from being relieved. But the olumn, coming by the way of angwart, did not come out of the files at Flaifch and Mayenfield, Il several hours after general jotze had appeared before the ucienfteig, which, for want of e co-operation, on which he had lied, he could not carry. The rench general, Menard, who comanded in those parts, had already fifted general Hotze, with fuccefs, hen he faw the fecond column >ming upon him. At first he tired, but, being fpecdily reinrced by fome troops, which had tout from Chur on hearing the e, he found himself stronger than e Auftrians, attacked them at the oment when they were illuing it of the defile, beat them, and led, or took, the greateft part of e corps. The failure of this attack was e more to be regretted by the uftrians, that, if it had fücceeded, ey might at once have gained offeffion of the whole of the Grifon ague, and even of part of the fier cantons. General Hotże, a itive of Switzerland, had collected e emigrants from that country, id had formed them into a corps Infantry, about 1000 ftrong. he confidence which his country en repofed in his talents, enabled m to promote the difpofition to furrection, manifefted by the inbitants of the leffer cantons of e Grifon country, and of the alais, who, being informed of the eneral attack projected by the uftrians, took up arms; and occuied at once the vallies of the gher Rhine, of the Ticino, of e Reafs, the Mütten, and the hone; forming a chain of infurdion upon the line of the great Alps, in the rear of the two French corps, pofted in the valley of Chur, and at the head of that of the Inn. The failure of general Hotze's expedition enabled the French to unite their whole force against the infurgents. A part, in the canton of Schwitz, laid down their arms: the reft, to the number of feveral thoufands, were cut to pieces in two battles which they fought in the valley of the Rhine, and near Altdorf. These cruel difafters ftifled in its birth the general infurrection, by which the Auftrians had hoped to be fupported. The pofition that had been taken by general Bellegarde, upon the chain of the Alps, which covers the principal valley of the Grifons, greatly favoured an attack on that territory. General Hotze, there fore, prepared to make a fecond effort, and arranged his measures with general Bellegarde in fuch a manner, and with fuch a force, as to render fuccefs almost infallible: and, the better to fecure, and afterwards improve it, the archduke had fent to general Hotze freth reinforcements, including the fine regiment of light-horfe, of Kinfky. The fort of Steig, aflailed on both fides by Auftrian columns, the one under the command of general Hotze, in perfon, the other under that of general Jellacheik, on the fourteenth of May. The reduction of this place was quickly followed by the total expulfion of the French from the country of the Grifons, and the Auftrians, under the command of Hotze, took poft on the left bank of the Rhine. In the mean time, feveral detachments of French, which had retired out of the Valtelline into the Rhetion Alps, afraid of being shut in by the [S2] different different Auftrian corps, that already occupied the paffes of Splugen and Gunkels, endeavoured to traverfe the mountains and reach St. Gothard. They were purfued by the corps of general Bellegarde, who went himfelf to Chiavenna, his co-operation being no longer of use to general Hotze; with whom, however, he left fome troops, and his prefence becoming more and more neceflary every day to army of the allies in Italy. the In confequence of the furprize, defeat, and loffes, which the divifion of general Menard had fuffered, in the country of the Grifons, on the fourteenth of May, the French in the Foggenburg, in the canton of Appenzel, and fome other places, could not maintain themfelves in thofe territories, or even beyond the Thur, without recovering the poft at Wallenftadt. This they attempted to do on the nineteenth, a few hours after the advanced guard of the Auftrians had taken poffeffion of it; but were repulfed, towards the clofe of the day, as far as Murg, on the fouth bank of the lake of Wallenftadt. It was no longer in Maffena's power to keep poffeffion of the eastern part of Switzerland. The generals Hotze and Bellegarde had gained his right flank, and even his rear, and, therefore, he could not, without much danger, longer delay to ftrengthen his centre, and fhorten his line. He ordered the Foggemberg, the canton of Appenzel, the country of St. Gall, and the Tongaw, to be evacuated on the twentieth, and withdrew all his forces behind the Thur. But the fuccefs obtained by general Hotze would not have been fufficient to induce Malena to evacuate fo great an extent of country, had he not been certain that the archduke Charles would alfo very foon pals the Rhine. The hoftile appearances in Suabia had not induced the archduke to change the concentrated pofition which he had taken between Stock-ach and Schaf haufen, and as little did the entrenchments, made along the river, hinder him from paffing it. That prince had refolved not to enter Switzerland till its fouth and eaft quarters fhould have been previ oufly invaded: which being done, he loft not a moment in executing an enterprize, too long delayed, and anxiously waited for by all