CAMPAIGN OF NAPOLEON IN ITALY.
In the meantime Napoleon was carrying on war with Austria. The battles of Eckmuhl, Ratisbon, and Ebersberb, opened the gates of Vienna to him, and he entered that city about a month after the Austrians had commenced hostilities. From Vienna he issued a decree revoking the grant of territory made to the pope by Charlemagne, “his illustrious predecessor,” and annexing Rome to the French empire; the pontiff being allowed to remain there as bishop, with a certain revenue. Pius VII. opposed this decree by a bull of excommunication; and it is said that Napoleon received this intelligence with a considerable degree of anxiety. Orders, however, were issued by him, under which the pope was seized in his palace, and transported over Mount Cenis to Savona, where he lived three years, partly on a prison allowance and partly on alms. On the defeat of the Austrians, who were commanded by the Archduke Charles, that commander took a circuitous route through Bohemia, and finally occupied the bank of the Danube opposite Vienna, over against the proud victor Napoleon, who, selecting for the passage of the river the place where two islands divide the Danube into three arms, conducted his battalions to the left bank, occupied Aspern, Engesdorf, and Esslingen, and offered battle. In this position the archduke fell upon him with his army, glowing with anger and exalted by the sight of the imperial city, and gained a great victory. The French army retreated to the island of Lobau, leaving 11,000 dead on the field, while 30,000 were wounded. The world saw now that Napoleon was not invincible: but this victory was not attended with the expected results. An armistice of six weeks followed, during which time Napoleon was making preparations for a second attack; and at the lapse of that time he again passed the river with 150,000 men, and six hundred cannon, fully resolved to crush the house of Austria. The terrible battle of Wagram, which lasted two whole days, followed, and Napoleon was once more victorious: the archduke, after sustaining a fearful loss, retreated into Moravia. He might still have contested the palm of victory, for his army was still formidable, and Napoleon in the battle of Wagram had lost more in dead and wounded than the vanquished. An armistice, however, was concluded about the middle of July, and after negociations which lasted for three months, a treaty called the “peace of Vienna” was concluded. The articles of this treaty were the cession of Saltzburg and other territories of the Rhenish confederation to France; Cracow, and part of the Austrian spoil of Poland, to the duchy of Warsaw; and another small portion of it to Russia, Napoleon did not stop here in his attempts to ally himself with Austria: regardless of his union with the faithful Josephine, he stipulated for the hand of an Austrian princess; and the Austrian emperor sold him his daughter. He was married early in the next year to the Archduchess Maria Louisa.