The nations of Europe roused to resistance against France-The battle of Eckmuhl-Napoleon retires to the island of Lobau-Insurrection of the Tyrolese-Battle of Wagram-Austris concludes a Peace-The Tyrolese subdued-Expedition to the Scheldt-The British land in Walcheren-Flushing bombarded-Its surrender-The Marsh Fever breaks out-Fatal termination of the Expedition-The battle of Talavera--Alarm in England-Disquiet of ministers-Duel between lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning-The Jubilee-Question of Parliamentary Privilege-Committal to the Tower of sir Francis Burdett-PortugalLines of Torres Vedras-The campaign of 1810-Almeida-Battle of Busaco-Wellington retires within his Lines.

WHEN the Session of Parliament was closed on the 21st of June, 1809, events in Germany justified the assertion in the royal Speech, that the resistance in Spain against the usurpation and tyranny of the French government had "awakened in other nations of Europe a determination to resist, by a new effort, the continued and increasing encroachments on their safety and inde pendence." M. Thiers candidly says, "The odious act at Bayonne, the diffi culties that had arisen in Spain, had all at once, throughout Germany as well as in Austria, excited indignation and restored hope." Every man in Prussia,

1809.] BATTLE OF ECKMUHL-NAPOLEON IN THE ISLAND OF LOBAU. 515 from the peasant to the noble, was ready to revolt. In the countries in alliance with France-in Saxony, in Westphalia, in Bavaria, in Würtemberg, in Baden-the people, oppressed by the presence of troops, by conscriptions, and by taxes, complained that each of their sovereigns had sacrificed his country to his personal ambition. In the Tyrol, the hardy mountaineers, who were attached by old hereditary ties to the House of Austria, bore impatiently the yoke of Bavaria, to which crown they had been annexed, and were ready to rise in insurrection. It was a crisis that was worthy of heroic efforts, if Europe were to be free.

The first great operations of the war gave no very decided advantage to Napoleon, although his bulletins spoke of partial victories as final triumphs. The battle of Eckmuhl on the 22nd of April was followed by the entry of the French into Vienna on the 13th of May. But the archduke Charles had reinforced his army, and was advancing rapidly along the left bank of the Danube, to prevent the enemy crossing from the right bank, on which Vienna is situated. In the great stream of the Danube is the island of Lobau, nearly three miles in length, and nearly two miles in breadth. To this island Napoleon determined to transport his army. This was an operation of no common difficulty; but it was accomplished by incessant labour in constructing a great bridge upon boats, held in their places by anchors, or by the weight of cannon taken from the arsenal of Vienna. From Lobau there was a smaller stream to cross, by a similar bridge, before a landing could be effected on the open plain on the left bank. On the morning of the 21st of May, the army of the archduke Charles saw from wooded heights the army of Napoleon crossing the lesser branch of the river, and pouring into the great level called Marchfeld. As the French formed their line, the village of Aspern was on one flank; the village of Essling on the other flank. 21st and 22nd of May, the most sanguinary contest of the war here took place. "It was a battle," says Thiers, "without any result but an abominable effusion of blood." Never before was the all-conquering emperor in so dangerous a position as when the day closed upon this horrible carnage. He could not return to Vienna; for the river had risen, and the Austrians had floated down the main stream great balks of timber, and numerous fireships, which swept away the boats and their bridge. Napoleon could only return to the island of Lobau. Here he retreated, carrying with him thousands of wounded soldiers. The place afforded small means for their cure or comfort; and there was soon little difference between those who died in the battle-field and those who were borne from it to a lingering death.

Shut up in the island of the Danube, the French emperor was strengthening his position, and waiting for events. They were of a mixed character. The heroic partizan, colonel Schill, and the duke of Brunswick, who had headed the German insurrection in Saxony, Westphalia, and Hanover, had failed. Schill was killed in Stralsund. The duke of Brunswick, with a few troops, embarked for England. The Tyrolese were in active resistance to the Bavarians; and their first successes gave a new impulse to the sentiment that when the German people should rise against their oppressors, as "the herdsmen of the Alps" had risen, the day of deliverance was at hand. That day was for awhile postponed. Andrew Hofer, the innkeeper in the valley

516

INSURRECTION OF THE TYROLESE-BATTLE OF WAGRAM.