Europe. As foon as the retreat of the French was known, the advanced pofts of the Auftrians, which guarded the Rhine from Field-kirk to Rheineck, palled that river, and the flotilla of colonel Williams had landed fome troops on the weft fide of the lake of Conftance. On the twenty-fir, the main body of the archduke's army marched from Stock-ach to Singen, and on the twenty-third, from that place to Schaffhaufer: where it began, the fame day, to pafs the Rhine on bridges of boats, and to occupy a camp marked out near Paradife. A junction was formed on the twenty-fixth: and, on the fame evening, it was determined to take advantage of this for attacking the pofition of the enemy at Winterthur. The French, on the twenty-feventh, were forced to abandon their fituation, retired in good order, and with little lofs, be yond the river Tofs, their retreat being greatly favoured by the woody and mountainous nature of the country. The Auftrians had now the advantage of refuming ol fenfive operations, and of being firmly established in Switzerland with about fifty-five thousand men, while Maflena, on account of the length of his line, and the neceflity of lending ten thousand men into the Valais, could not oppofe to them quite that number. Though the country, bordering on the Tofs, prefents many advantageous poftons, for oppofing the paffage of that river, yet Mallena, fearing to be out-flanked, refolved to draw nearer to the central pofition of Zurich, where alone he could flop the progrels of the Auftrians. He decamped, therefore, in the night, between the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth, and retired to the Glatt. The archduke, in confequence, pufhed on his advanced gaard, on the right to Balach, and on the left to Baffendorf; on which account, the French, on the following day, falling back ftill farther, put the Glatt between them and the enemy, and occupied the pofition before Zurich, which, for two onths, they had been carefully entrenching. Their right, at the fame time, evacuated Rapperfchwill, lefs, from any apprehenfions of danger in their front, than by the progrefs already made on their rear, by the left wing of general Hotze's army. General Bellegarde, who had ceafed to co-operate with general Hotze, and, on the eighteenth of May, gone in purfait of the different corps of the enemy which had defended the fources of the Rhine, having on the fixteenth pushed on a column to Chiavenna, advanced, on the eighteenth, with the reft of his army, in three columns, towards the valley of the Adda. Two of thefe did not direct their march against the enemy, but towards the Like Como, on which they em barked on the town of that name, whence they were conducted by general Bellegarde, acrofs the Milanefe to the fiege of Tortona. The reft of that army, under the command of general Haddick, drove the French from St. Gothard, and forced them to retire behind the Reufs. The lofs of St. Gothard, and the progrefs made by the imperialifts, in the cantons of Glarus, Schwitz, and Uri, threatened the whole pofition of the French in Switzerland. Repeated attempts were made to regain a part of the territory they had loft. General Lecourbe, on the thirtieth, forced the Auftrians to yield a little ground in the vallies of Reufs and Schagen: and, on the fecond of June, in a very obftinate battle, which ended in his favour, he killed, wounded, or took one thousand men. This affair obliged the Auftrians to fall back to Urteren. The poffeffion of St. Gothard was fo important to the allied armies, that they neglected nothing that could contribute to its defence. And general Lecourbe, through movements by the Auftrians, fatigue, loffes, and the difficulty of procuring fubfiftence in a ravage country, was obliged to give up every hope of recovering the St. Gothard. He embarked his troops, part on the lake of the Four Cantons, and part on that of Zug, and took a pofition behind thefe, to cover the town and lake of Lucerne. The Auftrians occupied the valley of the Reufs to the lake of the Four Cantons, and Ailorf, Fluelen, Brunnen, and Schwiltz; from which they communicated with the reft of the army, acrofs the Sihl and the lake of Zurich. [S3] Thus Thus the upper plateau* of the Alps, fo often difputed in the courfe of this campaign, was, for the first time, reduced by force of arms. By the poffeffion of this pre-eminent military poft, and of the valley of Urferen, the Auftrians completed the communication between their two grand armies, and formed the central link of their vaft military chain, extending from the banks of the Maine, to thofe of the Bormida, acrofs the mountains of Suabia, the Rhine, Switzerland, the Alps, Lombardy, and the Appennines. It was from this time that their fyftem of operations became more fimple and better combined: it was at this time, too, that they fhewed greater force, a more active fpirit, and decided fuperiority, than at any other period in the whole campaign. They kept the French in check on the Mayne, the Necker, and the Kintzing, drove them from the half of Switzerland, feized or fhut up the paffages from that country into Italy, occupied the town of Turin, befieged its citadel, and blockaded, at the fame time, the fortreffes of Alexandria, Tortona, and Mantua. Matiena having reafon to