e ready
in any event. Her opportunity came after the defeats of the Allies at
Luetzen and Bautzen and the conclusion of an armistice at Pleswitz. Between
200,000 and 300,000 Austrian troops were massed in Bohemia; and Austria
took up the role of mediator, prepared to throw the weight of her support
into the scale of whichever side should prove most amenable to her claims.
The news of the battle of Vittoria, following on the reluctance of Napoleon
to listen to demands involving the overthrow of the whole of his political
system in Central Europe, decided Austria in favour of the Allies. By this
fateful decision Napoleon's fall was assured. By the treaty of Trachenberg
(July 12, 1813) the Grand Alliance was completed; on the 16th, 17th and
18th of October the battle of Leipzig was fought; and the victorious
advance into France was begun, which issued, on the 11th of April 1814, in
Napoleon's abdication. (See NAPOLEON, NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS, EUROPE.)

[Sidenote: Congress of Vienna.]

It was a recognition of the decisive part played by Austria in these great
events that Vienna was chosen as the scene of the great international
congress summoned (September 1814) for the purpose of re-establishing the
balance of power in Europe, which Napoleon's conquests had upset. An
account of the congress is given elsewhere (see VIENNA, CONGRESS OF). The
result for Austria was a triumphant vindication of Metternich's diplomacy.
He had, it is true, been unable to prevent the retention of the grand-duchy
of Warsaw by Alexander of Russia; but with the aid of Great Britain and
France (secret treaty of January 3, 1815) he had frustrated the efforts of
Prussia to absorb the whole of Saxony, Bavaria was forced to disgorge the
territories gained for her by Napoleon at Austria's expense, Illyria and
Dalmatia were regained, and Lombardy was added to Venetia to constitute a
kingdom under the Habsburg crown; while in the whole Italian peninsula
French was replaced by Austrian influence. In Germany the settlement was
even more fateful for Austria's future. The Holy Empire, in spite of the
protests of the Holy See, was not restored, Austria preferring the loose
confederation of sovereign states (_Staatenbund_) actually constituted
under her presidency. Such a body, Metternich held, "powerful for defence,
powerless for offence," would form a guarantee of the peace of central
Europe--and of the preponderance of Austria; and in its councils Austrian
diplom