CHAP. XLVI.--Duplicity of Buonaparte on his return to Paris--Official Statements in the Moniteur--Reports issued by Champagny, Minister of the Foreign Department--French Relations with the different Powers of Europe--Spirit of Resistance throughout Germany--Russia--Napoleon and Alexander meet at Erfurt on 27th September, and separate in apparent Friendship on 17th October--Actual feelings of the Autocrats--Their joint Letter to the King of Great Britain proposing a General Peace on the Principle of _uti possidetis_--Why rejected--Procedure in Spain--Catalonia--Return of Romana to Spain--Armies of Blake, Castanos, and Palafox--Expedition of General Moore--His desponding Views of the Spanish Cause--His Plans--Defeat of Blake--and Castanos--Treachery of Morla--Sir John Moore Retreats to Corunna--Disasters on the March--Battle of Corunna, and Death of Sir John Moore, 322 CHAP. XLVII.--General Belliard occupies Madrid--Napoleon returns to France--Cause of his hurried Return--View of the Circumstances leading to a Rupture with Austria--Feelings of Russia upon this occasion--Secret intrigues of Talleyrand to preserve Peace--Immense exertions made by Austria--Counter efforts of Buonaparte--The Austrian army enters Bavaria, 9th April, 1809--Napoleon hastens to meet them--Austrians defeated at Abensberg on the 20th--and at Eckmühl on the 22d--They are driven out of Ratisbon on the 23d--The Archduke Charles Retreats into Bohemia--Napoleon pushes forward to Vienna, which, after a brief Defence, is occupied by the French on the 12th of May--Retrospect of the events of the War in Poland, Italy, the North of Germany, and the Tyrol--Enterprises of Schill--Of the Duke of Brunswick Oels--Movements in the Tyrol--Character and Manners of the Tyrolese--Retreat of the Archduke John into Hungary, 343 CHAP. XLVIII.--Position of the French and Austrian Armies after the Battle of Eckmühl--Napoleon crosses the Danube--Great Conflict at Asperne, when victory was claimed by both Parties--Battle of Wagram, fought 6th July--Armistice concluded at Znaim--Close of the Career of Schill and the Duke of Brunswick Oels--Defence of the Tyrol--Its final unfortunate Result--Growing Resistance throughout Germany--Its effects on Buonaparte--He Publishes a singular Manifesto in the Moniteur, 360 APPENDIX-- NO. I.--Instructions by Napoleon to Talleyrand, Prince of Beneventum, 377 NO. II.--Further Particulars concerning the Arrest, Trial, and Death of the Duke d'Enghien, 378 [Illustration: CENTRAL AND SOUTH GERMANY, TO ILLUSTRATE THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE] CHAPTER XXV.