Part 5 (1/2)

[Footnote 15: Vide Graf's History of Muhlhausen.]

CCLII. The Second Coalition

Prussia looked calmly on, with a view of increasing her power by peace while other states ruined themselves by war, and of offering her arbitration at a moment when she could turn their mutual losses to advantage. Austria, exposed to immediate danger by the occupation of Switzerland by the French, remained less tranquil and hastily formed a fresh coalition with England and Russia. Catherine II. had expired, 1796. Her son, Paul I., cherished the most ambitious views. His election as grand-master of the Maltese order dispersed by Napoleon had furnished him with a sort of right of interference in the affairs of the Levant and of Italy. On the 1st of March, 1799, the Ionian Islands, Corfu, etc., were occupied by Russian troops, and a Russian army, under the terrible Suwarow, moved, in conjunction with the troops of Austria, upon Italy. The project of the Russian czar was, by securing his footing on the Mediterranean and at the same time encircling Turkey, to attack Constantinople on both sides, on the earliest opportunity. Austria was merely to serve as a blind tool for the attainment of his schemes. Mack was despatched to Naples for the purpose of bringing about a general rising in Southern Italy against the French, and England lavished gold. The absence of Bonaparte probably inspired several of the allied generals with greater courage, not the French, but he, being the object of their dread. The conduct of the French at Rastadt had revolted every German and had justly raised their most implacable hatred, which burst forth during a popular tumult at Vienna, when the tricolor, floating from the palace of General Bernadotte, the French amba.s.sador, was torn down and burned. The infamous a.s.sa.s.sination of the French amba.s.sadors at Rastadt also took place during this agitated period. Bonnier, Roberjot, and Jean de Bry quitted Rastadt on the breaking out of war, and were attacked and cut to pieces by some Austrian hussars in a wood close to the city gate. Jean de Bry alone escaped, although dangerously wounded, with his life. This atrocious act was generally believed to have been committed through private revenge, or, what is far more probable, for the purpose of discovering by the papers of the amba.s.sadors the truth of the reports at that time in circulation concerning the existence of a conspiracy and projects for the establishment of republics throughout Germany. The real motive was, however, not long ago,[1] unveiled. Austria had revived her ancient projects against Bavaria, and, as early as 1798, had treated with the French Directory for the possession of that electorate in return for her toleration of the occupatign of Switzerland by the troops of the republic. The venerable elector, Charles Theodore, who had been already persuaded to cede Bavaria and to content himself with Franconia, dying suddenly of apoplexy while at the card-table, was succeeded by his cousin, Maximilian Joseph of Pfalz-Zweibrucken, from whom, on account of his numerous family, no voluntary cession was to be expected either for the present or future. Thugut and Lehr-bach, the rulers of the Viennese cabinet, in the hope of compromising and excluding him, as a traitor to the empire, from the Bavarian succession, by the production of proofs of his being the secret ally of France, hastily resolved upon the a.s.sa.s.sination of the French amba.s.sadors at Rastadt, on the bare supposition of their having in their possession doc.u.ments in the handwriting of the elector. None were, however, discovered, the French envoys having either taken the precaution of destroying them or of committing them to the safe-keeping of the Prussian amba.s.sador. This crime was, as Hormayr observes, at the same time, a political blunder. This horrible act was perpetrated on the 28th of April, 1799.