fear that the Auftrians would very foon invade Switzerland on all fides, and that it might, in confequence, be impoffible for him to preferve the femicircle, formed by the Rhine, from the fource of the Linth to the mouth of the Glatt, wifhed, at leaft, to defend its diameter. He there fore fortified that chain of mountains, which lies in the front of Zurich, between the L'mmat and the Glatt. Thrown back behind the Glatt, by the affair of Winterthur, he went to occupy that position, and completed its entrenchments. His right, entirely compofed of infantry, was posted on the Zurichberg, the moft elevated part of all that chain of mountains. Accefs to it was rendered almoft impoffible by a thick wood, by feveral ranks of abbatis and redoubts, and by a formidable artillery. Between his right and the lake of Zurich there was no point through which it was poffible to penetrate. His left was placed on the fame chain of mountains, and the approaches to it. Between thefe two wings, on ground gradually floping, open, and cut by the roads from Schaffhauten and Conftance, to Zurich, Malena placed his cavalry. This pofition was fo well chofen, that the archduke could not make any effential progrefs until he had diñodged the French: which could be done only by either attacking them in front, or by turning their flank on the left bank of the Limmat, which would have been arduous, long, and even dangerous. On the fourth of June, the Auftrians advanced in feveral columns against the Zurichberg, and attacked it on several points, at the fame time. The approaches to the Zurichberg were fo formidably entrenched, and the fire of the batteries fo commanding, that the generals Hotze and Rofenburg, who conducted the two principal attacks, were unable, for fome time, to make any progrefs, although two columns, acting on their flank, bad already penetrated to the foot of the abbatis. Prince Charles ordered four battalions to aflault the Zurich. * A French term, fignifying a ground at once high and flat. berg berg with fixed bayonets. The Auftrian grenadiers made their way through the abbatis, and carried the first line of the entrenchments, but could not advance a fep farther. Nevertheless, the Auftrians did not give ground, but kept the French within their works, and gave time to the other attacking columns to reach the foot of the entrenchments. Night overtook them here and put an end to a conteft which had raged with deadly obftinacy during the whole day. Each party loft two thousand five hundred men at leaft, On the fifth, the archduke took an exact view of the pofition of the enemy, and refolved to affault it: but, as the fatigue of the preceeding day rendered it neceflary that the foldiers fhould take fome reft, he put off the execution of his defign till the fixth. But, on the night between the fifth and fixth, Maffena abandoned his pofition, and retired to the other fide of the Limmat, where he took poft on the chain of mountains called Abis, which lies between the lake of Zurich, the Limmat, and the Reufs. The archduke, after taking poffeffion of Zurich, diftributed his troops along the right banks of the lake of Zurich, of the Limmat, and of the Aar. The archduke, defirous of extending his right on the western fhores of the lake, and to remove a little the centre of the enemy, on the eighth of June, attacked the French advanced pafts only half a league from Zurich, and drove them from the village of Albifrieden, and of fome heights, on which two points the Auftrians pofted themfelves. On thefe points the archduke confined himfelf on the first days after the capture of Zurich, from whence he foon after removed his head His army, quarters to Kloten. which from the twenty-firft, and part of it from the fourteenth of the preceeding month, had been continually under march and fighting, required fome repofe. Befides, the new pofition, taken by Maffena, was too ftrong to admit of a chance of fuccefs in any attempt to force it. It was necellary to conquer almoft the whole of Switzerland before Maffena could be compelled to abandon his pofition, and retire. On the whole, the upon the Aar. archduke was determined not to attempt any thing important in Switzerland, in the prefent circumftances, for the following reafons: the ftrength of the pofition occupied by the French; the fmallness of the affiftance which he either received, or could expect, from the inhabitants of Switzerland; the weak ftate in which his army had been left by the departure of general Bellegarde for Italy, whither, it was already refolved, that general Haddick fhould follow him; the expected arrival of thirty-five thousand Ruffian auxiliaries who were their march to join him; and above all, the fecret orders of the cabinet of Vienna. He had then no longer any other object than to prevent Maffena from profiting by his inaction. And this object he could not better effect than by giving the French general employment in the Brifgaw, the Margraviate of Baden, and the Palatinate, where nothing worthy of notice had paffed during the month of May, except the capture of Heidelberg, by the Auftrians, on the nineteenth. A courfe of movements and actions followed in thefe countries, which in any other war, and even in any other have campaign of the prefent war, would [S4] on |