World's Best Histories Part 16

He spent three days there, preparing his movement of attack against Vienna, which was slightly and badly defended, fortifying his positions, and taking precautions against an unexpected return of the Archduke Charles. At the same time, by his proclamations to the army, as well as by his letters to the princes of the Rhenish Confederation, he spread throughout all Europe his inebriation with success, and the declaration of his projects.

"Soldiers!

"You have justified my expectations; you have made up for numbers by bravery. You have gloriously proved the difference which exists between the soldiers of Caesar and the armed hordes of Xerxes.

"In a few days we have triumphed in the three pitched battles of Thann, Abensberg, and Eckmuhl, and in the engagements of Peising, Landshut, and Ratisbon. A hundred cannon, forty flags, 50,000 prisoners, three sets of bridge-apparatus, all the enemy's artillery, with 600 harnessed wagons, 3000 harnessed carriages with baggage, all the regimental chests,--that is the result of your rapid marches and your courage.

"The enemy, intoxicated by a perjured cabinet, seemed to have retained no recollection of you; his awakening has been speedy, you have appeared to him more terrible than ever. Recently he crossed the Inn, and invaded the territory of our allies. Recently he was in full hopes of carrying the war into the bosom of our country; to-day defeated, terrified, he flies in disorder. My advance-guard has already pa.s.sed the Inn. Within a month we shall be at Vienna."

It was at Ratisbon that the emperor at last received the news of the army of Italy which he was impatiently demanding. When attacked, on the 10th April, by the Archduke John, as the generals separated by Napoleon had been in Germany by the Archduke Charles, Prince Eugene, who was in command for the first time, had not been able, as Napoleon was, to retrieve, by a sudden stroke and powerful effort, an engagement badly begun. Being unable to hold head against the Austrian forces, he resolved to retire, in order to rejoin the main body of his army. This retrograde movement he performed with regret; hesitating, and feeling annoyed by the grumbling of the soldiers, because they wished to march to the enemy, and by the hesitation of the generals who dared not offer him advice, he halted on the 15th before the town of Sacile, and on the 16th made an unexpected attack on the Archduke John, who on the previous evening had surprised and beaten the French rearguard at Pordenone, though, as it now appeared, not any better guarded himself. Confused at the first moment by an unlooked-for attack, the Austrians defended themselves with great bravery. Their superior forces threatened to cut off our communications, and the prince, afraid of being isolated, ordered retreat when the issue of the battle was still uncertain. He had just left the battle-field--which the soldiers would scarcely leave, furious at not having gained the day--when the Viceroy of Italy, modest and brave, but evidently not equal to the task which the emperor had imposed upon him, wrote thus to the latter:--"My father, I have need of your indulgence. Fearing your blame if I withdrew, I accepted battle, and I have lost it." He accompanied this sad news with no message nor any details, and the want of information annoyed Napoleon still more than the check undergone by his troops. "Whatever evil may have taken place," he wrote, "if I had full knowledge of the state of things I should decide what to do; but I think it an absurd and frightful thing that a battle taking place on the 16th, it is now the 26th, without my knowing anything about it. That upsets my plans for the campaign, and I cannot understand what can have suggested to you that singular procedure.

I hope to be soon at Salzburg, and make short work in the Tyrol; but for G.o.d's sake! let me know what is going on, and what is the situation of my affairs in Italy." And on the 30th April: "War is a serious game, in which one can compromise his reputation and his country. A man of sense must soon feel and know if he is made for that profession or not. I know that in Italy you affect some contempt for Ma.s.sena; if I had sent him, that which has happened would not have taken place. Ma.s.sena has military qualities before which one must humble himself. His faults must be forgot, for all men have their faults. In giving you the command of the army I made a mistake, and ought to have sent you Ma.s.sena, and given you the command of the cavalry under his orders. The Prince Royal of Bavaria commands a division under the Duke of Dantzic. Kings of France, emperors, even when reigning, have often commanded a regiment or division under the orders of an old marshal. I think that if matters become pressing you ought to write to the King of Naples to come to the army: he will leave the government to the queen. You will hand over the command to him, and serve under his orders. The case simply is, that you have less experience of war than a man who has served since he was sixteen. I am not displeased at the mistakes you have made, but because you don't write to me, and put me in a position to give you advice, and even direct operations from this place."

Fortunately for Prince Eugene, as well as the army of Italy, General Macdonald had just arrived at head-quarters, then moved beyond the Pena.

