semicircle round their outer extremity. | mitted, nothing that resolution could Marshal Soult, in the centre, first got do to repair it was wanting. The into action; but long before he could Emperor Alexander was with the pass the hollow ground which separat- centre column, and his was not a chaed the two armies, the Russian left racter to sink tamely before misfortune. wing, under Buxhowden, had gained By his directions, Kutusoff gave imconsiderable successes. So violent was mediate orders for the corps which had their onset, so great their superiority descended from the heights of Pratzen of force at the first encounter, that the to reoccupy that important position. French were driven from the village The infantry of Milaradovitch and Kolof Telnitz, and Buxhowden was ad- lowrath, forming the fourth column, vancing beyond the extreme right of rapidly wheeling into order of battle their position. Alarmed at the pro- from open column, was formed in two gress of the enemy on the right, Na- lines, and every disposition made in poleon ordered Davoust, who, with his the utmost haste to receive the enemy. reserve, lay near the abbey of Raigern, Before they could be completed, howto advance to check them; but before ever, the first line of Soult, composed he could come up, Sokolnitz also was of the divisions of St Hilaire and Vancarried, amid loud shouts, and the damme, had ascended the heights. Its French right wing appeared completely attack was so impetuous that the Rusturned. But it was in such moments sian front line was broken and driven that the cool judgment and invincible back upon the second with the loss of tenacity of Marshal Davoust appeared several pieces of cannon; the heights most conspicuous. Arranging his of Pratzen, after a desperate conflict of forces in battle array beyond the vil- two hours' duration, were carried, and lage of Sokolnitz, he received the Rus-six battalions, which occupied a hill sians, when issuing from it disordered by success, with such resolution, that they were not only arrested in their advance, but driven out of that village with the loss of six pieces of cannon. Buxhowden, however, returned in greater force; the French were again expelled, blood flowed in torrents, and both parties maintained the conflict with invincible resolution.

129. Affairs were in this state on the right, when Soult, with his powerful corps, was suddenly thrown on the Russian centre. The fourth allied column, under Kollowrath, composed of Austrians and Milaradovitch's corps of Russians, consisting of twenty-seven battalions, was just beginning to ascend the slopes of the Pratzen, which had been entirely evacuated by the third corps, under Buxhowden, immediately preceding it, when its outposts perceived the immense dark mass of French infantry emerging out of the mist in the low grounds on their right. Kutusoff instantly saw his danger; the enemy's centre, in order of battle, was ready to assail the combined army while in open columns of march. But if a fault in generalship had been com

forming the highest part of the ridge, cut to pieces. The danger was extreme; the allied army, surprised in its cross march, was pierced through the centre, and the left wing in advance entirely separated from the remainder of the army.

130. While this important success was gained in the centre, the French left, under Bernadotte, Murat, and Lannes, was also warmly engaged with the enemy. Lannes advanced direct upon Rausnitz; Murat, with his numerous squadrons in the low grounds, on the right of Lannes, between Girzikowitz and Kruh; Bernadotte debouched from Girzikowitz upon the village and heights of Blasowitz. They, too, surprised the combined forces in their line of march; and Napoleon sent repeated orders to these generals to attack the enemy promptly and vigorously, in order to prevent them from sending forward any succours to the centre, where the decisive blow was to be struck. The French marshals advanced to the attack in the order prescribed for the whole army, with the front line in order of battle, the second in column, with the artil

