While Napoleon was riding on horseback on the Vienna road, he perceived an open carriage approaching, in which were seated a priest, and a lady bathed in tears. The Emperor was dressed, as usual, in the uniform of a colonel of the chasseurs of the guard. The lady did not recognize him. He inquired the cause of her distress and where she was going.
"Sir," said she, "I have been robbed, about two leagues hence, by a party of soldiers, who have killed my gardener. I am going to request that your emperor will grant me a guard; he once knew my family well, and lay under obligations to them."
"Your name?" inquired Napoleon.
"De Brunny" answered the lady. "I am the daughter of M. de Marbeuf, formerly governor of Corsica."
"I am delighted to meet with you madame" exclaimed Napoleon with the most charming frankness, "and to have an opportunity of serving you,—I am the Emperor."
The lady expressed much surprise and passed on agreeing to wait for the commander at headquarters. Here she was furnished a piquet of chasseurs.
On the 13th the French entered Vienna, and Napoleon took up his residence in the Imperial Palace of Schoenbrunn, the home of the Austrian Cæsars. While at this point Napoleon learned of the success of the English at Trafalgar on October 19th,—the day after Mack surrendered at Ulm. It was a battle sternly contested and resulted in the final annihilation of the French fleet. Great as the triumph was for England, it was dearly purchased—for Nelson fell, mortally wounded, early in the action. He lived just long enough to hear the cheers of victory, and as he passed away, said, "Thank God! I have done my duty!"
The tidings of Trafalgar served but as a new stimulus to Napoleon's energy. "Heaven has given the empire of the sea to England," he said, "but to us has fate decreed the dominion of the land." But though such signal success had crowned the commencement of the campaign, it was necessary to defeat the haughty Russians before the object of the war could be considered as attained. The broken and shattered remnant of the Austrian forces had rallied from different quarters around the yet untouched army of Alexander; Napoleon had therefore waited until the result of his skillful combinations had drawn around him the greatest force he could expect to collect, ere venturing upon a general battle. He then quitted Vienna and put himself at the head of his columns which soon found themselves within reach of the Russian and Austrian forces, at length combined and ready for action, and under the eye of their emperors.
Now it was to be a battle of three emperors,—France, Russia and Austria. Napoleon fixed his headquarters at Brunn, where he arrived on the 20th of November, and riding over the plain between this point and Austerlitz, a village about two miles from Brunn, said to his generals: "Study this field well,—we shall, ere long, have to contest it."