Able, honorable, and brave as he had shown himself in the wars of the revolution, Macdonald underwent the weight of imperial disgrace on account of his intimacy with General Moreau. The young officers of the empire used to turn to ridicule his grave disposition and simple habits; but the soldiers loved him, and had confidence in him, and Prince Eugene had the good sense to let himself be guided by his advice. The retreat being continued to the Adige, the army rested there, waiting for the enemy, who were slow in coming in. When at last the Archduke John appeared, he durst not attack the line of the river, and waited for news from Germany. Prince Eugene was still ignorant of the emperor's success. On the 1st of May, Macdonald, who was taking observations, believed he saw a retreating movement of the enemy towards the Frioul. "Victory in Germany!" he shouted, running towards the viceroy; "now is the moment to march forward!" True enough, the Archduke John, being informed of Napoleon's movement upon Vienna, made haste to return to Germany, in the hope of joining his brother, the Archduke Charles. Prince Eugene immediately started in pursuit, pa.s.sed the Piave hurriedly, and driving the archduke through the Carnatic and Julian Alps, marched himself, with a part of his army, towards the victorious emperor. On the 14th May, after dividing his forces, he sent General Macdonald with one part to meet General Marmont, who was advancing towards Trieste. The army of Italy was soon after reunited at Wagram.

The first reverses of Prince Eugene were not the only thing to disturb the emperor's joy at Ratisbon. In Tyrol a rising of the peasants, prepared and encouraged by Austrian agents, had suddenly engaged the whole population, men, women, and children, in a determined struggle against the French conquest and the Bavarian domination. A proclamation of the Emperor Francis was spread through the mountains, and General Chasteler was sent from Vienna to put himself at the head of the insurrection. The Bavarian garrisons were few, and the French detachments which came to their a.s.sistance being composed of recruits, the patriotic pa.s.sion of the mountaineers easily triumphed over an enemy of inferior numbers. From Linz to Brunecken all the posts were carried by the Tyrolese; Halle, Innspruck, and Trente quickly fell into the power of the insurgents. A French column arriving beneath Innspruck when General Chasteler and Hofer had just taken possession of the place, was surrounded, and compelled to capitulate.

General Baraguey d'Hilliers, who occupied Trente, had to fall back upon Roveredo, and then upon Rivoli. The Italian as well as the German Tyrolese had reconquered their independence; from one end of the mountains to the other re-echoed the name of the Emperor Francis and that of the Archduke John, whom the peasants were impatiently awaiting since the news of his first successes in Italy. The insurrection had been entirely patriotic, religious, and popular: the first leader, Andrew Hofer, was a grave and pious man, who rejoiced and triumphed with simplicity, asking G.o.d's pardon in the churches for the crime and violence which he had been unable to prevent, and which were only acts of reprisal for the Bavarian oppression.

The modest glory of the honest innkeeper reached the Emperor Napoleon with the news of the loss of the Tyrol.

The whole of Germany seemed moved by the same breath of independence in the subject or conquered countries. In Swabia, Saxony, Hesse, a silent emotion thrilled all hearts; at certain points bands of insurgents collected together. In Prussia, the instinct of patriotic vengeance was still more powerful; the commandant of Berlin gave to the garrison as watchword "Charles and Ratisbon;" one of the officers at the head of the cavalry here, Major Schill, formerly known as leader of the partisans in 1806 and 1807, had just resumed his old task, drawing with him the body which he commanded; and several companies of infantry deserted to join him. The protestations of the Prussian ministers were not enough to convince Napoleon of the ignorance of government with regard to these hostile manifestations. The Archduke Ferdinand at the head of an army of 35,000 men, had just entered Poland, taking by surprise Prince Poniatowski and the Polish army, still badly organized. After a keenly-contested battle in the environs of Raszyn, near Warsaw, Prince Poniatowski was obliged to surrender his capital, and fall back upon the right bank of the Vistula.

Napoleon alone had conquered, and his lieutenants acting for him in more distant parts, by being surprised or incapable, had only caused him embarra.s.sment. This was a natural and inevitable consequence of a too extensive power, and a territory too vast to be at all points usefully occupied and skilfully defended. All these events confirmed the emperor in the resolution which he had already taken to march upon Vienna. Neglecting the Archduke Charles's army, the Marshals Lannes and Bessieres crossed Bavaria, Napoleon himself setting out for Landshut in order to take the management of his forces. Thus the whole army advanced towards the Inn.

Ma.s.sena took possession of Pa.s.sau, and by the 1st May all the troops had crossed the river. Ma.s.sena was ordered to make himself master of Linz, and secure the bridge over the Danube at Monthausen. There the archdukes and General Hiller might effect their junction, and there, therefore, must the road to Vienna be opened or closed.

Ma.s.sena never hesitated before a difficulty, and never drew back before the most fatal necessities. The Austrians were superior to him in number, and occupied excellent positions. Linz was carried and pa.s.sed through in a few hours. When Napoleon arrived before the small town of Ebersberg which defended the bridge, the place, the castle and even the bridge were in our power, at the cost of a horrible carnage which caused some emotion to the emperor himself. He refused to occupy Ebersberg, everywhere swimming in blood and strewed with dead bodies. There was still a rallying-point left to the archdukes at the bridge of Krems, but they did not think they could defend it. The Archduke Louis and General Hiller pa.s.sed to the right bank of the Danube, and the road to Vienna lay open.

Generally slow in his operations, the Archduke Charles was too far from the capital to a.s.sist it. The place had made no preparations for defence, but the population was animated by great patriotic zeal, and the sight of the French troops before the gates at once caused a rising. The new town, which was open and without ramparts, was quickly in our power.

