the unique honour of receiving a Marshal's baton from Napoleon
on the field of battle.

Had the Archduke Charles been made of the same stuff as Wellington,
the campaign might still have been retrieved. But softness and
irresolution were the characteristics of Austria's generals no less
than of her rulers.[213] The Hapsburg armies were still led with the
old leisurely _insouciance_; and their counsels swayed to and fro
under the wavering impulses of a seemingly decrepit dynasty. Francis
had many good qualities: he was a good husband and father, and his
kindly manners endeared him to the Viennese even in the midst of
defeat. But he was capricious and shortsighted; anything outside of
the well-worn ruts of routine vexed and alarmed him; and it is a
supreme proof of the greatness and courage of his reforming Minister,
Stadion, that his innovations should have been tolerated for so long.
Now that disasters were shaking his throne he began to suspect the
reformer; and Stadion confessed to the publicist, Gentz, that it was
impossible to reckon on the Emperor for a quarter of an hour together,
unless one stayed by him all the twenty-four hours.--"After a great
defeat, he will take himself off at once and will calmly commend us to
God."--This was what now happened. Another failure at Znaim so daunted
the Archduke that he sued for an armistice (July 12th). For this there
was some excuse. The latest news both from Spain and Prussia inspired
the hope that, if time were gained, important diversions might be made
in both quarters.

As we have seen, Sir Arthur Wellesley opened the campaign with a
brilliant success, and then prepared to strike at the heart of the
French power. The memorable campaign of Talavera was the result.
Relying on promises of aid from the Spanish Junta and from their
cross-grained commander, Cuesta, he led a small British force up the
valley of the Tagus to seize Madrid, while the chief French armies
were engaged in distant provinces. In one sense he achieved his aim.
He compelled the enemy to loose their hold on those provinces and
concentrate to save the capital. And before they fully effected their
concentration, he gave battle to King Joseph and Marshals Jourdan and
Victor at Talavera (July 28th). Skilfully posting the Spaniards behind
intrenchments and in gardens where their raw levies could fight with
every advantage, he extended his thin red lines--he had only 17,000
British troops--along a ridge stret