CHAP. XXVII.

1799.

Defeat of

the French.

of his army, alone escaped total destruction by throwing himself across the Danube, the sole bridge over which he was fortunate enough to find unoccupied by the enemy.

This great success, and the consequent separation of St Cyr from the remainder of the army, was decisive of the victory. Souham and Ferino, with the centre and right, had maintained their position, notwithstanding the superiority of force on the part of their opponents; but they had gained no advantage, and they were totally unequal, now that the left wing of the army was separated, and unable to render any assistance, to maintain their ground against the victorious troops of the archduke. Although, therefore, the French had bravely withstood the superior forces of the enemy, and the loss on both sides was nearly equal, amounting to about 5000 men to each party, yet, by the separation of their left wing, they had sustained all the consequences of a serious defeat; and it became necessary, renouncing Arch. Ch. all idea of cooperating with the Republicans in Helvetia, which could not be approached without the sacrifice of St Cyr and his wing, to endeavour to reunite the scattered divisions of the army by a retreat to the passes of the Black Forest.'

i. 198, 202.

Jom. xi. 136, 137.

Th. x. 241.

St Cyr, i

150, 156.

Dum. i. 51.

Jourdan was so much disconcerted with the result of this action, that, after reaching the defiles of that forest, he surrendered the command of the army to Ernouf, the chief of the staff, and set out for Paris, to lay in person his complaints as to the state of the 160, 167. troops before the Directory.2

2 Th. x. 241, 242. Jom. xi. 138, 139.

St Cyr, i.

With superior forces, and 20,000 cavalry, in admirable order, the Austrians had now an opportunity of overwhelming the French army in the course of its retreat to the Rhine, such as never again occurred

XXVII.

1799.

Retreat of

Rhine.

to them till the battle of Leipsic. The archduke CHAP. clearly perceived that there was the decisive point of the campaign; and had he been the unfettered master of his actions, he would, in all probability, the French have constrained the French army to a retreat as across the disastrous as that from Wurtzbourg in 1796; but the Aulic Council, influenced by the erroneous idea that the key to ultimate success, was to be found in the Alps, forbade him to advance towards the Rhine till Switzerland was cleared of the enemy. He was compelled, in consequence, to put his army into cantonments between Engen and Wahlweis, while the Republicans were permitted leisurely to effect their retreat through the Black Forest, by the valley of Kintzig and that of Hell, to the Rhine, while they April 6. crossed at Old Brisach and Kehl a few days after, leaving only posts of observation on the right bank. This retreat compelled Bernadotte, who, with his little army of 8000 men, had already commenced the siege of Philipsburg, to abandon his works with April 7. precipitation and regain the left bank; so that, in a month after the campaign had been commenced, Arch. Ch. with so much presumption and so little considera- i. 211, 218. tion by the Directory, their armies on the German 139, 140. frontier were every where reduced to the defence of Th. x. 242. their own territory.

Jom. xi.

The bad success of their armies at the opening of this campaign, to which the French had been so little accustomed since the brilliant era of Napoleon's victories, might have proved fatal to the government of the Directory, had it not been for an unexpected event which occurred at this time, and restored to the people much of the enthusiasm Jom. xi. and vigour of 1793. This was the massacre of the

141.

XXVIL 1799.

still sitting.

French plenipotentiaries at the Congress of Rastadt.

Though at war with Austria, France was yet at Congress of peace with the German empire, and the Congress Rastadt is at Rastadt was still continuing, under the safeguard of neutrality, its interminable labours. When the victory of Stockach had placed the city of Rastadt in the power of the Imperialists, the Cabinet of Vienna ordered the Count Lehrbach, their minister plenipotentiary, to endeavour to obtain intelligence of the extent to which the princes of the empire had made secret advances to the Directory. The count conceived the most effectual way would be to seize the papers of the French embassy at the moment of their leaving the city, and for this purpose he solicited and obtained from his court authority to require an armed force from the Archduke Charles. That gallant officer refused, in the first instance, to comply with the request, alleging that his soldiers had nothing to do with the concerns of diplomacy; but fresh orders from Vienna obliged him to submit," and a detachment of the hussars of Szeckler was 142. Lac. placed at the disposal of the Imperial plenipotenTh. x. 255. tiary.1

1 Jom. xi.

xiv. 318.

tion.