lery in front, and the heavy cavalry in | cess to either party; but it had the reserve behind the second line-a dis- desired effect of preventing any sucposition everywhere attended with the cours being sent from that quarter to happiest effects. The Russian right the centre, now severely pressed by wing, while moving along without any Soult. At length Kutusoff, seriously conception that the enemy was at alarmed at the progress of that sturdy hand, were thunderstruck at finding assailant, recalled a large part of Lichtthemselves suddenly assailed by French enstein's cavalry to make a fresh effort columns emerging in battle array out against the enemy on the heights of of the mist; and so complete was the Pratzen: the remainder of the horse surprise, that the reserve under the of Ouvaroff formed a mass of thirty Grand-duke Constantine was one of the squadrons, which it was hoped would first divisions to find itself engaged. suffice to keep up the communication Their dispositions, nevertheless, were between the centre and right wing of speedily made: the artillery was ra- the Allies. But though these disposi pidly brought forward to the front, and tions were judicious, they bore no sort under cover of its fire the marching of comparison to the measures of Nacolumns, with all imaginable haste, poleon, who, seeing clearly that Pratwheeled into line. Gradually, however, zen was the decisive point, ordered up the French infantry gained ground; to the support of Soult, already victoand, taking advantage of their success, rious, the whole corps of Bernadotte, the cavalry under Kellermann were the Guard, and grenadiers of Oudinot assailing even the Russian Imperial-in all, fully twenty-five thousand men. Guard, when Prince Lichtenstein, at the head of the splendid Russian hulans of the Guard, charged them with such vigour that they were instantly broken, and the allied horse, following up their success, broke through the first French line, swept through the openings between the second, and interposed in the interval between the corps of Bernadotte and Lannes. Here, however, they were in their turn charged by Murat at the head of a large body of Napoleon's cavalry, and driven back through both French lines, who threw in a flanking fire on their disordered squadrons with such effect that nearly half their numbers were stretched on the plain.*

But before they could arrive, a desperate shock had taken place in the centre. The Grand-duke Constantine, perceiving the danger of Kollowrath's troops, and alarmed at the progress which Lannes and Bernadotte were making on his own side, brought forward the Russian Imperial Guard, and, descending from the heights, advanced, midway between Pratzen and Blasowitz, to meet the enemy. They were received by the division of Vandamme of Soult's corps; and while a furious combat was going on between these rival bodies of infantry, the French were suddenly assailed in flank by the Russian cuirassiers of the Guard, two thousand strong, in the finest order, 131. This murderous strife on the led by Constantine in person. The left was attended with no decisive suc-shock was irresistible: in an instant *The combat of Lannes, Bernadotte, and behind the first line, from whose front and Murat, on the left, was remarkable for the flanks it sustained a heavy fire. If they escapperfect success with which the troops, ar-ed that, the horsemen were suddenly assailed, ranged in the order prescribed by Napoleon, baffled all the efforts of the Allies, whose numerous and magnificent cavalry had there a full opportunity of acting. The first line was uniformly drawn up in battle array; the second in squares of battalions-the artillery and light horse in front, with the heavy cavalry arranged in several lines in the rear of the whole. Thus, if a charge of horse, which was frequently the case, broke the first array, it passed, while disordered by success, through the intervals between the squares

VOL VL

when blown and dispersed, by a solid mass of heavy cavalry in the rear, which never failed to hurl them back in confusion through the squares, who by this time had reloaded their pieces, and whose flanking fire completed the destruction of their gallant assailants. The British heavy brigade of horse at Waterloo suffered extremely from a similar disposition made by Napoleon, which enabled him ultimately to baffle the most intrepid charges of the finest cavalry in the world after they had achieved important success.-DUMAS, XIV. 183.

I

was strewed with the dead and the dying. At length, however, the stern obstinacy of the Russians yielded to the enthusiastic valour of the French: the cavalry and infantry of their Guard gave way, and, after losing their artillery and standards, were driven back in confusion almost to the walls of Austerlitz; while, from a neighbouring

133. This desperate encounter was decisive of the fate of the day. Pierced through the middle, with the bravest of their troops destroyed, the Russians no longer fought for victory, but for

the French column was broken, three | vincible firmness, and soon the ground battalions were trampled under foot, and the 4th Regiment lost its eagle. 132. Napoleon saw there was not a moment to be lost in repairing the disorder; and he immediately ordered Marshal Bessières, with the cavalry of the Guard, to arrest that terrible body of horse. Rapp put himself at the head of their advanced guard, and set off at the gallop down the hill, to re-eminence, the Emperors of Russia and store the combat. "Soldiers!" said Germany beheld the irretrievable rout he, "you see what has happened below of the flower of their army.† there: they are sabring our comrades ; let us fly to their succour." Instantly spurring their chargers, they precipitated themselves upon the enemy. The Russians had scarcely time to reform their squadrons after their glori-existence. ous success, when this fierce enemy was upon them. They were broken, driven back over the dead bodies of the square they had destroyed, and lost their artillery. Rallying, however, in a few minutes with admirable discipline, upon being reinforced by the superb regiment of Chevalier Guards,* they returned to the charge. Both Imperial Guards met in full career: the shock was terrible; and the most desperate cavalry action that had taken place during the war ensued, and lasted for above five minutes. Colonel Morland, who commanded the French chasseurs of the Guard, was killed in the mêlée, and the French horse were driven back. But as the Russian Chevalier Guards were pursuing with loud shouts, and in some disorder, they were in their turn assailed in flank by the grenadiers-à-cheval under Bessières in person. This powerful reserve, composed of the very flower of the Guards mounted on superb horses, immediately engaged in a desperate contest with Constantine's Chevalier Guards. The Russian infantry, though close at hand, merely looked on: so closely were the squadrons intermingled that they did not venture to fire, for fear of destroying their comrades. The resolution and vigour of the combatants were equal; squadron to squadron, man to man, they fought with in

