was in good spirits which not even terrible falls of snow and hail could
dampen. His chamberlain Alexandre Thiard recorded that there was an
enthusiastic dinner conversation about the Egyptian campaign.
Scenting victory, the allies advanced south-west towards Brunn and
occupied the Pratzen heights unopposed on r December. That night both
armies camped within sight of each other by the Bosenitz and Goldbach
rivers. Unknown to the allies, Bernadotte's I Corps arrived on I
December while the leading division of Davout's III Corps got to within
striking distance that night by covering the sixty miles from Vienna in
under 72 hours. Napoleon used his cavalry as a screen so that the enemy
could not detect the arrival of these reinforcements. He drew up his army
so that the allies would be tempted to attack him on the right. He placed
most of the army, spearheaded by Lannes's V Corps, on his left and
centre, with Bernadotte's corps concealed behind it; other units placed
here were Murat's cavalry, Oudinot's grenadiers and part of Soult's IV
Corps under generals Vandamme and St Hilaire. Strung out on the right,
holding down very extended positions, were the men of Soult's third
division under General Legrand, covered by Davout's unsuspected force.
The bait was obvious, and perhaps too obvious, but the allies took it.
The night of r-2 December was long, dark and cold. Few slept and
Napoleon's men assuaged the boredom and waiting by holding a
torchlight procession to commemorate the anniversary of his coronation.
Thiard recorded that at dinner, which the emperor sat down to at 5 p.m.
in the thickening gloom, Napoleon's conversation was the most animated
he had ever witnessed. On the Pratzen the allies held their final
conference; the elderly Kutusov took no part but slept right through it.
Deprived of the support of the aged Russian general, the cautious
Emperor Francis could make no headway against the hotheads led by the
twenty-eight-year-old Czar Alexander and the Austrian general Wey
rother. It was decided to make an all-out assault on the weak French right
with 45,000 men under Buxhowden, detaching troops from the centre
and the allied right for the purpose; the idea was to cut off the French
retreat to Vienna. The Russian general Bagration was given the lesser task
of pinning Lannes's V Corps in its defensive position on Santon hill. The
enemy had thus fallen into Napoleon's trap: they would find the French
right a tougher nut than expected and they had denuded their own
centre.
Dawn broke on 2 December to reveal dense fog. Napoleon mounted
his Arab horse and gave orders that every unit had to keep five spare
horses ready in case the imperial staff needed them. It was one of those
days when the weather dictated that all messages would have to be sent
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