The campaign had, a month anterior to this event, been opened by the French, who had attacked the Austrians in their still scattered positions. Disunion prevailed as usual in the Austrian military council. The Archduke Charles proposed the invasion of France from the side of Swabia. The occupation of Switzerland by the troops of Austria was, nevertheless, resolved upon, and General Auffenberg, accordingly, entered the Grisons. The French instantly perceived and hastened to antic.i.p.ate the designs of the Austrian cabinet. Auffenberg was defeated by Ma.s.sena on the St. Luciensteig and expelled the Grisons, while Hotze on the Vorarlberg and Bellegarde in the Tyrol looked calmly on at the head of fifteen thousand men. The simultaneous invasion of Swabia by Jourdan now induced the military council at Vienna to accede to the proposal formerly made by the Archduke Charles, who was despatched with the main body of the army to Swabia, where, on the 25th of March, 1799, he gained a complete victory over Jourdan at Ostrach and Stockach.[2] The Grisons were retaken in May by Hotze, and, in June, the archduke joining him, Ma.s.sena was defeated at Zurich, and the steep pa.s.ses of Mont St. Gothard were occupied by Haddik. Ma.s.sena was, however, notwithstanding the immense numerical superiority of the archduke's forces, which could easily have driven him far into France, allowed to remain undisturbed at Bremgarten. The French, under Scherer, in Italy, had, meanwhile, been defeated, in April, by Kray, at Magnano. This success was followed by the arrival of Melas from Vienna, of Bellegarde from the Tyrol, and lastly, by that of the Russian vanguard under Suwarow, who took the chief command and beat the whole of the French forces in Italy; Moreau, at Ca.s.sano and Marengo, in May; Macdonald, on his advance from Lower Italy, on the Trebbia, in June; and finally, Joubert, in the great battle of Novi, in which Joubert was killed, August the 15th, 1799. Dissensions now broke out among the victors. A fourth of the forces in Italy belonged to Austria, merely one-fifth to Russia; the Austrians, consequently, imagined that the war was merely carried on on their account. The Austrian forces were, against Suwarow's advice, divided, for the purpose of reducing Mantua and Alessandria and of occupying Tuscany. The king of Sardinia, whom Suwarow desired to restore to his throne, was forbidden to enter his states by the Austrians, who intended to retain possession of them for some time longer. The whole of Italy, as far as Ancona and Genoa, was now freed from the French, whom the Italians, embittered by their predatory habits, had aided to expel, and Suwarow received orders to join his forces with those under Korsakow, who was then on the Upper Rhine with thirty thousand men.

The archduke might, even without this fresh reinforcement, have already annihilated Ma.s.sena had he not remained during three months, from June to August, in a state of complete inactivity; at the very moment of Suwarow's expected arrival he allowed the important pa.s.ses of the St. Gothard to be again carried by a coup de main by the French under General Lecourbe, who drove the Austrians from the Simplon, the Furca, the Grimsel, and the Devil's bridge. The archduke, after an unsuccessful attempt to push across the Aar at Dettingen, suddenly quitted the scene of war and advanced down the Rhine for the purpose of supporting the English expedition under the Duke of York against Holland. This unexpected turn in affairs proceeded from Vienna. The Viennese cabinet was jealous of Russia. Suwarow played the master in Italy, favored Sardinia at the expense of the house of Habsburg, and deprived the Austrians of the laurels and of the advantages they had won. The archduke, accordingly, received orders to remain inactive, to abandon the Russians, and finally to withdraw to the north; by this movement Suwarow's triumphant progress was checked, he was compelled to cross the Alps to the aid of Korsakow, and to involve himself in a mountain warfare ill-suited to the habits of his soldiery.[3]