Preparations were made to defend the walls of the old town, behind which the Archduke Maximilian was entrenched, with from 15,000 to 18,000 regular troops.

Napoleon took up his abode at Schonbrunn, in the palace abandoned by the Emperor Francis; and after appointing as governor of Vienna, General Andreossy, recently his amba.s.sador in Austria, waited calmly for the result of the bombardment. The archduke had imprudently exposed the town to an irresistible attack: on the morning of the 12th May he left Vienna with the greater part of his troops, leaving to General O'Reilly the sad duty of concluding the capitulation. The French took possession of the place on the 13th. The population were still excited when Napoleon issued a proclamation denouncing the princes of the house of Lorraine for having deserted, "not as soldiers of honor yielding to the circ.u.mstances and reverses of war, but as perjurers pursued by their remorse. On running away from Vienna their farewells to its inhabitants were fire and bloodshed; like Medea, they have cut the throats of their children with their own hands. Soldiers! the people of Vienna, to use the expression of the deputation from its faubourgs, are forsaken, abandoned, and widowed; they will be the object of your regards. I take the good citizens under my special protection. As to turbulent and bad men, I shall make examples of them in the ends of justice. Soldiers! Let us treat kindly the poor peasants, and this good population who have so many claims upon our esteem. Let us not be made haughty by our success; but let us see in it a proof of that divine justice which punishes the ungrateful and the perjured."

That boundless vanity which always pervaded Napoleon's soul, in spite of his protestations of thankfulness towards divine justice, did not prevent him from clearly seeing beforehand the difficulties which surrounded him, and the obstacles still to be overcome, even after reaching Vienna, and gaining the victory in every battle. Success had again attended on all his combinations, and the extreme extension of his forces. Prince Eugene after recovering the advantage over Archduke John, was now coming nearer the emperor as he pursued the enemy. Marshal Lefebvre at the head of the Bavarians and French divisions, had commenced offensive operations against General Chasteler and Jellachich, come to the a.s.sistance of Tyrol, and after beating their forces and those of the mountaineers combined at Worgel, on the 13th May, advanced to Innspruck and took possession of it.

The peasants had retired to the mountains, and the Austrian forces fell back upon Hungary. Prince Poniatowski defended victoriously the right bank of the Vistula, and threatened Cracow, while Galicia was rising in favor of Polish independence. The Archduke Charles's army, however, still existed--large, powerful and eager to avenge its defeats. The Archduke Louis had brought him the remainder of the troops, and the Archduke John was advancing to the a.s.sistance of his brothers. In order to prevent this junction, and conquer his enemy before he had been reinforced by the army of Italy, Napoleon decided upon crossing the Danube in the very suburbs of the capital, by making use of the numerous islets there. At the island of Lobau, which was the point chosen for the pa.s.sage, the bed of the Danube was broad and deep; and the island not being in the middle of the stream, the branch separating it from the bank was comparatively narrow. The emperor gave orders to construct bridges.

The attempt was a bold one at any time; it was rash, at the moment when the waters of the Danube, swollen by the melting of the snow, threatened to sweep away the bridges, prepared with difficulty, on which depended the success of the operation. On the 20th May, Marshal Ma.s.sena's troops crossed the river entirely, and took up position in the villages of Aspern, and Essling; a ditch full of water joined the two villages, and its banks were immediately covered with troops. The archduke's advance- guard had alone appeared, till at three o'clock in the afternoon of the 21st May, the Austrian army, 70,000 to 80,000 men strong, at last poured on the plain of Marchfeld. The large bridge thrown from the right bank to the island of Lobau had been broken for the second time during the night, and therefore only 35,000 or 40,000 Frenchmen were there to meet the enemy. The emperor, however, was there, the bridge was about to be repaired, and the generals were opposed to every thought of retreat.

Marshal Lannes had gone forward to occupy Essling, while General Molitor had fortified himself in Aspern. The struggle began with the pa.s.sionate ardor of men playing the great game in which their glory or their country's liberty is at stake. The position at Aspern, covering the bridge to the island of Lobau, was several times taken and retaken, till at last Molitor barricaded the houses of the village, and drove back the Austrian attack with the bayonet. No a.s.sault, however fierce, was able to dislodge Ma.s.sena from the burying-ground, nor Lannes from the village of Essling.

At one time the Prince of Hohenzollern's division was very nearly cutting off our communication between the two villages, at sight of which Lannes, turning towards Marshal Bessieres, ordered him, in a voice of thunder, and without regard for his rank or age, to put himself at the head of the cuira.s.siers for a "thorough" charge. Deeply hurt by this order, and the tone in which it was given, Bessieres deferred demanding an explanation, and made a dash upon the Austrian lines. He had to meet in succession the artillery, the infantry, and the cavalry; General Espagne, who was in charge of the heavy horse, was killed by his side; then General Lasalle made a charge in his turn, bringing to the marshal a.s.sistance of which he stood in great need, and Prince Hohenzollern's division was stopped. In the evening, when bivouacking, the emperor was obliged to interpose to prevent Lannes and Bessieres from using against each other the swords which they had so gallantly used during the fighting against the enemy.

