But Austria was, by loans and
treaties, so entangled with England, that she could make not peace
without the consent of the Court of St. James. Napoleon found that
he was but triffled with. Interminable difficulties were thrown
in the way of negotiation. Austria was taking advantage of the
cessation of hostilities, merely to recruit her defeated armies,
that, soon as the approaching winter had passed away, she might
fall, with renovated energies, upon France. The month of November
had now arrived, and the mountains, whitened with snow, were swept
by the bleak winds of winter. The period of the armistice had expired.
Austria applied for its prolongation. Napoleon was no longer thus
to be duped. He consented, however, to a continued suspension
of hostilities, on condition that the treaty of peace were signed
within forty-eight hours. Austria, believing that no sane man
would march an army into Germany in the dead of winter, and that
she should have abundant time to prepare for a spring campaign,
refused. The armies of France were immediately on the move. The
Emperor of Austria had improved every moment of this transient
interval of peace, in recruiting his forces.
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