Korsakow, whom Bavaria had been bribed with Russian gold to furnish with a corps one thousand strong, was solely supported by Kray and Hotze with twenty thousand men. Ma.s.sena, taking advantage of the departure of the archduke and the non-arrival of Suwarow, crossed the Limmat at Dietikon and shut Korsakow, who had imprudently stationed himself with his whole army in Zurich, so closely in, that, after an engagement that lasted two days, from the 15th to the 17th of September, the Russian general was compelled to abandon his artillery and to force his way through the enemy. Ten thousand men were all that escaped.[4] Hotze, who had advanced from the Grisons to Schwyz to Suwarow's rencounter, was, at the same time, defeated and killed at Schannis. Suwarow, although aware that the road across the St. Gothard was blocked by the lake of the four cantons, on which there were no boats, had the folly to attempt the pa.s.sage. In Airolo, he was obstinately opposed by the French under Lecourbe, and, although Schweikowski contrived to turn this strong position by scaling the pathless rocks, numbers of the men were, owing to Suwarow's impatience, sacrificed before it. On the 24th of September, 1799, he at length climbed the St. Gothard, and a b.l.o.o.d.y engagement, in which the French were worsted, took place on the Oberalpsee. Lecourbe blew up the Devil's bridge, but, leaving the Urnerloch open, the Russians pushed through that rocky gorge, and, das.h.i.+ng through the foaming Reuss, scaled the opposite rocks and drove the French from their position behind the Devil's bridge. Altorf on the lake was reached in safety by the Russian general, who was compelled, owing to the want of boats, to seek his way through the valleys of Shachen and Muotta, across the almost impa.s.sable rocks, to Schwyz. The heavy rains rendered the undertaking still more arduous; the Russians, owing to the badness of the road, speedily became barefoot; the provisions were also exhausted. In this wretched state they reached Muotta on the 29th of September and learned the discouraging news of Korsakow's defeat.

Ma.s.sena had already set off in the hope of cutting off Suwarow, but had missed his way. He reached Altorf, where he joined Lecourbe on the 29th, when Suwarow was already at Muotta, whence Ma.s.sena found on his arrival he had again retired across the Bragelberg, through the Klonthal. He was opposed on the lake of Klonthal by Molitor, who was, however, forced to retire by Auffenberg, who had joined Suwarow at Altorf and formed his advanced guard, Rosen, at the same time, beating off Ma.s.sena with the rear-guard, taking five cannons and one thousand of his men prisoners. On the 1st of October, Suwarow entered Glarus, where he rested until the 4th, when he crossed the Panixer mountains through snow two feet deep to the valley of the Rhine, which he reached on the 10th, after losing the whole of his beasts of burden and two hundred of his men down the precipices; and here ended his extraordinary march, which had cost him the whole of his artillery, almost all his horses, and a third of his men.

The archduke had, meanwhile, tarried on the Rhine, where he had taken Philippsburg and Mannheim, but had been unable to prevent the defeat of the English expedition under the Duke of York by General Brune at Bergen, on the 19th of September. The archduke now, for the first time, made a retrograde movement, and approached Korsakow and Suwarow.

The different leaders, however, merely reproached each other, and the czar, perceiving his project frustrated, suddenly recalled his troops and the campaign came to a close. The archduke's rearguard was defeated in a succession of petty skirmishes at Heidelberg and on the Neckar by the French, who again pressed forward.[5] These disasters were counterbalanced by the splendid victory gained by Melas in Italy, at Savigliano, over Championnet, who attempted to save Genoa.

Austria was no sooner deprived in Suwarow of the most efficient of her allies than she was attacked by her most dangerous foe. Bonaparte returned from Egypt. The news of the great disasters of the French in Italy no sooner arrived, than he abandoned his army and hastened, completely unattended, to France, through the midst of the English fleet, then stationed in the Mediterranean. His arrival in Paris was instantly followed by his public nomination as generalissimo. He alone had the power of restoring victory to the standard of the republic.

The ill success of his rivals had greatly increased his popularity; he had become indispensable to his countrymen. His power was alone obnoxious to the weak government, which, aided by the soldiery, he dissolved on the 9th of November (the 18th Brumaire, by the modern French calendar); he then bestowed a new const.i.tution upon France and placed himself, under the t.i.tle of First Consul, at the head of the republic.