The archduke having ordered retreat after nightfall, both armies camped in their positions. Large forces had already crossed the Danube, including the whole corps of General Lannes. The guard also arrived, which had not yet shared in any engagement during the campaign. Seventy or seventy-five thousand men having reached the left bank, they only waited for Marshal Davout's corps, which had received orders to hasten its march, when the large bridge broke for the third time. Part of the artillery and most of the ammunition-wagons were still on the right bank. When communication was again affected, the fighting was everywhere carried on with fresh fury.

Another attack was made on the villages of Aspern and Essling, which had already been reduced to ruins. One after another, Ma.s.sena recovered the positions which Molitor was forced on the previous evening to abandon; he also carried the church occupied by the Austrian general, Vacquant. Lannes had received orders, while protecting Essling, to march into the plain, and by a circular movement pierce the enemy's line and cut them in two.

This operation was about to be accomplished, and the marshal sent an aide- de-camp to the emperor to ask him to have his rear protected by the guard on his leaving Essling unprotected, when frightful news was brought to Napoleon. The trunks of trees, stones, and rubbish of every kind, brought down by the rapid current of the river, had again broken the cables which held together the boats composing the great bridge, and both parts were carried down the stream, taking with them a squadron of cuira.s.siers, who were then defiling over. The pa.s.sage of the troops being stopped, and the ammunition running short, Napoleon ordered Lannes to fall back on the line of the villages and abandon the pursuit of the Austrians, who were just before that hardly pressed everywhere. Whilst the marshal, bitterly disappointed, was effecting this backward movement, the archduke ordered all his artillery to be directed upon him: General St. Hilaire was killed at the head of his division, and whole files of General Oudinot's regiments were shot down--unfortunate lads, so recently enrolled that their officers durst not deploy them before the enemy. It was now midday; Major-General Berthier had just written to Marshal Davout, retained on the opposite bank of the Danube: "The interruption of the bridge has prevented provision-supplies: at ten o'clock we were short of ammunition, and the enemy, perceiving it, marched back upon us. Two hundred guns, to which we cannot reply, have done us much harm. In these circ.u.mstances, it is extremely important to repair the bridges and send ammunition and food.

Write to the Prince of Ponte Corvo (Bernadotte) not to open a campaign in Bohemia, and to General Lauriston to be ready to join us. See that Daru sends us ambulance-stores and provisions of every kind. As soon as the bridge is ready, or during the night, come and have a consultation with the emperor."

At the same moment the Austrians began a movement similar to that which Lannes so recently was on the point of effecting. The Archduke Charles combined his best troops, to overpower our centre and finally break our lines. Marshal Lannes was immediately on the spot, bringing up in close succession the already decimated divisions--the cuira.s.siers, the old guard; and these were soon supported by the charges of the light cavalry.

The conflict was now frightful. The French artillery, placed on the bank of the ditch connecting Aspern and Essling, fired slowly, with the precaution and prudence due to their shortness of ammunition, while the Austrian cannons thundered unceasingly. Lannes galloped in front of his regiments, which were immovable before the enemy, whose advance had been stopped; and when encouraging his soldiers by gesture and voice, one of his aides-de-camp conjured him to dismount. When in the act of obeying, a cannon-ball struck him, shattering both his knees. Marshal Bessieres a.s.sisted his terrified officers in wrapping round him a cuira.s.sier's cloak and getting him carried to an ambulance; but, recollecting his irritation of the evening before, he turned away his head as he grasped the hand of his dying friend, lest the sight of him should cause any sorrow or vexation.

Ominous news were now coming from all parts to Napoleon, who had not quitted the angle formed by the line between Aspern and Essling. Marshal Ma.s.sena still kept in the midst of the smoking ruins which marked the spot where stood so recently the pretty village of Aspern. The Austrians were advancing in dense ma.s.ses against the village of Essling. Marshal Bessieres defended that post, indispensable to the safety of the army. The emperor sent for the fusileers of the guard and placed them under General Mouton's orders. "I give them to you," said he; "make another effort to save the army; but let us put an end to this! After these, I have only the grenadiers and cha.s.seurs of the old guard; they must be reserved for a disaster." General Mouton advanced, and his first effort was rewarded by freeing General Baudet, who was hemmed in in a barn, which he defended like a fortress. Five times did the enemy return to the charge, and now they prepared for a new attack, when General Rapp, shouting, "The emperor says we must put an end to this!" combined his forces with Mouton's, and both rushed forward, followed by their soldiers, with their bayonets in front and their heads held low. The Austrians at last recoiled, and Essling remained in our hands. The battery which had been raised on the island of Lobau had fired with effect upon the ma.s.ses of the enemy when, for a short time, they were near the river. The bridge was free, the only way left us to effect our retreat, when night at last permitted us to withdraw without disgrace or danger. The long summer's day was at its close.

