Page:The Rise and Fall on the Paris Commune in 1871.djvu/294



and 3d corps. The plot thickens, Augsburg is entered, and the Emperor harangues the troops, 'after the manner of the Roman Emperors,' upon the position of the enemy, and the imminence of a great battle. The 24th tableau depicts Soult's success at Menningen; a spirited relief and a long inscription told how Ney forced the bridge of Elchingen, which gave him his title of Duc; the enemy are driven back on their intrenchments before Ulm, and the Emperor arrives at headquarters on the 15th of October. Two days afterwards (31st tableau) Berthier, surrounded by his staff, receives General Mack's capitulation. The panorama continues; the garrison of Ulm file out and lay down their arms; the Emperor receives General Mack, in tableau 33, and then came what the legend calls 'a superb and ingenious allegory, dedicated to the glory of the Emperor Napoleon.' The allegory is as simple as it is superb, for it is nothing more nor less than Victory writing on a shield the words, 'Capitulation d'Ulm.' This is, or was, succeeded by the entries into Munich and Brannan, the key of Austria, and by passages of the Inn and Traun; a little further on the 76th regiment regain the colors lost in a former campaign, and now found in the captured arsenal of Innspruck. A few more scenes, among which is the desperate fight at Krems, near Durnstein (where Frenchmen met Russians in a narrow defile and were so crowded together that they could not use their muskets and fought with unfixed bayonets), brought the spectator to the quarters at Schönbrunn, the entry into Vienna, and the surrender of the keys of the capital. A deputation from Paris arrive with felicitations, and then the Emperor is seen quitting Vienna with many of his Generals for Braun. The great blow is impending; a reconnaissance is pushed as far as Olmutz; Presburg is entered; a strong position is taken up, and the heights of Sauton are occupied by the artillery. On the night of the 1st of