In the following year, 1800, Bonaparte made preparations for a fresh campaign against Austria, under circ.u.mstances similar to those of the first. But this time he was more rapid in his movements and performed more astonis.h.i.+ng feats. Suddenly crossing the St. Bernard, he fell upon the Austrian flank. Genoa, garrisoned by Ma.s.sena, had just been forced by famine to capitulate. Ten days afterward, on the 14th of June, Bonaparte gained such a decisive victory over Melas, the Austrian general, at Marengo,[6] that he and the remainder of his army capitulated on the ensuing day. The whole of Italy fell once more into the hands of the French. Moreau had, at the same time, invaded Germany and defeated the Austrians under Kray in several engagements, princ.i.p.ally at Stockach and Moskirch,[7] and again at Biberach and Hochstadt, laid Swabia and Bavaria under contribution, and taken Ratisbon, the seat of the diet. An armistice, negotiated by Kray, was not recognized by the emperor, and he was replaced in his command by the Archduke John (not Charles), who was, on the 3d of December, totally routed by Moreau's manoeuvres during a violent snowstorm, at Hohenlinden. A second Austrian army, despatched into Italy, was also defeated by Brune on the Mincio. These disasters once more inclined Austria to peace, which was concluded at Luneville, on the 9th of February, 1801. The Archduke Charles seized this opportunity to propose the most beneficial reforms in the war administration, but was again treated with contempt. In the ensuing year, 1802, England also concluded peace at Amiens.

The whole of the left bank of the Rhine was, on this occasion, ceded to the French republic. The petty republics, formerly established by France in Italy, Switzerland, and Holland, were also renewed and were recognized by the allied powers. The Cisalpine republic was enlarged by the possessions of the grandduke of Tuscany and of the duke of Modena, to whom compensation in Germany was guaranteed. Suwarow's victories had, in the autumn of 1799, rendered a conclave, on the death of the captive pope, Pius VI., in France, possible, for the purpose of electing his successor, Pius VII., who was acknowledged as such by Bonaparte, whose favor he purchased by expressing his approbation of the seizure of the property of the church during the French Revolution, and by declaring his readiness to agree to the secularization of church property, already determined upon, in Germany.

The Helvetian Directory fell, like that of France, and was replaced by an administrative council, composed of seven members, in 1800. The upholders of ancient cantonal liberty, now known under the denomination of Federalists, gained the upper hand, and Aloys Reding, who had, shortly before, been denounced as a rebel, became Landammann of Switzerland. Bonaparte even invited him to Paris in order to settle with him the future fate of Switzerland. Reding, however, showing an unexpected degree of firmness, and, unmoved by either promises or threats, obstinately refusing to permit the annexation of Valais to France, Bonaparte withdrew his support and again favored the Helvetlers. Dolder and Savari, who had long been the creatures of France, failing in their election, were seated by Verninac, the French amba.s.sador, in the senate of the Helvetian republic, and Reding, who was at that moment absent, was divested of his office as Landammann.

Reding protested against this arbitrary conduct and convoked a federal diet to Schwyz.

Andermatt, general of the Helvetian republic, attempted to seize Zurich, which had joined the federalists, but was compelled to withdraw, covered with disgrace. An army of federalists under General Bachmann repulsed the Helvetlers in every direction and drove them, together with the French envoys, across the frontier. Bonaparte, upon this, sent a body of thirty to forty thousand men, under Ney, into Switzerland, which met with no opposition, the federalists being desirous of avoiding useless bloodshed and being already acquainted with Bonaparte's secret projects. He would not tolerate opposition on their part, like that of Reding: he had resolved upon getting possession of Valais at any price, on account of the road across the Simplon, so important to him as affording the nearest communication between Paris and Milan: in all other points, he perfectly coincided with the federalists and was willing to grant its ancient independence to every canton in Switzerland, where disunion and petty feuds placed the country the more securely in his hands. With feigned commiseration for the inept.i.tude of the Swiss to settle their own disputes, he invited deputies belonging to the various factions and cantons to Paris, lectured them like schoolboys, and compelled them by the Act of Mediation, under his intervention, to give a new const.i.tution to Switzerland. Valais was annexed to France in exchange for the Austrian Frickthal. Nineteen cantons were created.[8] Each canton again administered its internal affairs. Bonaparte was never weary of painting the happy lot of petty states and the delights of petty citizens.h.i.+p. ”But ye are too weak, too helpless, to defend yourselves; cast yourselves therefore into the arms of France, ready to protect you while, free from taxation, and from the burdensome maintenance of an army, ye dwell free and independent in your native vales.” The Swiss, although no longer to have a national army, were, nevertheless, compelled to furnish a contingent of eighteen thousand men to that of France, and, while deluded by the idea of their freedom from taxation, the fifteen millions of French _bons_ given in exchange for the numerous Swiss loans were cas.h.i.+ered by Bonaparte, under pretext of the Swiss having been already sufficiently paid by their deliverance from their enemies by the French.[9] The real Swiss patriots implored the German powers to protect their country, the bulwark of Germany against France; but Austria was too much weakened by her own losses, and Prussia handed the letters addressed to her from Switzerland over to the First Consul.

