forces were now drawing in every di- | Ney, on the north, completed the circle rection. 56. The honour of the Austrian arms was in some degree maintained by the divided trophies of this bloody conflict; but it was shortly after severely tarnished by a less creditable transaction at Memmingen. The following day, Mack ordered Werneck to follow up Dupont with his division, while Laudon, to cover Werneck's right flank, was pushed on to Elchingen. At the same time he directed Jellachich to march with his division in all haste to Memmingen, to reinforce the garrison of that place, and keep open his communications with the Tyrol. That general, however, arrived too late, and, finding the town already in the hands of the enemy, and fearing that, if he retreated towards Ulm, he would be cut off, he threw himself into the mountains of the Tyrol. On the 11th October, Soult was detached by Napoleon, with his whole corps, from Augsburg, against this town, and after cutting to pieces a regiment of Austrian cuirassiers, whom he encountered on his road, he completed the investment of the place on the 13th. The garrison, four thousand strong, destitute of provisions, intimidated by the great display of force which appeared round their walls, and discouraged by the disastrous issue of the combats which had hitherto taken place, capitulated on the first summons; and then began that ruinous system of laying down their arms in large bodies which, during this campaign, more even than their numerous disasters, tarnished the honour of the Imperial armies. Rapidly pursuing his success, Soult, on the day following, crossed the Iller, and with three of his divisions marched to Biberach, so as to bar the road to Upper Suabia, which hitherto had lain open to the enemy, while the fourth took post on the south-east, before the ramparts of Ulm, where they were shortly after joined by the corps of Marmont and Lannes. On the same day, Napoleon, with the Imperial Guard, advanced from the neighbourhood of Augsburg to Burgau, and established his headquarters there for the night; while of enemies drawn round the unhappy Imperialists. The fate of Mack was already sealed: a hundred thousand French were grouped round the ramparts of Ulm, where fifty thousand Austrians, in deep dejection, were accumulated together. 57. In advancing to Burgau, at the head of his Guards, Napoleon came, at the bridge of the Lech, upon the corps of Marmont, which had been established there on the preceding day. The weather was dreadful; the snow already fell in heavy flakes; the cold was intense; and the soldiers, burdened not only with their arms, but with provisions for several days in every man's knapsack, were slowly toiling over a road rendered almost impassable by the multitude of carriages which had already furrowed its surface. Insensible to the severity of the weather, Napoleon instantly halted, dismissed his own suite to a distance, formed the private soldiers into a dense circle around him, and there harangued them for half an hour, in a loud voice, on the situation and prospects of the campaign. He thanked them for the constancy with which they had encountered difficulties and endured privations the severest to which they could be exposed in war; demonstrated to them the situation of the enemy, cut off from his own country, surrounded by superior forces, and obliged to fight, as at Marengo, in order to open the only avenue which remained for his escape. In the great battle which was approaching, he confidently promised them victory, if they continued to act with the resolution and constancy which they had hitherto evinced. This speech, the circumstances of which as much resemble the harangues of the Roman generals to their legions, as they are characteristic of the French army at that period, and the peculiar turn of mind in their chief, was listened to with profound attention. No sooner was it concluded than shouts and warlike exclamations broke out on all sides, and the joyful visages of the soldiers demonstrated that they fully appreciated the immense advantages which their own exertions and the skill of their chief | occupied. He ordered Ney to proceed had already secured for them. 58. While the formidable legions of Napoleon were thus closing round the Imperial array, the most stormy debates were taking place at the headquarters at Ulm as to the course which should be pursued. Fully alive, as all were, to the extent and imminence of the danger, opinions were yet painfully divided as to the means of salvation which remained to the army. On the one hand, it was urged that the only chance of safety which was left, was to form the troops into one solid mass, and attempt to force a passage towards either Bohemia or the Tyrol; on the other, that the most advisable course was to detach the Archduke Ferdinand with the cavalry and light troops towards the former of these provinces, while Mack himself held Ulm, from whence he might hope either to be delivered by the Russians, or effect his retreat into the latter. A more fatal resolution than that of dividing their forces, in presence of such an enemy, could not possibly have been adopted. But the urgent necessity of providing, at all hazards, for the escape of a member of the Imperial house, overpowered every other consideration: and it was ultimately determined that Mack, with the bulk of the army, should run the hazard of remaining at Ulm, to engage the attention of the enemy, while the Archduke endeavoured, at the head of the cavalry and light troops, to gain the Bohemian mountains. In a military point of view, there could be no doubt that the only plan left was to have retired to the Tyrol, where, by drawing together all his forces, Mack might still have assembled 170,000 combatants; but such a measure would have been an entire departure from the orders of the Aulic Council, which contemplated nothing of the kind, and would have required for its adoption a general wielding the despotic powers of Frederick or Napoleon. 