and from 3.30 on began to shoot holes in the ice of the frozen lakes
around the Pratzen, making great watery craters. Many of Buxhowden's
men were drowned in them as the Russians attempted a panic-stricken
escape. Bagration retreated ignominiously from his assault on the French
left and the Allied monarchs left the field in despondency and confusion.
At Austerlitz Napoleon won his most perfect victory. This battle was to
him what Gaugamela had been to Alexander, Cannae to Hannibal and
Alesia to Julius Caesar. For the loss of 1,305 French dead and 6,940
wounded he had inflicted II,ooo Russian casualties and 4,000 Austrian,
captured forty colours and taken 180 cannon. There was the same
discrepancy in prisoners: 573 French as against 12,000 Allied captives.
The superstitious Napoleon thereafter considered 2 December one of his
lucky dates, but there arc those who say that, consciously or uncon
sciously, he delayed the fighting of a battle which could have happened
earlier just so that he could celebrate the anniversary of his coronation
with a triumph. The 'sun of Austerlitz' also became an item in
Napoleon's calendar of superstitions: he thought it significant that the
sun had come out as his men surged on to the Pratzen just as it had shone
through the mist on the day of his coronation.
Austerlitz confirmed that Napoleon was truly a great captain; before
that it could have been claimed that he had met only second-raters. It
should not be forgotten also that he had not been in a battle since
Marengo five and a half years before, so that his talent for war was
obviously innate and not something that needed constant practice.
Writing to Josephine the day after the battle he was modest about his
exploit: 'Yesterday I beat the Russians and Austrians. I am a bit tired. I
have bivouacked eight hours in the open air, in very cold nights.' He
complained of a stye in his eye which he was bathing with lotions of pure
water mixed with hot rose water.
After their defeat the Russians retreated pell-mell to Poland. The day
after the battle, Czar Alexander wrote to Savary as follows: 'Tell your
master that I am going away. Tell him that he performed miracles
yesterday; that the battle has increased my admiration for him; that he is
a man predestined by Heaven; that it will require a hundred years for my
army to equal his.' Napoleon thought this meant he could get a
permanent settlement with Russia but Talleyrand, knowing the scope of
the Emperor's ambitions and the geopolitical logic this involved, was
always sceptical.
The Austrian Francis II asked for an interview with Napoleon and
sued for terms. The dictated peace of Pressburg (signed 26 December