The melancholy business, commenced by the empire at the congress of Rastadt, and which had been broken off by the outbreak of war, had now to be recommenced. Fresh compensations had been rendered necessary by the robberies committed upon the Italian princes. The church property no longer sufficed to satisfy all demands, and fresh seizures had become requisite. A committee of the diet was intrusted with the settlement of the question of compensation, which was decided on the 25th of February, 1803, by a decree of the imperial diet. All the great powers of Germany had not suffered; all had not, consequently, a right to demand compensation, but, in order to appease their jealousy, all were to receive a portion of the booty. The three spiritual electorates, Mayence, Treves, and Cologne, were abolished, their position on the other side of the Rhine including them within the French territory. The archbishop of Mayence alone retained his dignity, and was transferred to Ratisbon. The whole of the imperial free cities were moreover deprived of their privileges, six alone excepted, Lubeck, Hamburg,[10] Bremen, Frankfort, Augsburg, and Nuremberg. The unsecularized bishoprics and abbeys were abolished. The petty princes, counts and barons, and the Teutonic order, were still allowed to exist, in order ere long to be included in the general ruin.

Prussia retained the bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderborn, a part of Munster, numerous abbeys and imperial free towns in Westphalia and Thuringia, more particularly Erfurt. Bavaria had ever suffered on the conclusion of peace between France and Austria; in 1797, she had ceded the Rhenish Pfalz to France and a province on the Inn to Austria; by the treaty of Luneville she had been, moreover, compelled to raze the fortress of Ingolstadt.[11] The inclination for French innovations displayed by the reigning duke, Maximilian Joseph, who surrounded himself with the old Illuminati, caused her, on this occasion, by Bonaparte's aid, to be richly compensated by the annexation of the bishoprics of Bamberg, Wurzburg, Augsburg, and Freisingen, with several small towns, etc.; all the monasteries were abolished. Bavaria had formerly supported the inst.i.tutions of the ancient church of Rome more firmly than Austria, where reforms had already been begun in the church by Joseph II. Hanover received Osnabruck; Baden, the portion of the Pfalz on this side the Rhine, the greatest part of the bishoprics of Constance, Basel, Strasburg, and Spires, also on this side the Rhine; Wurtemberg, both Hesses (Ca.s.sel and Darmstadt); and Na.s.sau, all the lands in the vicinity formerly belonging to the bishopric of Mayence, to imperial free towns and petty lords.h.i.+ps. Ferdinand, grandduke of Tuscany, younger brother to the emperor Francis II., was compelled to relinquish his hereditary possessions in Italy,[12] and received in exchange Salzburg, Eichstadt, and Pa.s.sau. Ferdinand, duke of Modena, uncle to the emperor Francis II. and younger brother to the emperors Leopold II. and Joseph II., also resigned his duchy,[13] for which he received the Breisgau in exchange. William V., hereditary stadtholder of Holland, who had been expelled his states, also received, on this occasion, in compensation for his son of like name (he was himself already far advanced in years), the rich abbey of Fulda, which was created the princ.i.p.ality of Orange-Fulda.[14] The electoral dignity was at the same time bestowed upon the Archduke Ferdinand, the Landgrave of Hesse-Ca.s.sel, the duke of Wurtemberg, and the Margrave of Baden.