Having for a long time understood the necessity of this backward movement, the emperor longed only for its execution, and wished to inspect himself the resources of defence afforded by the island of Lobau. He would not hear of leaving the battlefield without being certain of the position of Aspern, and sent to ask Ma.s.sena if he could undertake to hold the village, as he had constantly done for the two previous days. The old soldier was sitting on a heap of ruins, in the midst of the smoking remains of the place, and, rising at the first words of the aide-de-camp, he stretched out his arm towards the Danube, as if to hasten the messenger's return: "Go and tell the emperor that I shall keep here two hours, six, twenty- four, if need be--so long as the safety of the army requires it."

The Archduke Charles, however, was himself tired of a struggle that led to no decision--cruel and b.l.o.o.d.y beyond all that he had seen in his long military career. He had brought together all his forces, and placed all his artillery in a line, in order to crush once more with his cannon-shot the invincible battalions which separated him from the river and still forbade his pa.s.sage. General Mouton brought to this threatened point the fusileers of the guard who had just freed Essling; our dismounted guns replied at rare intervals to the continued fire of the enemy; the bodies of infantry, slightly protected by the inequalities of the ground, were ma.s.sed behind useless cannon, and supported by the cavalry, which covered at one part the road from Essling to Aspern, and at another the unprotected s.p.a.ce between Essling and the Danube. Parallel to them were arranged the guard in order. All these glorious remnants of a two days'

unexampled struggle, motionless under the cannon-b.a.l.l.s, looked in silence upon their officers moving about in front of the lines between the cannon of the enemy and the men whom they commanded. "Only one word escaped our lips," said General Mouton, afterwards Count Lobau, when telling the story of that day; "we had only one thing to say, 'close up the ranks!' whenever the soldiers fell under the fire of the archduke's 200 guns."

On crossing to the entrance of the bridge on the river's bank, where there were confused heaps of wounded men, transport carts, empty artillery- wagons, and dismounted guns, Napoleon went to see Marshal Lannes, who had just undergone amputation, and showed more emotion than he usually showed at the tragical end of his lieutenants. The dying farewell of the ill.u.s.trious officer to his chief, still unsated with glory and conquest, has been told in various ways. The emperor himself reported the words as he wished them to be known, full of kindness and sadness on the part of Lannes. Some of those who stood by reported that the instinct of the dying soldier awoke with the bluntness frequently characterizing it, and that Lannes cursed the cruel ambition which strewed Napoleon's brilliant route with the corpses of his friends. He only survived that scene two days, and was praised as he deserved by Napoleon. On again mounting his horse, the emperor inspected the island of Lobau in detail, and satisfied himself that the position could be easily defended by a large body of troops well equipped and well commanded. He resolved to leave Ma.s.sena there--the natural leader in all cases of supreme resistance--while he made preparations at Vienna and on the right bank of the Danube for definitively crossing the river and bringing the campaign to a close. His project thus conceived, and combinations decided on in his mind, the emperor repa.s.sed the small arm of the river, and, stopping at the head of the bridge, called his generals around him. It was nightfall; the battle had finished; on both sides they were still occupied in removing the wounded; the dead everywhere strewed the plain, the border of the ditch, and the ruins of the villages. Napoleon held a council of war on the field, on that bank of the Danube defended during two days with so much obstinacy.

The emperor was not accustomed to consult his generals, his thought was spontaneous as his will was imperious. On the evening of the 22nd of May, he listened patiently to the ideas, the objections, even the complaints of the generals who surrounded him. Nearly all were discouraged, and conceived the necessity of a complete and long retreat; they weighed, however, all the inconveniences of this, and felt beforehand all the humiliation; their perplexity was extreme. Napoleon at last spoke; his plan was decided. By abandoning the island of Lobau, and repa.s.sing the great arm of the Danube with the entire army, it would be necessary to leave behind 10,000 wounded, the whole of the artillery, to be covered with disgrace, and consequently to bring about at once a rising in Germany, which was ready to fall eagerly upon an enemy she believed vanquished. It was not the retreat on Vienna, which would be thus prepared; it was the retreat upon Strasburg. What they must do was to occupy the island of Lobau with 40,000 men, under the orders of Ma.s.sena; to appoint Davout to protect Vienna and the right bank of the Danube against the attacks of the Archduke Charles, and prevent him from effecting his junction with the Archduke John; while all the personal efforts of Napoleon would be directed to repairing the great bridge, preparing provisions and transports, concentrating his troops until the day when, rejoined by Prince Eugene, and sure of traversing the Danube victoriously, he would again unite the entire army to crush his enemies by a decisive blow, thus terminating the campaign gloriously on a field of battle already chosen in the conqueror's mind.

