as to collect his troops at Bamberg, the Poles were
to remain in Warsaw, the Saxons in Dresden. To the latter capital
Bernadotte should lead his army and then assume command. Oudinot was
ordered to Augsburg, where he was to be reinforced. The departing
divisions were brought to a halt and sent back to Ulm for Massena's
command, while two fresh ones were gathered in France and sent to
Strasburg. The Rhine princes were to have their contingents ready and
await orders.

A glance at the map will show that, as Napoleon said, he could then in
an emergency reach Munich like lightning. But he expected no move from
his enemy before the middle of April. By that time he hoped to have
his German army gathered, equipped, and ready; in the interval the
forces already on the ground could hold Charles in check; by the end
of March there would be a hundred thousand French in Bamberg, Ulm, and
Augsburg, with thirty thousand Bavarians under Lefebvre about Munich;
before the outbreak of hostilities he hoped to have a total of two
hundred thousand available fighting troops. "Should the Austrians
attack before April tenth," were the orders given on March
twenty-eighth, "the army shall be collected behind the Lech, the right
occupying Augsburg, the left resting on the right bank of the Danube
at Donauwoerth." Then followed the most minute instructions to
Berthier, explaining every move, and setting forth the reasons why
Ratisbon had been chosen as headquarters. This would assure control of
the Danube, keep open a line of communication, and enable the writer
so to control space and time that he could open the campaign much as
he chose.

These dispositions had already compelled another change of plan by the
Austrians. They had expected a repetition of Moreau's advance by
Munich; instead, they were called on to defend their capital a second
time. Two divisions were left to watch the Bohemian Forest; the rest
of the army, with Charles at its head, set out, by the circuitous
route through Linz, to join Hiller and assume the offensive in the
Danube valley. In case of a battle the two divisions were to come up
by the short, direct route through Ratisbon, and add their strength to
the main army. On the declaration of hostilities the Austrians at once
crossed the Inn and began their march; it was the sixteenth before
they reached the line of the Isar. Had the Archduke not been so
sparing of his troops, wearied as they were by the circuit through
Li