Lucia - Andrea Di Robilant [102]
The Austrian high command, suddenly aware of the catastrophic position of its army, urged the Russians to rush westward. “I hear they are marching at an incredible speed now,” Lucia reported on 1 October. “Many of the troops travel by cart, and manage to cover up to 48–50 miles a day.”53 But it was too late. The French attacked the Austrians during the second week of October, pushing them towards Ulm, and eventually forcing the bulk of General Mack’s army into the city. On 16 October, the French artillery opened fire. The Austrian commander realised his forces would not be able to withstand the siege without the support of the Russians, who were still a hundred miles away. He surrendered to Napoleon to avoid the complete destruction of his army. Some 50,000 Austrians were taken prisoner; the French had hardly any losses. Napoleon had again humiliated Austria. With his army practically intact, he made a run for Vienna, and on 13 November, he was sleeping in Schönbrunn Palace, the Habsburg summer residence near the capital. Emperor Francis and his court had fled days before. Vienna was entirely in the hands of the French.
Lucia returned from Margarethen to find the city swarming with blue uniforms. Her apartment along the Danube was requisitioned. “Nineteen men are camping out in ten rooms,”54 she complained, overwhelmed by the chaos in her house. But she was relieved to find three letters from Paolina, whom she had not heard from since August because of the disruptions caused by the war. “At last I have found you again.”55
Napoleon did not stay in Vienna. After a few days’ rest, he was off to chase the Russians and the rest of the Austrian army. On 3 December, Lucia told Paolina confidentially she had received “amazing news” that very evening from the battlefront, but could not share it with her “for fear that our correspondence be interrupted” by censors. “Peace may already be close at hand,” she added, biting her lip.56
The “amazing news,” of course, was that Napoleon had won a decisive victory against the combined forces of Austria and Russia in the plains around the village of Austerlitz.
Three days later, Lucia was at home discussing the latest events with a few Austrian friends. During dinner, a messenger brought her a note from a French commanding officer returning from the battlefield: General Baraguey d’Hilliers, who had commanded the French occupying forces in Venice in 1797. Having heard Lucia was in Vienna, he was eager to see her and wondered at what time he could visit her. When it became apparent that the general wished to come by that very evening, panic swept the room and the soirée quickly came to an end as Lucia’s guests “did not wish to compromise themselves by being introduced to him.”57
Minutes later, Baraguey d’Hilliers walked into the house exuding all the raw energy that came from a great victory on the battlefield. In the eight years since Lucia had last seen him in Venice, he had become one of Napoleon’s most trusted generals. Now he paced across her empty living room, strong and self-confident, filling her in on the details of the French triumph at Austerlitz. As he spoke, images from the past merged confusedly with the present. Lucia’s world had been overrun by Napoleon and his armies before. As Baraguey d’Hilliers rushed on with his narrative, she felt her life was about to be transformed once again.
The next day a messenger came to inform Lucia that an entire French squadron had pitched camp at Margarethen. “The captain has apparently taken over my room, while two officers and four chasseurs have fixed themselves up in the rest of the house.