59. At the same moment that this desperate resolution was formed by the Austrian generals, Napoleon was preparing for a general attack, on the following day, on the position which they to Elchingen, and there cross the Danube, so as to regain his original position on the left bank, and advance along it towards Ulm; and he was to be supported, if necessary, by Lannes and Murat. His army would thus form a vast circle round Ulm, at the distance of about two leagues from the ramparts. The advanced posts of the two armies were everywhere in presence of each other. Early on the following morning, Napoleon himself ascended to the chateau of Adelhausen, from the elevated terrace of which he was surveying, by the advancing line of fire, the progress of his tirailleurs in driving in the outposts of the enemy, when his attention was arrested by a violent cannonade on the right. It was occasioned by Marshal Ney, who, at the head of sixteen thousand men, was commencing an attack on the bridge and abbey of ELCHINGEN. The Austrians, fifteen thousand strong, with forty pieces of cannon, under Laudon, had there established themselves in one of the strongest positions which could be imagined. The village of the same name, composed of successive piles of stone houses intersected at right angles by streets, rises in the form of an amphitheatre from the banks of the Danube to a large convent which crowns the summit of the ascent. All the exposed points on these heights were lined with artillery, all the windows filled with musketeers. The bridge over the Danube had been only imperfectly destroyed by the Austrians on the preceding day; but the tottering arches were commanded by the cannon and infantry with which all the opposite heights were covered; and they still had a strong advanced guard on the southern bank of the river. 60. Undeterred by such formidable obstacles, Ney approached with his usual intrepidity to the attack. He had, on several late occasions, had warm altercations with Murat, whose temper, naturally warm, had been rendered doubly arrogant by his recent elevation. On one of these occasions, when Ney had been explaining to him his plan of attack, he had replied that he 61. The resistance of these gallant troops, though fatal to too many of themselves, proved the salvation of the Archduke Ferdinand, and preserved the house of Hapsburg from the disgrace of having one of its princes fall a prisoner into the hands of the enemy. During the desperate strife at Elchingen, the Archduke disposed the troops with which his sortie was to be effected into two divisions, with the one of which, consisting of five thousand cavalry, he set out on the road to Geislingen and Aalen, while Werneck, at the head of the other, moved upon Albeck and Herdenheim: the two were to unite at Nördlingen. The latter corps fell, with forces greatly superior, upon the division of Dupont, stationed between Albeck and Langenau, already severely weakened by the combat at Hasslach; and those brave troops were on the point of being overwhelmed by superior numbers, when Murat, with his cavalry and two divisions of infantry, came up to their support. The arrival of these reinforcements gave the French as great a superiority of numbers as their adversaries had previously possessed, and the Austrians were compelled to retire before nightfall in the direction of Herdenheim. On the day following they were again assailed in their march by Murat, who made eighteen hundred prisoners from their weary columns; but having been joined by the Archduke, at the head of the cavalry, the remainder resolutely continued their endeavours to force their way through the enemy. could not be troubled with such long | their communications; and at length designs, and that for his part he never he retired, having sustained a loss in formed his plan but in presence of the that desperate strife of fifteen hundred enemy. Stung by the undeserved re- killed and wounded, and two thousand proach, Ney resolved to outdo even prisoners. that fearless cavalier in personal daring. Dressed in full uniform, he was everywhere to be seen at the head of the columns, leading the soldiers to the conflict, or rallying such as were staggering under the close and murderous fire of the Austrians. Nothing could at first resist the impetuosity of the French: the Imperial outposts on the south bank of the river were attacked with such vigour that the assailants passed the bridge pell-mell with the fugitives, and, hotly pursuing them up the streets, arrived at the foot of the vast walls of the