to give Bonaparte an evasive answer, informing him that, in case of
further negotiations, he would have to send to Vienna for fresh
instructions."

"But, your excellency, you were firmly determined not to make peace
with France!"

"So I was, and even now I have not changed my mind; but we are
frequently compelled to disguise our real intentions, and events
have occurred, which, for the present, render peace desirable. You
need not be frightened, my dear count--I merely say, for the
present. In my heart I shall never make peace with France, and my
purpose remains as fixed as ever--to revenge Austria one day for the
humiliations we have suffered at her hands. Never forget that, my
friend; and now listen to me. Late dispatches have arrived. Massena,
after a bloody struggle with our troops, has taken Friesach, and
advanced on the next day to attack the fresh regiments of our
grenadiers in the gorges of Neumarkt. Archduke Charles had placed
himself at the head of these regiments, firing the courage of the
soldiers by his own heroic example. But he was confronted by the
united French forces from Italy and Germany, and in the evening of
that disastrous day the archduke and his grenadiers were compelled
to evacuate Neumarkt, which was occupied by the victorious French.
The archduke now asked the French general for a cessation of
hostilities during twenty-four hours in order to gain time, for he
was in hopes that this respite would enable him to bring up the
corps of General von Kerpen, and then, with his united forces, drive
the enemy back again. But this little General Bonaparte seems to
possess a great deal of sagacity, for he rejected the request, and
sent a detached column against Von Kerpen's corps, which separated