* A corps in which all the privates were gentlemen.

In effect, the defeat of the centre, which was now borne back above a mile from the field of battle, exposed the left wing, between Aujezd and Sokolnitz, to the most imminent danger. Rapidly following up his success, Napoleon caused his reserves, consisting of the grenadiers of Oudinot and the Imperial Guard, to wheel to the right to aid Soult in attacking the rear of that wing, while Davoust, near Sokolnitz, pressed its front. They first came up with a division of six thousand men, who were retracing their steps, too late, to support the centre. Assailed at once in front and both flanks by immense masses of infantry and cavalry flushed with victory, this body was speedily defeated, and half of its number made prisoners. Rapidly advancing from left to right, the victorious French next came upon Langeron, who shared the same fate: and the survivors from his division, flying for refuge to Buxhowden, first communicated to that general the melancholy intelligence of the disasters which had befallen the central divisions of the army. He immediately formed his troops into close column, and began to debouch from Aujezd with a view to regain, by a road between the marshes of the Littawa and

It is the moment when Rapp returned with his charger all bloody, to announce this decisive success, that Gerard has selected for his admirable and well-known picture of the battle of Austerlitz.-RAPP, 62.

the high grounds which adjoin them of their battalions on the heights to the north, the remains of the army which in the morning had been at Austerlitz. But before they had crowded with the enemy, the French proceeded half a mile, the marching troops in that quarter redoubled column was furiously attacked in flank their efforts, and Lannes and Murat at different points by the victorious exerted all their energies to complete French, who succeeded in piercing it the discomfiture of their gallant opthrough the middle, and separating ponents. For five hours the combat Buxhowden with a few battalions in continued without any decisive adadvance from the remainder of the vantage, the sharp rattle of the musketarray. The unhappy body which was ry interrupted at intervals by thundercut off, consisting of eight-and-twenty ing charges of horse: but at noon the battalions, under Doctoroff and Lan- Allies sensibly gave way. The heights geron, was soon assailed in front, flank, of Blasowitz, the plateau of Kruh, the and rear, by the Imperial Guard, Soult, village of Hollubitz, were successively and Davoust. After a brave resis- carried; and at length the Russians, tance, they were at length overwhelm- entirely dislodged from the ridge of ed: seven thousand were taken or de-eminences they had occupied in the stroyed on the spot, and great numbers sought to save themselves by crossing, with their artillery and cavalry, the frozen lake of Satschan which adjoined their line of march. The ice was already beginning to yield under the enormous weight, when the shot from the French batteries on the heights above broke it in all directions: a frightful yell arose from the perishing multitude, and above two thousand brave men were swallowed up in the waves. Though great part of Doctoroff's corps, however, was destroyed, that general conducted himself with the most heroic resolution. Taking advantage of a rising ground which in some degree covered his rear, 135. Thus terminated the battle of he drew up the remains of his corps Austerlitz, the most glorious of all the in three lines the cavalry in the victories of Napoleon-that in which front line, the artillery in the second, his military genius shone forth with the infantry in rear. They there pre- the brightest lustre; for the stroke, served a firm countenance, while some which at once re-established his affairs squadrons of horse explored a line of and prostrated Europe, was most clearretreat between the lake of Satschan ly owing to the manifest superiority of and that of Menitz. Part succeeded his manoeuvres. The loss of the Allies in making their way through; but the was immense. Thirty thousand men larger portion were cut down by Mu- were killed, wounded, or made prisonrat's dragoons. "I had seen," "said ers: a hundred and eighty pieces of Langeron, an eyewitness, “many bat-cannon, four hundred caissons, and tles lost; but I could not have formed an idea of such a defeat."

