apace.  Though Prussia had proclaimed her strict neutrality, he did not scruple to violate it by sending Bernadotte’s corps through her principality of Ansbach, which lay in their path.  He charged Bernadotte to “offer many assurances favourable to Prussia, and testify all possible affection and respect for her—­and then rapidly cross her land, asserting the impossibility of doing anything else.”  Accordingly, that Marshal was lavish in his regrets and apologies, but ordered his columns to defile past the battalions and squadrons of Prussia, that were powerless to resent the outrage.[28]

The news of this trespass on Prussian territory reached the ears of Frederick William at a critical time, when the Czar sent to Berlin a kind of ultimatum, intimating that, even if Prussia deserted the cause of European independence, Russian troops must nevertheless pass through part of Prussian Poland.  Stung by this note from his usually passive demeanour, the King sent off an answer that such a step would entail a Franco-Prussian alliance against the violators of his territory, when the news came that Napoleon had actually done at Ansbach what Alexander had announced his intention of doing in the east.  The revulsion of feeling was violent:  for a short space the King declared he would dismiss Duroc and make war on Napoleon for this insult, but in the end he called a cabinet council and invited the Czar to come to Berlin.[29]

While the Gallophil counsellors, Haugwitz and Lombard, were using all their arts to hinder the Prusso-Russian understanding, the meshes were being woven fast around Mack and the Archduke Ferdinand.  Bernadotte’s corps, after making history in its march, was detached to the south-east so as to hold in check the Russian vanguard, and to give plenty of room to the troops that were to cut off Mack from Austria, a move which may be compared with the march of Bonaparte to Milan before he essayed the capture of Melas.  Both steps bespeak his desire to have ample space at his back before circling round his prey.

On October 6th the corps of Soult and Lannes, helped by Murat’s powerful cavalry, cut the Austrian lines on the Danube at Donauwoerth, and gained a firm footing on the right bank.  Over the crossing thus secured far in Mack’s rear, the French poured in dense array, and marched south and south-west towards the back of the Austrian positions, while Ney’s corps marched to seize the chief bridges over the Danube.

A study of the processes of Mack’s brain at this time is not without interest.  It shows the danger of intrusting the fate of an army to a man who cannot weigh evidence.  Mack was not ignorant of the course of events, though his news generally came late.  The mischief was that his brain warped the news.  On October 6th he wrote to Vienna that the enemy seemed about to aim a blow at his communications:  on October 7th, when he heard of the loss of Donauwoerth, he described it as an unfortunate event, which no