[1509.

of Passeyr, and three other resolute friends, led the revolt which broke out on the 8th of April. The Bavarians entered the province with 25,000 men. From mountain to mountain the signal fires had been lighted, which called forth the bold peasants to seize their rifles, and march to attack the Bavarians in the gorges of the hills, and even in the towns which they held in strength. Halle was taken; Innspruck surrendered after an obstinate defence. After the French occupied Vienna, the Tyrol was invaded by two French and allied armies. The Tyrolese fled not at their presence. They defeated the French and Saxons in the valley of the Eisach. The vanguard of four thousand Bavarians under the duke of Dantzic was destroyed. A new mode of warfare spread dismay amongst the disciplined troops, who thought they were marching to an easy conquest. As they wended their way unsuspect ingly through passes where perpendicular rocks rose on either side, voices would be heard from above, shouting, "Let go your ropes." Then would descend masses of rocks and timber, crushing and burying the columns, whilst the unerring rifles picked off the few who fled from the overwhelming ruin. The duke of Dantzic speedily retreated from the dangerous mountains. But Hofer dared to encounter him in a pitched battle, and the innkeeper won the victory.

the

Such were the tidings that reached Napoleon in the island of Lobau. The inaction of mutual exhaustion was coming to an end. To Napoleon inaction was generally insupportable. He appeared busily employed in constructing massive bridges from the island to the left bank of the Danube; but he was secretly collecting the materials for another work. On the night of the 4th of July the whole of his army crossed the stream, by a bridge hastily thrown over an unguarded point. On the morning of the 5th the French moved in order of battle towards the entrenched camp of the Austrians, which was to resist the passage over the Danube so ostentatiously prepared. The archduke Charles quitted his entrenchments, abandoning the country between Enzensdorf and Wagram. He had lost the opportunity of attacking the French as they crossed the river in that one night, and con fronted him as if by miracle. He now retired to a strong position on elevated table-land of Wagram. From this locality the great battle of the 6th derives its name. The number of soldiers engaged in the work of mutual destruction was between three and four hundred thousand. The French historians claim to have killed or wounded twenty-four thousand Austrians; and admit to have lost eighteen thousand in killed or wounded. But the sturdy resistance of Austria had deranged some of Napoleon's grandest plans of ambition. "He had renounced the idea of dethroning the House of Hapsburg, an idea which he had conceived in the first movements of his wrath." He would humiliate Austria by new sacrifices of territory and of money. The time was fast approaching when the conquering parvenu would demand a daughter of the House of Hapsburg in marriage, completing the triumph of his proud egoism by divorcing the woman who had stooped from her rank to wed the Corsican lieutenant of artillery. Austria sued for an armistice; and the armistice led to a peace. Two of the conditions of the peace of Vienna, which was signed on the 14th of October,

*Thiers, tome x. p. 478.

were more

1809.] AUSTRIA CONCLUDES A PEACE-THE TYROLESE SUBDUED.

517

degrading to Austria than the loss of territory. One was that she should give no succour to the Tyrolese who had so nobly fought for her independence. The other was, that she should unite with all the rest of the enslaved continent in the exclusion of the commerce of England-of England, her ally, that was affording the most effectual co-operation by exertions in Spain; and had attempted by a small expedition to Naples, and a vast expedition to the Scheldt, to divert the levies of France from going to the aid of the French armies that were fighting against Austria on the Danube and in Italy. England was ill-timed in her assistance; she was unlucky; but her good-will was not the less sincere. Napoleon returned to Paris; and left his marshals to put down the spirit in Germany which a humiliating peace could not compromise, and which the system of terror could not wholly extinguish. Fifty thousand French and Bavarians marched into the Tyrol; hunted the peasantry from hill to hill; set a price upon the head of Andrew Hofer; and procured his arrest by treachery. He was tried by court-martial at Mantua, and condemned to death. The majority of French officers were averse to the sentence being executed. There was a respite; but an order from Paris left no choice. He was shot on the 20th of February.