convent at the summit. There they were arrested by a severe plunging fire from the top of the battlements; while the Imperialists, who had been forced from the streets, took a strong position on their right, from whence they enfiladed the front of the abbey, and threatened to retake the town. Thither they were speedily followed by the French. The same division which had forced the passage of the bridge advanced in the van of the attacking column; and a desperate conflict ensued in front of the wood, which the Austrians held with invincible resolution. In vain the French brought up fresh columns to the fight. The regiments of the Archduke Charles and of Erlach, with heroic bravery, made good their ground, and, though reduced to a fourth of their numbers, still maintained, at the close of the day, their glorious defence. But towards evening, Laudon, though still in possession of the wood and abbey, found that his position was no longer tenable. The French, now in full possession of the bridge, had caused large bodies both of horse and foot to defile over. .* Already their cavalry were sweeping round the Austrian rear, and menacing * It is from this glorious action that Marshal Ney's title of Duke of Elchingen was taken. He exposed his person without hesitation throughout the day, and seemed even to court death; but fate reserved him for greater destinies, and a more melancholy death.-JOMINI, ii. 118. 62. With characteristic adherence to old custom, even in circumstances where it is least advisable to follow it, the Imperialists had encumbered this light corps, whose safety depended on the celerity of its movements, with five hundred waggons, heavily laden. These were speedily charged by the French horse, and captured, with all the drivers and escort by which they were accompanied. Despairing, after these disas ters, of bringing his infantry in safety | cuation of that city, these works had through the hourly increasing masses been hastily attempted to be reconof his pursuers, the Archduke in the structed by Mack, after he saw his renight continued his retreat with the treat cut off in the present campaign: light horse, and by great exertions but the ramparts were incomplete; reached Donauwörth. The vigour and the redoubts, unarmed, were little celerity of the French pursuit were un- better than a heap of rubbish; and exampled. Some of the divisions, in the garrison had not a sufficient force dreadful weather, and through roads at their disposal to man the extensive almost impassable for carriages, march-lines which were in preparation. The ed twelve leagues a-day. The cavalry consequence was that these important were continually on horseback; and, heights, the real defence of Ulm, fell animated by the prospect of gaining so an easy prey to the enemy. Animated brilliant a prize, the troops of all arms by the presence of the Emperor, who made the utmost efforts in the pursuit. had established his headquarters at But the perseverance and skill of the Elchingen, and in person directed the Austrian cavalry triumphed over every operations, the French troops cheerobstacle; and after surmounting a fully advanced amidst torrents of rain, thousand dangers, the Archduke suc- and almost up to the knees in mud, to ceeded in crossing the Altmuhl, and, the attack. Ney speedily carried the by Riedenburg and Ratisbon, gaining Michelsberg, while Suchet made himthe Bohemian frontier, where he was self master of La Tuileries; and before at length enabled to give some days' re- nightfall the French bombs established pose to his wearied followers. But it on the heights were carrying terror and was with a few hundred horse alone death into every part of the city. that he escaped from the pursuit. The remainder of the corps, exhausted with fatigue, and despairing of safety, were surrounded in the neighbourhood of Nördlingen, at Trochtelfingen, by the cavalry of Murat, and to the number of eight thousand men laid down their arms. 63. While these astonishing successes were rewarding the activity of Murat's corps, Napoleon in person was daily contracting the circle which confined the main body of the Imperialists around the ramparts of Ulm. This city, which has since become so celebrated from the disasters which the Austrians there experienced, is surrounded by a wall flanked with bastions and a deep ditch; but it lies in the bottom of a valley, overhung on the north by the heights of Michelsberg and La Tuileries, which command it in every part. These heights, during the campaign of 1800, had been covered by a vast intrenched camp, constructed by the provident wisdom of the Archduke Charles, and it was by their aid that Kray was enabled to arrest the victorious army of Moreau for six weeks before its walls. Totally destroyed by the French after the eva 64. Arrived on the heights of the Michelsberg, Napoleon beheld Ulm, crowded with troops, stretched out within half cannon-shot at his feet, while the positions occupied by his legions precluded all chance of escape to the Austrian army, now reduced by its repeated losses to little more than thirty thousand combatants. Satisfied that they could not escape him, and encouraged by the surrender of Werneck, of which he had just received accounts, he summoned Mack to capitulate, and, returning