Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/211

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IX.] THE GREAT REVOLUTION. 187 swiftness that he prevented the union of the fleets which were intended to invade England during his absence. The French and Spanish fleets were driven by stress of weather to put into Cadiz Bay, and Nelson with the Mediterranean Fleet lay in wait for them outside at Cape Trafalgar, where he won the greatest of all his victories on the 2 1 St of October, 1805, but was himself killed by a shot from a sailor on a French mast-head. Out of forty ships, nineteen were taken and seven more afterwards surren- dered. The French navy was ruined, and all thoughts of attacking the coast of England had to be laid aside. 24. The Campaign of Austerlitz, 1805. — The many aggressions of Buonaparte on other powers, his annexations of territory which had been recognized as independent by the Peace of Luneville, and the seizure of the Duke of Enghien on German ground, enabled Pitt, the English minister, to form a general coalition against France, which was joined by the Emperor Francis, Alexander, Emperor of Russia, and Gustavus, King of Sweden. Prussia remained neutral. Bavaria and Baden took part with France against the empire. Napoleon, with an im- mense force, called the grand army, marched to the rescue of Bavaria, while Massena was sent against the Austrian dominions in Italy. Massena was defeated by the Arch- duke Charles. But in Germany the Austrian general Mack was surrounded at Ulm, on the border of Wurttetnberg, and forced to surrender with 25,000 soldiers. Vienna had been left undefended while Francis was gone northwards to join Alexander, who had just brought his army from Russia. The French entered Vienna on the 13th November, 1805. The three emperors fought at Austerlitz on the 2nd of December, when the soldiers promised that, if Napoleon would not run into danger, they would bring him the whole of the Russian standards and artillery as a bouquet. They redeemed the promise, gaining the most splendid of all their victories. It obliged Alexander to retreat, and forced Francis to accept the treaty of Presshirg, which fell more hardly on him than either of the former ones, since he had to give up Venetia and Dalmatia to the kingdom of Italy, to acknowledge his refractory feudatories of Bavaria and Wiirttemberg as kings, and to cede parts of his hereditary dominions to them and to the Elector of Baden, among which changes the Tyrol was added to the kingdom of Bavaria. Buonaparte also suppressed the ancient republic oi Ragusa,vi(ii had given no offence at