the city. The merchants, and the students of the university, formed themselves into companies; the peasants poured in from various quarters to enroll themselves; the princes and nobility took arms, and mingled their names with those of the common people; and the court, by condescending proclamations, exerted themselves to animate the multitude to take an active part in the common cause.

Notwithstanding the confidence which the government had in the valour or good disposition of its untrained subjects, the people had not the same assurance. The bank of Vienna was obliged to suspend its payments, not being able to answer the demands of those who thought their money insecure. Measures were taken to stop the emigration of the rich inhabitants, as well as to prevent the too great affluence of people from the invaded provinces. Foreigners of every age and sex were ordered to leave Vienna in the space of three days; and though the government endeavoured by its edicts to inspire confidence, precautions were taken to remove the treasure and precious effects of the state into Hungary,to diminish, at least, the spoils, if they could not prevent the triumph, of the conqueror.

Buonaparte finding that the cabinet would listen to no conciliat ing measures, ordered his army to advance. The van of the Austrian army, strongly posted at Freisach, was attacked by the division under Massena, and driven from their entrenchments by the bayonet. This corps had been reinforced by eight battalions of grenadiers who had been employed in the siege of Kehl, and great reliance was placed on their exertions. This reinforcement retarded for a while the pro

gress of Massena's division; but the French infantry having taken them in flank, they were compelled to fall back on the main army, which retreated beyond the Murh, and left the French in possession of Newmark and Judemburgh. By these means the junction with the main army of Laudohn's division, which had marched with rapidity from Inspruck across the mountains, from the Inn to the Murh, which was the great object of the precipitate march of the French, was altogether defeated.

In order to favour this junction, prince Charles had sent to Buonaparte, a few hours after having rejected his pacific overtures, to demand, for a short interval, a suspension of arms: this stratagem was too evident; no event having taken place, since their previous correspondence, likely to occasion any change in the archduke's mind towards peace; and, as his conversion was justly suspected, his demand was peremptorily refused.

The continued victorious march of the French army, and their arrival in the Murh, within as short a distance from Vienna, as the united armies of Prussia and Austria had been in the campaign of 1792 from Paris, awoke, at length, the fears of the Imperial cabinet, and led it to take into consideration the letter which Buonaparte Lad writ◄ ten to the archduke from Clagenfurt. The result of this deliberation was, the dispatching the count de Bellegarde and general Morveld to Buonaparte, to request, formally, a suspension of arms.

The note remitted by these ne gotiators contained, in substance, that the emperor, having nothing more at heart than to see a termi nation of hostilities, which had so long desolated both countries, and

having duly considered the letter which the French general had addressed to the archduke from Clagenfurt, had sent them to confer with him on the subject; and, in order to attain the desirable end of finishing, in the speediest manner, that disastrous war, and to obviate the delays and obstacles which a continuance of hostilities might put on the negotiations, they requested, on the part of the archduke, an armistice of ten days. Buonaparte, in answer to this note, observed, that in the situation in which the two armies then were, a suspension of arms could not but be disadvantageous to the French; but, since this suspension was an opening to peace, so desirable and so necessary to both nations, he acceded to the archduke's request. He reminded those negotiators, that the French republic had often manifested these pacific dispositions towards the emperor, and expressed his hope that peace would be the immediate result of this suspension, the term of which he limited to ten days: the conditions were, the possession of the fortress of Gratz, Leoben, and other posts on the frontiers of Hungary, and from thence to the Adriatic, which would have greatly strengthened his position, with regard to the object of his march, if the negotiation, during the suspension, had not succeeded.

Although Buonaparte had hitherto pursued through Italy and Germany an army of fugitives, and although he was within a few days march of Vienna, and probably on the point of overturning the Imperial throne, which had so long ruled, or balanced the destinies of Europe, yet he could not dissemble to himself the extreme difficulties, if not imminent dangers, to which he was exposed. His rapid marches,

across ravines and precipices, and over mountains, where no traces of roads existed, had compelled him to leave behind the greater part of his heavy artillery; while his army, from the rigours of the season, and the constant state of action in which they had been kept, had very sensibly diminished; and though the remainder preserved to the last the same courage and ardour, yet they were insufficient to preserve the vast extent of country which they had conquered; and the positions which he had taken, though highly favourable for further conquest, had he been sufficiently reinforced, were no less fitted for the operations of the enemy, which he conceived he had left behind him in the states of Venice.

Toreach Vienna by the speediest direction, the French army had to pass the mountains of Styria, which rise for a long extent from the Murh, almost within sight of this seat of empire. These mountains, easily defended by the retreating army, and the succours which were pouring in from all quarters, would have rendered extremely difficult the remainder of his march. These difficulties might have been obviated, by his taking a direction towards the Danube, by crossing over from the Murh to the Ems, along the banks of which his army would have found an easier mode of arriving at the end of their expedition; but the circuit was too long, and the army was too much diminished, to suffer such a dismemberment of it as would be necessary to keep up its communications with Italy. The dangers arising from the enemy before him had been well weighed by Buonaparte. By daring courage, and the boldest efforts, he had, in the space of a month, led his army to con

quest

served, the northern armies had been in cantonments during the rigour of that season. The return of Laudohn into the Tyrol, the march of Alvinzi by Fiuma and Trieste, and the hostile preparations making by the Venetians, each of which movements menaced with danger the army of Buonaparte, then entangled in the mountains of Styria, and which had influenced him to sign the preliminaries of peace, led the directory also to order the French generals Hoche and Moreau to make the most rapid movements, and pass, with their respective armies, into the circles of Franconia and Suabja, to cause a diversion of the Austrian armies, or form a juńction with Buonaparte.