134. While these decisive successes were gained in the centre and right, the French left had also entirely prevailed over its opponents. Encouraged by the cries of victory which they heard to their right, and the sight

morning, were assembled in one close column by Bagrathion, and commenced their retreat in the direction of Austerlitz. Suchet and Murat, at the head of their respective divisions of infantry and cavalry, succeeded in breaking part of that mass, and dislodging it from the road to Olmütz, where almost the whole of the baggage of the Allies fell into the hands of the victors. By great exertions and heroic resolution, Bagrathion succeeded, before nightfall, in effecting his retreat with the remainder to Austerlitz, already filled with the wounded, the fugitives, and the stragglers from every part of the army.

*

forty-five standards, remained the trophies of the victor's triumph; and the disorganisation of the combined forces was complete. It is true, these advantages had been dearly purchased;

600 Austrians; but a considerable proportion The prisoners were 19,000 Russians and of them were wounded.

twelve thousand French had been while Prussia, with one hundred thoukilled or wounded in the struggle; but sand men, was preparing from Saxony the Allies were cut off from the road to pour into Franconia, and entirely to Olmütz, and their line of retreat to cut off all communication with the wards Hungary exposed them to be Rhine. How was it possible, with such harassed by Davoust in flank, while forces accumulating in his rear, to adNapoleon's victorious legions thunder- vance further into the wilds of Sarmaed in their rear. Such was the con- tia in pursuit of his Scythian foe? Yet sternation produced by this disaster, how could he remain where he was, to that, in a council held at midnight at permit them to encircle him with their the Emperor Francis' headquarters, it arms? Or how retreat, without the was resolved, by a great majority, that commencement of a series of disasters the further prolongation of hostilities which would certainly dissipate the was hopeless; and at four in the morn- magical influence of his success, and ing Prince Lichtenstein was despatch- might lead to the total overthrow of ed to the headquarters of Napoleon to his power? propose an armistice.

137. Impressed with these ideas, it was with the most lively satisfaction that Napoleon heard of the arrival of the Austrian envoy at his headquarters, and foresaw the means of extricating himself from his present embarrassments, not only without further danger, but with the utmost possible éclat. As on the Carinthian mountains in 1797, and at Marengo in 1801, he found an audacious and perilous advance followed by the highest triumph and success. Profoundly skilled in dissimulation, however, he carefully concealed these sentiments in the recesses of his bosom, and to the Prince Lichtenstein spoke only of the magnitude of the sacrifices which he made in consenting to any accommodation, and the

136. There was no difficulty in coming to an understanding. Napoleon was too well aware of the magnitude of the danger from which he had escaped, and the serious nature of the perils with which he was still environed, to hesitate about accepting any offers which might detach the Emperor of Germany from the alliance. He had gained, it is true, one of the most brilliant victories on record in the annals of war, and the Russian army was threatened with a disastrous retreat, which would in all probability double its losses: but it was the very immensity of the success which he had achieved which was the source of his embarrassment. Was he prepared, in the depth of winter, to follow the Mus-immense advantages which, by the con. covite standards into the recesses of Poland or the Ukraine, and incur the hazard of rousing a national war by approaching the frontiers of old Russia? Supposing he were, what were the enemies which he would leave on his flanks and rear? The Archduke Charles, at the head of eighty thousand men in the finest condition, was approaching Vienna, and had already summoned the French garrison in that capital to surrender, while his opponent, Massena, was still far on the other side of the Julian Alps. Hungary, with its ancient spirit, was rising en masse at his approach. The Archduke Ferdinand, with the aid of the Bohemian levies, had just chased the Bavarians from Iglau. The Russian reserves were approaching Olmütz;

tinuance of hostilities, were within his grasp. The better to increase the terror of his arms, he refused to suspend the march of his victorious legions, and, appointing the following day for the interview with the Emperor of Germany, gave orders in the mean time for following up the enemy with the utmost possible vigour.

138. Meanwhile the allied army, extremely weakened and in deep dejection, continued its retreat, not without sustaining a considerable loss from the attacks made on its rear-guard. They crossed the Marche, and the Emperor of Russia established his headquarters at the chateau of Holitsch; but the Emperor Francis remained nearer the French outposts at Czeitch, in order to be ready for the conference which