Excerpt from the conversation Napoleon had with General Mack in the aftermath
of Austrian surrender at Ulm on 19 October 1805:
Napoleon:
How could you be so stubborn as to hold out in this miserable fortress of Ulm,
which does not even deserve to be called a fortress? It is indefensible, and
you wanted to resist my whole army. For my forces are vastly superior in
numbers. Together with the Bavarian army, they amount to more than 200,000 men.
Mack:
I beg Your Majesty's pardon. You have only 140,000 men, and that is almost
twice the number I could pit against you.
Napoleon:
Now let us add it up together: I have one hundred seventy battalions here, each
of a thousand men, with a cavalry of more than 20,000 men. My [Imperial] Guard
is eight thousand strong and there are also 20,000 Bavarians.
Mack:
Your Majesty's battalions have only five or six hundred men each, and your
forces cannot amount to more than 140,000 men at the most.
Napoleon:
How do you know the strength of my battalions?
Mack:
Precisely the same way Your Majesty knows the strength of ours: I had them
counted when they passed the Rhine.
Napoleon:
Well, I will admit they have only six hundred men, which is their peacetime
strength. But the others will arrive here presently, and my Army of Brest,
under Marshal Augereau, will join the Grande Armée.
Mack:
It is said that Your Majesty has troops marching through Switzerland, whose
neutrality we have respected.
Napoleon:
I have not recognized its neutrality, therefore I have a right to enter its
territory.
Mack:
Ah! We are always the dupes of our good faith, of our own credulity! It is a
very sad, a very unfortunate thing! And in the same way Your Majesty has
violated the neutrality of Prussia, thus gaining eight days in effecting the
junction of your forces with Bernadotte's troops and the Bavarian army. This
premature junction gave you the opportunity to crush us - and yet, if I had
wished to violate Prussian territory, I could easily have cut off the
Bavarian retreat.
Napoleon
(smiling): Why did not you do it then?
Mack:
The King of Prussia had declared his neutrality, and he threatened to take up
arms against anyone who dares to violate it.
Napoleon:
Oh! That is why you did not do it... But tell me please - and be frank - why do we wage this war?
Mack:
Sire, you know it better than me. It is Your Majesty who started the
hostilities.
Napoleon:
What!? It is you who have invaded the state of my ally the Elector of Bavaria.
Mack:
Sire, we did not know that he was your ally.
Napoleon:
Come on! Count Cobenzl knows about it for two years.
Mack:
For last few months I met Count Cobenzl almost every day. We discussed Bavaria
and I was convinced that there might be a secret alliance [between Bavaria and
France], but [Cobenzl] had not the slightest knowledge about it. Prince
Schwarzenberg and I also had no information about this issue. If elector
Bavaria, instead of lying, resorting to deception and betrating Prince
Schwarzenberg, had revealed a formal treaty of alliance with Your Majesty,
Prince Schwarzenberg would have undoubtedly thought over [Austria's next move].
I would have been warned. I would have stopped the advance of my troops and
sent a letter to Vienna. And yet here is the result of the infamous conduct of
the elector, or rather, of his abominable Minister Montgelas!
Napoleon:
It is very unfortunate that England managed to win over the court of St.
Petersburg which in turn convinced you with its insinuations and promises.
Mack:
Sire, we have resisted all calls for war as long as we could. But Your Majesty
had some 70,000 men threatening our Italian provinces. We were threatened on
all sides and had to take necssary measures to defend ourselves.
[From
Mack's unpublished notes in A. Chuquet, Inédits
napoléoniens (Paris: Fontemoing, 1919), II, 14-16.
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