As he spoke, developing his plan with that powerful and spontaneous eloquence which he drew from the abundance and clearness of his thoughts, his generals listened, and felt their trouble disappear, and the heroic ardor of the combat take possession of their hearts. Ma.s.sena rose, carried away by his admiration, forgetful of his habitual ill-humor and the discontent he so constantly manifested. He took several steps towards the emperor. "Sire, you are a great man," cried he, "and worthy to command men like myself. Leave me here, and I promise you to fling into the Danube all the Austrian forces who may try to dislodge me." Marshal Davout undertook, in the same way, to defend Vienna. Tranquillity had reappeared on every face. Within the limits of that plain covered with dead, by the side of the wagons ceaselessly defiling with wounded and dying, a great work remained to be done, a great enterprise to be achieved, whatever obstacles might present themselves. Hope had reappeared, together with the end to be pursued. Napoleon crossed the island and embarked with Berthier and Savary in a small boat, which brought him back safely to the right bank of the river. Ma.s.sena returned to Aspern, momentarily invested with the chief command. The retreat commenced.

The cannonade was still heard in the plain, but faint, and separated by long intervals; the artillerymen, worn out, stood to their guns with great difficulty. The Austrians were overcome with fatigue; already several corps had pa.s.sed into the island under cover of the darkness, when the Archduke Charles at length perceived that we were escaping from him. He at once began to follow, but slowly, without spirit or eagerness. The troops defiled in order over the little bridge which Marshal Ma.s.sena protected in person. He remained almost alone upon the bank, his entire army having effected its retreat; and after collecting the arms and horses abandoned by the soldiers, he at last resolved to follow his men and destroy the bridge behind him, intrepid to the last moment in his retrograde movement, as the captain of a s.h.i.+pwrecked vessel is the last to quit the remains of his s.h.i.+p. Day was now dawning; the b.a.l.l.s from the enemy's batteries recommenced to rain around him, when the marshal at length gained the centre of the island, beyond their range.

More than 40,000 French or Austrians, dead or wounded, had fallen in the struggle of these two terrible days. In spite of the emphatic bulletins of the Emperor Napoleon, Europe looked upon the battle of Essling as a striking check to our arms. The warlike excitement of Germany increased; the Tyroleans were again rising, and General Deroy found himself forced to evacuate Innspruck; a corps of German refuges, under the orders of the Duke of Brunswick-Oels, took the road to Dresden, the court immediately taking refuge in Leipzic; a second detachment threatened King Jerome in Westphalia. He was afraid for his crown, and the emperor wrote to him on the 9th June: "The English are not to be feared; all their forces are in Spain and Portugal. They will do nothing--they can do nothing, in Germany; besides, time enough when they do. As to Schill, he is of little moment, and has already put himself out of the question by retreating towards Stralsund. General Gratien and the Danes will probably give an account of him. The Duke of Brunswick has not 8000 men; the former Elector of Ca.s.sel has not 600. Before making a movement it is well to see clearly.

Experience will show you the difference there is between the reports spread by the enemy and the reality. Never, during sixteen years that I have commanded, have I countermanded a regiment, because I always wait for an affair to be ripe, and have thorough knowledge before commencing operations. There is no need for anxiety; you have nothing to fear, all this is nothing but rumor."

At Paris, where the most confident had become anxious, Napoleon severely reprimanded the timid. He wrote, on the 19th May, to General Clarke, the minister of war: "Sir, you have alarmed Paris too much about the affairs of Prussia, even if it were true that she had attacked us. Prussia is of very small importance, and I shall never want for means to enforce her submission--all the more so when these reports are contradicted. You have not used sufficient prudence on this occasion; it produces a bad effect for any power to imagine that I am without resource. The minister of police has taken his text from this to make a lot of foolish talk, which is very much out of place."

Austria had in fact sent to Prussia an amba.s.sador with instructions to engage King Frederick William to break his chains, and take at last his part in the resistance; but that monarch had refused. "Not yet," said he; "it is too soon I am not ready; when I come, I will not come alone. Only strike one other blow." The efforts of Major Schill had not been supported, and that courageous partisan had failed under the walls of Stralsund. The secret diplomacy of Austria appeared to have met with more favor at St. Petersburg; the declaration of war by Russia against Austria remained absolutely without result; the Russian troops which were in Poland seemed more disposed to suppress the insurrection of Galicia than to second the efforts of Prince Poniatowski.

It was one of the great characteristics of the genius of the Emperor Napoleon to place no importance upon reports or appearances, although he was not ignorant of their action on the public. In his public proclamations he made an effort to disguise the check he had received at Essling; but in practice, in his military operations he comprehended all the gravity of it, without allowing himself to be troubled an instant by bad fortune; he even derived original and powerful combinations from the embarra.s.sments of his situation. Prince Eugene had already joined him near Vienna (26th May, 1809), driving back the Archduke John upon Hungary, and overthrowing the corps of the Jellachich Ban, which had in vain tried to stop his progress at Mount Saint-Michel, near Leoben. The army of Italy was not to rest long, the emperor having immediately sent his adopted son to follow the traces of the archduke. "To do the utmost harm to the archduke; to drive him back to the Danube; to intercept his communications with Chastelar and Giulay, who apparently intend to join him; to reduce the fortress of Graetz by isolating it, and to maintain your communications on the left with the duke of Auerstaedt, to construct the bridges on the Raab--these should be your aims," wrote the emperor to Prince Eugene, on the 13th June, and on the 15th: "It is probable that Raab has not sufficient fortifications for the enemy to dare to place a considerable garrison there of his best troops. If he only puts in bad ones the town will surrender on being invested, which will give us the advantage of taking his men, and of having a good post. If the archduke flies before you, you will pursue him, so that he may not be able to pa.s.s the Danube at Komorn, where there is, I think, no bridge, but he may be obliged to take refuge at Bude: do not go farther from me. The line behind the Raab is, I think, suitable for you, because my bridges over the Danube will be completed, and I can recall you in four days, taking at least two from the enemy, which will permit you to be present at the battle, while the enemy will be unable to be there. Your aim, then, is to hinder him from pa.s.sing to Komorn, and then to oblige him to throw himself upon Bude, which will take him away from Vienna."