The history of the fatal expedition to Walcheren might be sufficiently traced in the Papers presented to Parliament, and in the Minutes of Evidence taken before a Committee of the whole House of Commons. But time has opened other sources of information. The materials are ample for a narrative, interesting in itself, and instructive for warning against official neglect, ignorance, and presumption. We are enabled to add a few details from an unpublished journal.†

Sir David Dundas succeeded the duke of York as Commander-in-chief, on the 18th of March. On the 24th he was called to a Cabinet meeting. He was informed that an immediate attack on the island of Walcheren was contemplated; that there were nine or ten sail of the line in the harbour of Flushing, not in a state to proceed to sea; that our navy had a large disposable force; and that fifteen thousand land forces would be necessary for the operation. Could such a force be at once assembled ? Sir David Dundas said that such a force could not at once be provided; that the corps which had returned from Spain were in very indifferent health, and their military equipment was in a very defective state. Preparations went on to complete the remains of sir John Moore's army for service; and volunteers from militia regiments were gradually drafted into regiments of the line. But the scheme had assumed a more formidable character, when lord Castlereagh, on the 29th of May, stated to sir David Dundas that his majesty's government felt it their duty to investigate, having formidable means at their disposal, how far it was possible to strike a blow against the enemy's naval resources in the Scheldt, "including the destruction of their arsenal at Antwerp, and the ships of war stationed in different parts of the Scheldt between Antwerp and Flushing." The answer of the Commander-in-chief, on the 3rd of June, was not encouraging. He thought that an attack upon Antwerp was a

See Hansard, vol. xv. Appendix, col. 1 to 639, and vol. xvi. Appendix, col. 1105 to 1130. "Narrative of the Expedition," by an Officer employed-MS. of 200 pages, in the possession of the Author of the "Popular History."

518

EXPEDITION TO THE SCHELDT.

[1809.

service of very great risk. On the 18th of June, lord Castlereagh directed that 35,000 infantry and 1800 cavalry should be held in readiness for immediate embarkation. Sir David Dundas was not consulted as to the appointment of the commander of the expedition, although he knew that it was meant to appoint lord Chatham. There were equally important persons with whom no consultation was held. Sir Lucas Pepys, the Physician General to the forces, was acquainted with the nature of the disorder to which soldiers were subject in the island of Walcheren. The medical officers of the army were not informed where the expedition was going, and therefore could not make any particular preparation. With Mr. Thomas Keate, Surgeon General of the army, there was no consultation. He knew perfectly well the nature of the complaint prevalent in Walcheren at the season when the expedition was about to sail; and had confidence been reposed in him he should have recommended precautions that might have lessened the malady. On the 16th of July, our trusty and well-beloved cousin and counsellor, John, earl of Chatham," received his instructions, as the commander of a large division of his majesty's forces, to attack and destroy the naval force and establishments in the Scheldt, acting in conjunction with the commander of the naval portion of the armament, sir Richard Strachan. The whole amount of the land-force, according to the list transmitted to lord Chatham. was 39,143 infantry, cavalry, and artillery. The naval force comprised 35 sail of the line, 5 ships of 50 and 44 guns, 18 frigates, and 160 sloops, gun-brigs bomb-vessels, gun-boats, &c. The army was encamped on Southsea common and on the hills around Portsmouth. The ships of war were assembled at Spithead, ready to take a portion of the troops on board, whilst others were received by transports. The weather was the finest of a fine summer. Gazers from all parts came to look upon the most magnificent expedition that ever left the British ports. The ostentatious preparation was out of harmony with the affected secret of its destination. The French and Dutch knew thoroughly well what was intended. The English army and navy were to be kept in the dark, so that the mystery should not be divulged and find its way to Flushing and Antwerp. Yet the first order issued, whilst the troops were embarking, was one against taking quarters "unsanctioned by the Burgomaster."

On the 25th of July this great armament sailed from Portsmouth to the Downs. During the three days on which it ran down the English shore, every height was crowded with people. "Of all the displays that I have ever seen," says the writer of the MS. Journal, "the finest was that which opened on us as we rounded the South Foreland. The sea was literally covered for miles with shipping, and all was animation. Upwards of a thousand sail were rolling at anchor off Deal, and among them six enormous three-deckers that looked like castles. All England seemed to have collected on the coast. Boats were sweeping in all directions among the fleet. Hundreds of parties from the shore were rowing about among us. The bands of the regiments were playing, bugles sounding, and in the heavy swell of a north-east gale flag and cannon signals were perpetually busy. The whole had an incompa rable look of spirit and triumph, and was an actual display of power that we proudly felt the world beside could not equal."

On the 28th of July, at daybreak, the first division of the fleet, with sir