Towards the end of April, the communications of Its dissolu- the plenipotentiaries at Rastadt having been interrupted by the Austrian patrols, the Republicans addressed an energetic note on the subject to the Austrian authorities, and the remonstrance having been disregarded, the Congress declared itself dissolved. The departure of the ministers was fixed for the 28th April, but the Austrian colonel gave them orders to set out on the 19th, as the town was to be occupied on the following day by the Imperial

XXVII.

1799.

tion of the

ries.

troops, and refused to grant the escort which they CHAP. demanded, upon the plea that it was wholly unnecessary. The French plenipotentaries in consequence, Jean Debry, Bonnier, and Roberjot, set Assassinaout on the same evening for Strasbourg, but they French plehad scarcely left the gates of Rastadt when they were nipotentiaattacked by some drunken hussars of the regiment of Szeckler, who seized them, dragged them out of their carriages, slew Bonnier and Roberjot, notwithstanding the heroic efforts of the wife of the latter to save her husband, and struck down Jean April 19. Debry, by sabre blows, into a ditch, where he escaped destruction only by having the presence of mind to feign that he was already dead. The assassins 236, 238. seized and carried off the papers of the legation, but Jom. xi. committed no other spoliation, and leaving two of Lac. xiv. their victims lifeless, and one desperately wounded, Th. x. 256, on the ground, disappeared in the obscurity of the 275. Procèsnight. Jean Debry, whose wounds were not mortal, Ministères contrived to make his way, after their departure, into Rastadt, and presented himself, bleeding and ex- Lac. xiv. hausted, at the hotel of M. Goertz, the Prussian Ch. i. 224. envoy.'

' Hard. vii.

142, 143.

318, 320.

Verbal des

Plénipotent.

à Rastadt.

435. Arch.

horror

France, and

Europe.

This atrocious violation of the law of nations excited the utmost indignation and horror throughout General Europe. The honour of the Germans felt itself se- which it riously wounded by the calamitous event, and the excites in members of the deputation who remained at the Con- throughout gress unanimously signed a declaration expressive of detestation at its authors. It is perhaps the strongest proof of the high character and unstained honour of the Emperor Francis and the Archduke Charles, that although the crime was committed by persons in the Austrian uniform, and the hussars of Szeckler had been detached from the army of the archduke to the environs of Rastadt, no suspicion fell upon either of

XXVII.

1799.

1 Nap. in

Month. vi.

40.

CHAP. having been accessary to the nefarious proceeding. That it was committed for political purposes, and not by common robbers, is evident from their having taken nothing but state papers; and although the Directory has not escaped the suspicion of having been the secret authors of the crime,' in order to inflame the national spirit of the French, there seems no ground for imputing to them so atrocious a proceeding, or ascribing it to any other cause than an unauthorized excess by drunken or brutal soldiers of a duty committed to them by their government, requiring more than ordinary discretion and forbearance. But though Austria has escaped the imputation of having been accessary to the crime, she cannot escape from the disgrace of having been remotely the cause of its perpetration; of having authorized an attack upon the sacred persons of ambassadors, which, though not intended to have been followed by murder, was at best a violation of the law of nations and a breach of the slender links which unite humanity together during the rude conflicts of war, and of having taken guilt to herself by adopting no judicial steps for the discovery of the perpetrators of the offence. As such, it is deserving of the severest reprobation, and, like all other unjustifiable actions, its consequences speedily recoiled upon the head of its authors. The military spirit of the French, languid since the commencement of hostilities, was immediately roused to the highest pitch by this outrage upon 324. Hard. their ambassadors. No difficulty was any longer experienced in completing the levies of the conscription; and to this burst of national feeling is, in a great mea

2 Th, x. 257,258. Jom. xi. 143, 144. Lac. xiv.

vii. 244,

245.

2

• The Queen of Naples was the real instigator of this atrocious act; though the catastrophe in which it terminated was as little intended by her as the single-hearted general who detached from his army the hussars by which it was committed.-D'ABRANTES, ii. 304.