Battle of Austerlitz- French Army Corps
____. French line of march
To Oimiitzl \
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t
t t
To Spaleny, Mlyn, 1,
Ia Hongrie0 2 3 4 Skm- Austro-Hungarian Army Corps
·�01> Austro-Hungarian line of march
overreached himself. When the Austrian Emperor Francis offered
an armistice on 27 November, Napoleon appeared almost pathetically
eager to accept. The French envoy to the parley in the Austrian camp
reported the Allies seriously divided, with the Emperor Francis and
Kutusov cautious but the Czar and most of the Austrian generals keen to
strike.
On 28 November Napoleon made the bait almost irresistible by
ordering Soult to pull out of Austerlitz and the Pratzen heights. Pursuing
his career as great actor, the Emperor next agreed to an interview with
the Russian emissary Count Dolgorouki (29 November) in which he
fe igned confusion, uncertainty and an ill-disguised fe ar. So brilliantly was
he toying with the enemy and so confident of his own mastery that he had
actually chosen his battleground on 21 November. Since he lacked the
numbers to envelop the enemy, the final piece in his chessboard of
disinformation involved tricking the enemy into uncovering their rear.
He gambled that uncovering his own line of retreat by the withdrawal
fr om the Pratzen heights would lead the Allies to expose their rear. He