could throw out hints tending to interfere with the internal affairs of the Republic,-hints which are not less offensive to the French people and their government, than an attempt would be offensive to England and his Majesty, which should tend to produce in that country the republican form of government adopted there in the middle of the last century, or an exhortation to recall to the throne of Great Britain that family whom birth had seated upon it, but who were precipitated from it by a revolution.

“If, at no very distant period, when the constitutive system of the Republic offered neither the strength nor the solidity which it now displays, his Britannic Majesty thought himself warranted in making overtures of reconciliation, and demanding conferences to treat of peace, how happens it that he now feels repugnance in renewing negotiations to which the present and reciprocal state of affairs promises a more speedy progress? The voices of nations join on all sides with that of humanity in imploring the termination of a war already marked by disasters of great magnitude, and a prolongation of which threatens Europe with a general convulsion,-with the prospect of irremediable evils. It is to arrest the course of such calamities, or at least to confine their direful effects to those persons alone who have caused them, that the First Consul of the French Republic proposes an immediate termination of hostilities by a suspension of arms, and the appointing forthwith of plenipotentiaries on both sides, to meet at Dunkirk, or in any

other town offering equal advantages for rapidity of communication, there to proceed, without delay, in the re-establishment of peace and amity between the French Republic and England.

"The First Consul offers to give the necessary passports for this object.

"CH. MAURICE TALLEYRAND."

The British Government deeming France unequal to maintain the struggle, persisted in forcing the Bourbons upon her. But whence originated the tender anxiety affected by the British monarch in favour of this good and moral family? Why, from the very fact, that these princes, being detested by the French nation, would have been unable to govern it without trouble, and that a people in hostility with an unpopular government could not, for a long period, acquire any influence on the Continent. This calculation, so cruelly realized at a later epoch, was too palpable not to strike every mind. mind. Both the Both the army and the people were seized with a general indignation; and preparations were made for war. Nothing was now thought of but to take vengeance for this odious coalition against the tranquillity, nay, the very existence of France as a nation. Ney, suffering less from his wounds, assumed the command of the troops collecting upon the Rhine. They were already beginning to be numerous; a host of young patriots had obeyed their country's call, and the old soldiers were resuming their arms. Men, horses, and provisions were in equal abundance.

Ney was not proof against this sudden emulation: the excitement of military glory was general and spontaneous; the organization of the armies was prompt, rapid, and perfectly planned; and the wounded General had a presentiment of the greatness to which France would speedily attain. Dismissing therefore his vain alarms, he now devoted his whole attention to seconding the movement in preparation. The government had succeeded in tranquillizing and giving peace to the western provinces, and the different corps lately employed in suppressing revolt in those provinces, and keeping them quiet, were now debouching upon the Rhine. The army rapidly collected its forces, and was in a short time as powerful as in the best days of its victories.

The cold weather had ceased. Austria summoned her youth to the field, and, money in hand, bargained for all the soldiers whom Bavaria and Wirtemberg could supply. Moreau was appointed to oppose her, and was preparing to set out to join the army. The imperial troops, under the command of Kray, who had been recently gathering laurels on the Adige, were divided into four corps led by men of acknowledged ability and tried courage. The French were constituted in a similar manner. Lecourbe commanded the right wing, Sainte-Suzanne the left, Moreau retained the reserve, and the centre, in which Ney had a command, was under Saint-Cyr.

CHAPTER II.

BOTH armies were ready for the field, and the powers to which they respectively belonged had made every possible sacrifice and exertion to enter upon the campaign with good effect. The Austrian army contained one hundred and thirty thousand men, and extended from the Maine to Voralberg. The French were somewhat less numerous; but to make up for this inferiority, they were less scattered and more compact. The soldiers of their army had, moreover, the firmness of purpose always produced by profound conviction of right, and a sense of monstrous injustice. Peace had been refused to them; they were going to win it at the sword's edge, and at length force their most implacable enemies to give repose to the world, which would thereby be able to recover from the grievous evils inflicted upon it by a war against the natural rights of mankind. Their measures were speedily taken, and they prepared to turn the Imperialists. On the 15th of April, Sainte-Suzanne made a movement upon Offenburg, and Staray, who commanded the Austrian right wing, pressed forward to close the passes of the Black Mountains against him. Saint-Cyr crossed the Rhine at Old Brissac, Lecourbe at Stein, and

Moreau at Basle. All three debouched unexpectedly upon the centre of the Austrian army, and were well nigh crushing it. But the country was mountainous and difficult, and the centre of the French army, entangled in the intricacies of the ground, was still struggling in this wilderness densely inhabited by a hostile population, even after the right wing had conquered at Stockach and the reserve at Engen.

As

Ney marched at the head of the French centre. At Burken and at Nimburg he encountered armed multitudes, similar to those whom, at a former period, he had chastised on the Maine and the Elaz. After routing and dispersing them, he thought himself freed from these undiciplined hinds, when he perceived them again forming at Bromberg. Tharrau was coming up to them, Baraguay, at the head of the 3rd, advanced to meet the regular troops by whom they were supported. Ney therefore continued his movement; but the country became at every step more rugged and more difficult to penetrate. Here was a deep chasm, there a valley without an opening; rocks and ravines succeeded each other, and it was with great difficulty that the French troops made any progress through these wild regions. Moreau had been informed that the country was open and easy to cross. Some persons had persuaded him that there was a high road from Friburg to St. Blaize, leading through Todnau, and he gave particular orders that this road should be followed;