On the 14th June, even before Napoleon had written these last lines, Prince Eugene, after an obstinate combat, had taken from the Archduke John, and his brother the Archduke Palatine, the important line of the Raab. Generals Broussier and Marmont had effected their junction in the environs of Graetz, repulsing the attacks of the Giulay Ban; General Macdonald, whom the Viceroy of Italy had left behind at Papa, for the purpose of facilitating this concentration of forces, arrived on the field of battle when the day was gained; the archdukes were driven behind the Danube, and the troops furnished by the Hungarian n.o.bility, were dispersed. "I compliment you on the battle of Raab," wrote the emperor to Prince Eugene; "it is the grand-daughter of Marengo and Friedland."

General Lauriston immediately laid siege to the place, which capitulated on the 23rd June. Marshal Davout had bombarded Presburg without effect for several days, in the hope of succeeding in destroying the bridge; the garrison defended itself heroically. Every means had been adopted to rapidly concentrate the whole of the French forces upon Vienna, and to frustrate everywhere the progress of the enemy. Large reinforcements had arrived from France. The emperor himself directed the preparations on the Danube, displaying in this work all the resources of his most inventive genius, and that faculty of usefully employing the talent of others which const.i.tutes one of the most necessary elements of government. At the commencement of July all was at length ready--men, provisions, ammunition, and bridges. "With G.o.d's help," wrote Napoleon to King Jerome, on the 4th July, "in spite of his redoubts and his entrenched camps, I hope to crush the army of the Archduke Charles."

During the forty days which had elapsed since the battle of Essling, the Archduke Charles had limited his efforts to fortifying his positions on the left bank of the Danube, without attempting any offensive operations against Napoleon, and had in vain waited for the reinforcements that his brothers, and the generals dispersed over the Austrian territory, were to bring him. The skilful generals of Napoleon had everywhere intercepted their communications. However, 130,000 or 140,000 of the enemy prepared to dispute with us the pa.s.sage of the Danube. One hundred and fifty thousand French were a.s.sembled around Vienna; Ma.s.sena had not quitted the island of Lobau; Napoleon established himself there with his staff on the 1st July.

Skilful and learned in the theory of war, the Archduke Charles felt his inferiority in face of the unexpected genius of the Emperor Napoleon. He had carefully fortified Aspern, Essling, Ensdorf, but he had not foreseen that the place of disembarkation, and the point of attack, would be changed. The heights which ranged from Neusiedel to Wagram, well occupied by excellent troops, were not furnished with redoubts; it was, however, these same heights the conqueror was about to attack.

The bridges which united the right bank to the island of Lobau were at present out of danger from all inundations and accidents. New and ingenious inventions had utilized all the resources drawn from the magazines of Vienna and the vast forests of Austria. A stockade protected the roadway, and flying bridges of an extraordinary size and solidity could be thrown in several hours over the small arm of the stream which separated the island of Lobau from the left bank. Two days previously the archduke had quitted the heights to approach the banks of the Danube, waiting uselessly for the attack of the enemy; on the 3rd July he drew back his forces towards the hills. The columns of the French continued to defile over the great bridge, and ma.s.sed themselves little by little on the island. The cannon-b.a.l.l.s of the enemy began to rain on the sh.o.r.es of Lobau, but the s.p.a.ce was too vast to permit the Austrian batteries to sweep the interior. During the night of the 4th the first bridges were thrown over the small arm of the Danube between the island and the mainland; flat-bottomed boats brought over soldiers without interruption, and these moored the boats and fixed the plankings. The enemy's fire had become incessant and deadly. The engineers continued their work without appearing to perceive the danger which threatened them, any more than the thunder which rolled over their heads, the lightning which flashed through the darkness, or the rain, which did not cease to fall in torrents. The batteries of the island of Lobau were at length unmasked, everywhere furnished with guns of the largest calibre, and the fire was directed towards the little town of Enzensdorf; after that the Archduke Charles could not deceive himself as to the menaced point. The troops of the Austrian General Nordmann, which had occupied the plain, had fallen back under the fire of the guns. The day rose brilliant and pure, the last clouds ma.s.sed by the storm were dispersed by the rays of the sun. The long files of our troops advanced without precipitation and without disorder; at the first break of day, the emperor himself had crossed the river.