Submission, although painful, produced no opposition. The power of the imperial free cities had long pa.s.sed away,[15] and the spiritual princes no longer wielded the sword. The manner in which the officers of the princes took possession, the insolence with which they treated the subject people, the fraud and embezzlement that were openly practiced, are merely excusable on account of the fact that Germany was, notwithstanding the peace, still in a state of war. The decree of the imperial diet can scarcely be regarded as the ignominious close of a good old time, but rather as a violent but beneficial incisure in an old and rankling sore. With the petty states, a ma.s.s of vanity and pedantry disappeared on the one side, pusillanimity and servility on the other; the ideas of the subjects of a large state have naturally a wider range; the monasteries, those dens of superst.i.tion, the petty princely residences, those hotbeds of French vice and degeneracy, the imperial free towns, those abodes of petty burgher prejudice, no longer existed. The extension of the limits of the states rendered the gradual introduction of a better administration, the laying of roads, the foundation of public inst.i.tutions of every description, and social improvement, possible. The example of France, the ever-renewed warfare, and the conscriptions, created, moreover, a martial spirit among the people, which, although far removed from patriotism, might still, when compared with the spirit formerly pervading the imperial army, be regarded as a first step from effeminacy, cowardice, and sloth, toward true, unflinching, manly courage.

[Footnote 1: Scenes during the War of Liberation.]

[Footnote 2: Jourdan might easily have been annihilated during his retreat by the imperial cavalry, twenty-seven thousand strong, had his strength and position been better known to his pursuers.]

[Footnote 3: Scenes during the War of Liberation.]

[Footnote 4: The celebrated Lavater was, on this occasion, mortally wounded by a French soldier. The people of Zurich were heavily mulcted by Ma.s.sena for having aided the Austrians to the utmost in their power. Zschokke, who was at that time in the pay of France, wrote against the ”Imperialism” of the Swiss. Vide Haller and Landolt's Life by Hess.]

[Footnote 5: Concerning the wretched provision for the Austrian army, the embezzlement of the supplies, the bad management of the magazines and hospitals, see ”Representation of the Causes of the Disasters suffered by the Austrians,” etc. 1802.]

[Footnote 6: The contest lasted the whole day: the French already gave way on every side, when Desaix led the French centre with such fury to the charge that the Austrians, surprised by the suddenness of the movement, were driven back and thrown into confusion, and the French, rallying at that moment, made another furious onset and tore the victory from their grasp.]

[Footnote 7: The impregnable fortress of Hohentwiel, formerly so gallantly defended by Widerhold, was surrendered without a blow by the cowardly commandant, Bilfinger. Rotenburg on the Tauber, on the contrary, wiped off the disgrace with which she had covered herself during the thirty years' war. A small French skirmis.h.i.+ng party demanded a contribution from this city; the council yielded, but the citizens drove off the enemy with pitchforks.]

[Footnote 8: The ancient ones, Berne, Zurich, Basel, Solothurn, Freiburg, Lucerne, Schaffhausen; the re-established ones, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Glarus, Appenzell, St. Gall (instead of Waldstatten, Linth, and Santis), Valais (instead of Leman), Aargau, Constance, Grisons, Tessin (instead of Lugano and Bellinzona). The Bernese Oberland again fell to Berne. The amba.s.sador, attempting to preserve its independence, was asked by Napoleon: ”Where do you take your cattle, your cheese, etc.?” ”a Berne,” was the reply. ”Whence do you get your grain, cloth, iron, etc.?” ”De Berne.” ”Well,” continued Napoleon, ”de Berne, a Berne, you consequently belong to Berne.”--The Bernese were highly delighted at the restoration of their independence, and the re-erection of the ancient arms of Berne became a joyous fete. A gigantic black bear that was painted on the broad walls of the castle of Trachselwald was visible far down the valley.]