Then, too, Haugwitz, who was charged with this most important mission, deferred his departure for ten days on the plea that Prussia's forces could not be ready before the middle of December.

Such was the statement of the leisurely Duke of Brunswick; but it can scarcely be reconciled with Frederick William's threat, a month earlier, of immediate war against the Russians if they entered his lands.

Yet now that monarch approved of the delay.

Haugwitz therefore did not set out till November 14th, and by that time Napoleon was master of Vienna, and the allies were falling back into Moravia.
We now turn to the scene of war.

For the first time in modern history the Hapsburg capital had fallen into the hands of a foreign foe.
Napoleon now installed himself at the stately palace of Schoenbrunn, while Francis was fleeing to Olmuetz and the Archdukes Charles and John were struggling in the defiles of the Alps to disengage themselves from the vanguard of Massena.