The Archduke Charles contemplated this scene from the heights of Wagram.

His advanced posts had already been forced to give up to their enemies the ground they had occupied the day before. The Austrian general had not yet counted on the irresistible impetuosity of the torrent of men, horses, and artillery, which the island of Lobau continued to vomit on the sh.o.r.es of the Danube. "It is true that they have conquered the river." said the Archduke Charles to his brother the Emperor Francis, standing by his side.

"I allow them to pa.s.s, that I may drive them presently into its waves."

"All right," said the emperor, dryly; "but do not let too many pa.s.s."

Seventy thousand French already deployed in the plain. As they defiled past, the soldiers cried, "Long live the emperor !"

The town of Enzensdorf was merely a ma.s.s of ruins when Marshal Ma.s.sena commanded the attack upon it, and the little corps of Austrians defending it were soon put to the sword; while on the right, General Oudinot had taken possession of the chateau of Sachsengang. The entire army advanced, without obstacle, against the heights of Wagram; Essling and Aspern were occupied by our troops. The dispositions of the troops of the Archduke Charles were not made; he was obliged to order detached bodies to retreat, abandoning positions which were badly defended; the great battle was deferred till the morrow. A rash attack against the plateau of Wagram was repulsed, and for a moment several corps were in disorder; the retreat sounded, and the troops bivouacked at their posts. The last instructions had been given. Marshal Davout alone still remained with the emperor. The Archduke Charles did not sleep--the supreme effort of the Austrian monarchy was to be tried at the break of day.

The extent of the field of battle, and the distance between the positions, presented serious difficulties for both armies. The genius of organization possessed by the Emperor Napoleon had in some measure obviated this by the care he had taken of his centre; the Archduke Charles felt it from the commencement of the combat. Obliged to send his orders great distances, he saw them badly obeyed; the left wing of his army attacked us first, whereas the right wing had been intended to take the offensive. Contrary to his custom, the Emperor Napoleon had ordered his troops to wait for the enemy.

It was four o'clock in the morning when the fire commenced. Marshal Bernadotte, who had remained in advance on the field of battle after his attack of the previous night against the plateau of Wagram, found himself menaced by the Austrians, and fell back on Marshal Ma.s.sena, still ill from a fall from his horse, and commanding his corps from an open carriage. The two marshals had brought back their troops against the little village of Aderklaa; but the archduke occupied it; the French were repulsed, and pushed by the enemy beyond Essling, which had again fallen into the hands of the Austrians.

Meantime, Marshal Davout, on the extreme right, had vigorously resisted the first attack of the columns of Rosenberg, and obliged the Austrians to repa.s.s the rivulet of Russbach, and fall back upon Neusiedel. The marshal threw all his forces immediately against them. It was to him that was confided the honor of taking the plateau of Wagram.

The emperor had joined Marshal Ma.s.sena, talking a few minutes with him under a storm of b.a.l.l.s which fell round the carriage: Napoleon walked his horse across the plain, impatiently waiting the great movement that he had ordered on the centre. At the head advanced a division of the army of Italy, commanded by Macdonald, little known to the young soldiers because of his long disgrace; he marched proudly, attired in his old uniform of the armies of the republic. Napoleon saw him unmoved under the fire, attentive to the least incidents of the battle: "Ah, the fine fellow! the fine fellow!" he repeated in a low voice.

The artillery of the guard arrived at a gallop, supporting by its hundred guns the impetuous attack of the centre: the Austrians recoiled from this enormous ma.s.s, the irresistible impulse of which nothing could stay.

Macdonald had already reached Sussenbrunn, where the archduke and his generals had concentrated their last effort; and the French columns were stopped by their desperate resistance. For a moment they seemed destined to retreat in their turn; but Davout had succeeded in his attack against the heights of Neusiedel. The plateau of Wagram was in our hands; General Oudinot had effected his junction, after taking the position of Baumersdorf; and the Prince of Hohenzollern retreated before them. In vain the Archduke Charles had hoped to see his brother, the Archduke John, arrive in time to restore their chance; the struggle lasted for more than ten hours--all the positions had fallen into our power; the retreat of the Austrian army commenced, regular and well ordered, without precipitation or rout. Disorder, on the contrary, showed itself in the ranks of the conquerors, when, at the last moments of the struggle, some soldiers of the vanguard of the Archduke John appeared in the environs of Leopoldsdorf. The young troops, already disbanded in the joy of the victory--the servants of the army, the sutlers, the carriers of the wounded, were seized with a panic terror, and fell back with loud cries on the main body of the army, announcing that the enemy were returning to crush us. It was too late; the Archduke John had slowly executed the orders tardily received. His arrival could not change the issue of the battle; he fell back upon Hungary. The Archduke Charles had taken the road to Bohemia before the Emperor Napoleon was well informed of his march. The pursuit was, therefore, divided between Bohemia and Moravia. The forces of the enemy were dispersed during their retreat. The archduke had with him about 60,000 men, when General Marmont, with a corps of only 10,000, rejoined him at Znam, on the road to Prague.