XXII. .1797. river, to make head against the Republican armies. CHAP. Fresh levies of men were made in Bohemia, Illyria, and Galicia; the contingents of Tyrol were quadrupled; and the Hungarian nobility, imitating the example of their ancestors in the time of Maria Theresa, voted 20,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, besides immense stores of provisions and forage, for the ensuing campaign. These forces, speedily raised, were animated with that firm and persevering spirit 22d Nov. which has always characterised the Austrian nation; the enthusiasm of the people, awakened by the near Great spirit approach of danger, rose to the highest pitch; and ditary the recruits, hastily moved forward, soon filled the States. shattered battalions on the banks of the Tagliamento. But new levies, however brave, do not at once form soldiers; the young recruits were no match for the veterans of Napoleon; and by an inexplicable tardiness, attended with the most disastrous effects, the experienced soldiers from the army of the Rhine were not brought up till it was too late for them to Jom. x. 9, be of any service in the issue of the campaign.' in the Here 27, 28. the arrival trian vete rans. Anxious to strike a decisive blow before this great reinforcement arrived, Napoleon commenced opera- Napoleon tions on the 10th March, when the Archduke had anticipates only assembled 30,000 men on the Tagliamento, and of the Auswhen three weeks must yet elapse before the like number of veteran troops could even begin to arrive from the Rhine. Nothing demonstrates more clearly the vital importance of time in war; to this fatal delay all the disasters of the campaign were immediately owing. The summits of the Alps were still 'Th. ix. 63, resplendent with snow and ice, but this only inflamed 27. Nap the ambition of the youthful conqueror.* 65. Jom. x. iv. 68. Dangers of In commencing operations thus early, however, the French general incurred a fearful risk. The armies that plan. XXII. 1797. CHAP. of the Republic on the Rhine were not in a condition to take the field for a month afterwards, and Napoleon was about to precipitate himself into the midst of the Austrian monarchy without any other support than what he could derive from his own forces. Had the Archduke collected his army in the Tyrol, instead of Carinthia, summoned to his standard the enthusiastic peasantry of that province, and fallen back, in case of need, on his reinforcements coming up from the Rhine, he would have covered Vienna just as effectually as on the direct road, accelerated by three weeks the junction with those forces, and probably totally changed the fate of the campaign. But it is hard to say whether the Aulic Council or the Directory did most to ruin the designs of their victorious generals; for the former obliged the Archduke to assemble his army on the Tagliamento, instead of the Adige; while the latter refused to ratify the treaty with the King of Sardinia, by which Napoleon had calculated on a subsidiary force of 10,000 men, to protect the rear and maintain the communications of his army. To compensate this loss, he had laboured all the winter to conclude an alliance with the Venetian republic; but its haughty, yet timid aristocracy, worn out with the French exactions, not only declined his overtures, but manifested some symptoms of alienation from the Republican interest, which obliged the French general to leave a considerable force in the neighbourhood of Verona, to overawe their vacillating councils. Thus Napoleon was left alone to hazard an irruption into the Austrian states, and scale the Noric and Julian Alps with 60,000 men, leaving on his left the warlike province of Tyrol, by which his communications with the Adige might be cut off, and on his right XXII. Croatia and the Venetian states, the first of which CHAP. was warmly attached to the house of Austria, while the last might be expected on the least reverse to 1 Jom. x. join the same standard.' 1797. 28. Nap. iv. 69, 73. Th. of the theatre of Three great roads lead from Verona across the ix. 63, 64. Alps to Vienna; that of Tyrol, that of Carinthia, and that of Carniola. The first, following the line Description of the Adige by Bolzano and Brixen, crosses the ridge of the Brenner into the valley of the Inn, from war. whence it passes by Salzbourg into that of the Danube, and descends to Vienna after passing the Ens. The second traverses the Vicentine and Trevisane Marches, crosses the Piave and the Tagliamento, surmounts the Alps by the Col de Tarwis, descends into Carinthia, crosses the Drave at Villach, and, by Klagenfurth and the course of the Muer, mounts the Simmering, from whence it descends into the plain of Vienna. The