The right and centre of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, under General Hoche, extended from Kreutznuch in the Palatinate, along the Rhine, to Dusseldorf. The left wing was cantoned in the duchy of Berg, on the right of that river. The Austrian army had taken their positions between the Sieg and the Lahn; but, finding themselves too weak to hazard the event of a battle on those plains, they withdrew from thence, and took their former position behind the formidable entrenchments of the Lahn, sending back their baggage and heavy artillery towards Frankfort,togetherwith everything that might retard their march, if circumstances should again compel them to make a retreat similar to that of the last campaign.

The retreat of the Austrians beyond the Lahn enabled the various divisions of the French army to pass the Rhine without obstacle. Here they found the Austrians strongly entrenched and fortified on both banks of the Lahn; but

as general Wernecht, the commander in chief of the Austrian forces, felt that his army was not equal to a long or vigorous resistance, he demanded a further prolongation of the armistice, under pretence that preliminariesof peace hadbeen signed; but, at he refused to comply with the conditions which general Hoche exacted, which were, the delivery of the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, and the redoubts of the Lahn, the negotiation dropped, and the two armies prepared for action. The attack began with a brisk cannonade. The whole of the French line was soon in motion; the infantry, supported by the fire of the light artillery, and by the hussars and light dragoons, poured down, with their usual velocity, on the Austrian entrenchments. The centre of the line of redoubts was carried by the commander in chief. Lefevre, who led on the right wing of the French, broke through the left of the Imperialists, whilst the right fled before general Championet, who commanded the left wing of the French army.

The Austrian general, during the night, retreated beyond the Lahn, leaving behind him the artillery of his redoubts, and 4000 prisoners. The French continued the pursuit, and came up with the Austrians at Ukerath and Altenkirchen, where they had taken strong positions. The Austrians were again routed, with considerable loss, by the division under general Lefevre; whilst general Ney marched rapidly to Diedorff, where he found the reserve of the Austrian army, consisting of 6,000 men, whose attack he sustained with a division of 500 hussars till the infantry came up, when he drove them from their positions with considerable loss.

The

The left of the French army crossed the Upper Lahn, and took possession of Wetzlaar; and forcing the Austrians to cross the Nidda, pursued them to the gates of Frankfort.

In the mean while, general Moreau, who commanded the army of the Rhine and Moselle, which was cantoned along the Rhine, from the lines of Weissemburg to Huningue, made preparations to cross this river at Strasburg. The want of machinery to put this project in execution was in some measure compensated by the decrease of the waters, which permitted the French to make two bridges from the main land to a part of the islands in the Rhine; and other parts of the river were fordable from Brisach to the mouth of the Murg. The centre of the army stationed at Strasburg under general Duhem, were ordered to make the first real efforts, whilst false attacks were made in various places, to divert the attention of the Austrians. At the mouth of the river Ill, in sight of the opposing army, were moored the little fleet, made up of the boats which had previously been put in requisition. Part of this division, notwithstanding the heavy fire from the opposite side, made good their landing; and having taken possession of an island from which they had driven the Austrians, sent back their boats to bring over the remainder. During this manoeuvre, the French, exposed to the Austrian artillery, lost considerable numbers; but general Vandamme succeeded in keeping his position, on the banks, till a greater number of troops had landed, who were immediately formed into columns, and led on by general Duhem to the attack of the village of Dier

sheim, where the Austrians had assembled their forces. In this attack they succeeded, after a long and bloody conflict; but which gave time for the landing of the remainder of the infantry, which was not completed till near noon. To protect the cavalry and light artillery which had not yet crossed the river, the French army took such positions as prevented the Austrians from offering any considerable resistance to their passage. In the mean while the body of troops, with which the French had been engaged, were reinforced by divisions which had marched from their cantonments at Offenburg and Stolhoffen, and which gave the Austrians a considerable superiority. Thus augmented, they attacked with so much impetuosity the village of Diersheim, from which they had been dislodged, and which was occupied by the centre of the French division, that the village was in great part destroyed. The entrenchments, which general Desaix had hastily thrown up, were for some time in the power of the assailants, who were not repulsed till after a desperate and most bloody conflict.

Night separated the combatants; during which time, the bridge being finished, the greater part of the French cavalry and artillery effected their passage, and the Austrians also received further reinforcements. The attack began again on the part of the Austrians, who directed their forces, as on the preceding day, against Diersheim. Their artillery had silenced that of the French; when the Austrian general, taking advantage of this success, attacked the village with the main body of his infantry, and made considerable havoc amongst the French, notwithstand