himself to his headquarters at Elchingen, despatched an officer of his staff, Philippe de Ségur, to conduct the negotiation. Mack at first was persuaded, or attempted to make the French believe he was persuaded, that his situation was by no means desperate, and that he would in a short time be succoured by his allies. He accordingly expressed the greatest indignation at the mention of a capitulation; insisted that the Russians were within five days' march; and ultimately only agreed to surrender if in eight days he was not relieved. "You behold," said he, "men resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity if you do not grant them eight days. I his blockading force would soon receive from the troops who had been victorious over Werneck, and captured the garrison of Memmingen. The prince returned to Ulm with these untoward tidings; and Mack, fallen suddenly from the height of confidence to the depth of despair, agreed to surrender. On the 19th the capitulation was signed, by which the fortress of Ulm was to be given up, and the whole army to lay down its arms, on the 25th, if not before that time relieved by the Rus can maintain myself longer. There are | ample of Jaffa, where he had been in Ulm three thousand horses, which obliged to put the garrison, four thouwe shall consume before surrendering, sand strong, to the sword, and declared with as much pleasure as you would that similar obstinacy would involve do in our place."- "Three thousand the Imperial army in the same lamenthorses!" replied Ségur; "Ah! Marshal, able fate. He pointed out the hopethe want which you experience must lessness of all ideas of rescue from the already be severe indeed, when you Russians, who had not reached the Bothink of so sad a resource!" Mack, how-hemian frontier, and the increase which ever, continued firm, and Ségur returned to Napoleon's headquarters to give an account of his unsuccessful mission. 65. Certain that the Austrians could not be relieved within the time specified by their general, Napoleon sent back Ségur, with a written ultimatum, granting the eight days, counting from the 17th, the first day when the blockade was held to have been established, which in effect reduced the eight days to six. "Eight days, or death!" replied the Austrian general, and at the same time he published a proclama-sian or Austrian armies. tion,* in which he denounced the punishment of death against any one who should mention the word "surrender !" Shortly after, Prince Lichtenstein was despatched to the French headquarters. His astonishment and confusion were extreme, when the bandage was re-venience of so great an accumulation moved from his eyes, and he found himself in presence of the Emperor and his brilliant staff. The Emperor began the conversation, by painting in the gloomiest colours the situation of the Austrian army. He cited the ex The *The proclamation was in these terms:"In the name of his Majesty, I render responsible, on their honour, and their duty, all the generals and superior officers who should mention the word surrender,' or who should think of anything but the most obstinate defence-a defence which cannot require to be prolonged for any considerable time, as in a very few days the advanced guards of an Imperial and a Russian army will appear before Ulm to deliver us. enemy's army is in the most deplorable situation, as well from the want of provisions as the severity of the weather: it is impossible that he can maintain the blockade beyond a few days; and as to trying an assault, it could only be done by little detachments: our ditches are deep, our bastions strong; nothing is more easy than to destroy the assailants. Should provisions fail, we have more than three thousand horses, which will maintain us for a considerable time."-DUM. xiii. 87. VOL VI. 66. These terms were sufficiently disgraceful to the Austrian arms; but Mack had not yet exhausted the cup of humiliation. Napoleon, to whom every hour was precious, and who already began to experience the incon of men without magazines at a single point, perceiving the weakness of the adversary with whom he had to deal, sent for Mack to his headquarters, at + "You expect the Russians?" said Napoleon: "Do you really, then, not know that they have not yet reached Bohemia? Do you suppose I am not fully informed as to your situation? If I let you return on your parole, who will assure me that the soldiers at least will not immediately, in defiance of the capitulation, be employed against me? I have too often already been the dupe of such artifices on the part of your generals. This is not an ordinary war: after the conduct of your government, I have no measures to keep with it. It is you who have attacked ine; I have no faith in your promises. Mack might engage for himself, but he could not do so for his soldiers. If the Archduke Ferdinand were here, I could trust him; but I know he is not. He has crossed the Danube; but I will get hold of him yet. Do you suppose I am to be made a fool of? Here is the capitulation of Memmingen; show it to your general; I will grant him no other: the officers alone can be allowed to return into Austria: the soldiers must be prisoners of war. The longer he delays, the worse will be his ultimate fate."-BOUR. vii. 31, 33. G |