow appeared at this
conjuncture in Moravia. The czar, Alexander I., accompanied it in
person, and the emperor, Francis II., joined him with his remaining
forces. A bloody engagement took place between Kutusow and the French
at Durrenstein on the Danube, but, on the loss of Vienna, the Russians
retired to Moravia. The sovereigns of Austria and Russia loudly called
upon Prussia to renounce her alliance with France, and, in this
decisive moment, to aid in the annihilation of a foe, for whose false
friendship she would one day dearly pay. The violation of the Prussian
territory by Bernadotte had furnished the Prussian king with a pretext
for suddenly declaring against Napoleon. The Prussian army was also in
full force. The British and the Hanoverian legion had landed at Bremen
and twenty thousand Russians on Rugen; ten thousand Swedes entered
Hanover; electoral Hesse was also ready for action. The king of
Prussia, nevertheless, merely confined himself to threats, in the hope
of selling his neutrality to Napoleon for Hanover, and deceived the
coalition.[8] The emperor Alexander visited Berlin in person for the
purpose of rousing Prussia to war, but had no sooner returned to
Austria in order to rejoin his army than Count Haugwitz, the Prussian
minister, was despatched to Napoleon's camp with express instructions
not to declare war. The famous battle, in which the three emperors of
Christendom were present, took place, meanwhile, at Austerlitz, not
far from Brunn, on the 2d of December, 1805, and terminated in one of
Napoleon's most glorious victories.[9] This battle decided the policy
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