third, by Carinthia, passes the Isonzo at Gradisca, goes through Laybach, crosses the Save and the Drave, enters Styria, passes Gratz, the capital of that province, and joins the immediately preceding road at Bruck. Five lateral roads lead Its roads. from the chaussée of Tyrol to that of Carinthia; the first, branching off from Brixen, joins the other at Villach; the second, from Salzbourg, leads to Spital; the third, from Lintz, traverses a lofty ridge to Judembourg; the fourth, from Ens, crosses to Leoben; the fifth, from Pollen, to Bruck. Three cross roads unite the chaussée of Carinthia with that of Carniola ; the first branches off from Gonzia, and following the course of the Isonzo, joins, at Tarwis, the route of Carinthia; the second connects Laybach and Klagenfurth: the third, setting out from Marbourg, also 29. Th. ix. terminates at Klagenfurth. Nap. iv. 71, 72. Jom. x. 30, 64, 65. The rivers which descend from this chain of And rivers. XXII. 1797. Napoleon resolves to turn the Austrian right. CHAP. mountains into the Adriatic sea, did not present any formidable obstacles. The Piave and the Tagliamento were hardly defensible; and although the line of the Isonzo was far stronger, yet it was susceptible of being turned by the Col de Tarwis. By accumulating the mass of his forces on his own left and penetrating through the higher ridges, Napoleon perceived that he would overcome all the obstacles which nature had opposed to his advance, and turn all the Austrian positions by the Alps which commanded them. He directed Massena, accordingly, to turn the right flank of the enemy with his powerful division, while the three others attacked them in front at the same time. Joubert, with 17,000 men, received orders to force the passes of the Italian Tyrol, and drive the enemy over the Brenner; and Victor, who was still on the Apennines, was destined to move forward with his division, which successive additions would raise to 20,000 men, to the Adige, to keep in check the Venetian levies, and secure the communications of the army. Thirty-five thousand of the Austrian forces, under the Archduke in person, were assembled on the left bank of the Tagliamento; the remainder of his army, 15,000 strong, were in Tyrol 33. Nap. iv. at Bolzano, while 30,000 of his best troops were only beginning their march from the Upper Rhine.' Napoleon moved his headquarters to Bassano on Napoleon's the 9th March, and addressed the following order Proclama- of the day to his army:-" Soldiers! The fall of 1 Jom. X. 72, 73. Th. ix. 67. tion to his soldiers. Mantua has terminated the war in Italy, which has given you eternal titles to the gratitude of your country. You have been victorious in fourteen pitched battles and seventy combats: you have made 100,000 prisoners, taken 500 pieces of field-artillery; 2000 of heavy calibre, and four sets of pontoons. XXII. 1797. The contributions you have levied on the vanquished CHAP. countries have clothed, fed, and paid the army, and you have, besides, sent 30,000,000 of francs to the public treasury. You have enriched the Museum of Paris with 300 chef-d'œuvres of art, the produce of thirty centuries. You have conquered the finest countries in Europe for the Republic; the Transpadane and Cispadane Republics owe to you their freedom. The French colours now fly, for the first time, on the shores of the Adriatic, in front, and within twenty-four hours' sail of the country of Alexander! The kings of Sardinia, of Naples, the Pope, the Duke of Parma, have been detached from the coalition. You have chased the English from Leghorn, Genoa, Corsica, and now still higher destinies await you: you will show yourselves worthy of them! Of all the enemies who were leagued against the Republic, the Emperor alone maintains the contest; but he is blindly led by that perfidious cabinet, which, a stranger to the evils of war, smiles at the sufferings of the Continent. Peace can no longer be found but in the heart of the Hereditary States: in seeking it there, you will respect the religion, the manners, the property of a brave people: you will bring free- Nap. iv. dom to the valiant Hungarian nation.”1 1 76. rest excited in Europe The approaching contest, between the Archduke Charles and Napoleon, excited the utmost interest Great intethroughout Europe, both from the magnitude of the cause which they respectively bore upon their swords, by the approaching and the great deeds which, on different theatres, they contest. had severally achieved. The one appeared resplendent, from the conquest of Italy; the other illustrious, from the deliverance of Germany: the age of both was the same; their courage equal, their mutual respect reciprocal. But their dispositions |