The English, however, henceforward united to the cause of the Spanish

insurrection by a solemn declaration, published on the 15th December, and

everywhere the objects of Napoleon's most persistent hatred, had not yet

undergone the shock of his arms. Having only imperfect information as to

Sir John Moore's operations, the emperor had reckoned with certainty upon

the retreat which that general began at the moment of the attack upon

Madrid, when he found that it was absolutely impossible to concentrate his

forces in time for resistance. Moore was not hopeful as to the results of

the campaign, and had little satisfaction in his Spanish auxiliaries, who

always distrusted foreigners, even when allies; when urged by the Junta,

however, and after receiving instructions from England, he advanced

towards Valladolid, relinquishing his line of retreat upon Portugal, and

directing his march to Corunna. From some intercepted despatches he

believed he might surprise Marshal Soult in the kingdom of Leon, with

inferior forces to his own; and, at the same time, ask Sir David Baird to

join him with his troops, and sent to ask the Marquis Romana for

reinforcements. On the 21st December, the English army, more than 25,000

men strong, had reached Sahagun, near to Marshal Soult's position.

The emperor was not deceived by the first report, that the English had

changed their line of march. He at once penetrated Sir John Moore's

object, and resolved to at once fall upon his rear, and crush him by a

superiority of forces. In a letter to Paris he says, "The English have at

last showed signs of life. They seem now to have abandoned Portugal, and

taken another line of operations. They are marching upon Valladolid, and

for three days our troops have made operations to manoeuvre them, and

advance on their rear. If the English don't make for the sea, and beat us

in speed, they will find it hard to escape us, and will pay dear for their

daring attempt upon the continent."

On the 22nd, the emperor, uniting the divisions of his army with that

rapidity which all his lieutenants had learned from him, set out himself

on march with 40,000 men, in the hope of intercepting the advance of the

English to the coast. The weather had become wet and cold, and when the

French army reached the foot of Guadarrama the snow was falling in thick

masses. The chasseurs of the guard, dismounting, led their horses by hand,

and opened a road to their comrades through the snow. Napoleon himself was

on foot. The snow-storm being followed by rain, their progress was slow.

On receiving a message from Soult that he was at Carrion, and that he

believed the English were one day's journey distant, Napoleon said, "If

they stay one day longer in that position they are lost, for I shall

presently be on their flank."

Sir John Moore was a prudent and skilful soldier, and on receiving

information sufficient to indicate the emperor's intention, he at once

began his retreat towards Corunna. When Marshal Ney, entering Medina from

Rio-Seco, was preparing to march upon Benaventa, the English had already

reached that post, and, after crossing the Ezla, blew up the bridges. When

the French advance-guard, commanded by General Lefebvre-Desnouettes,

arrived before the town the last wagons of the English army were

disappearing in the distance. The cavalry officer too eagerly made his

squadrons ford the river, and Lord Paget, who protected the retreat,

repulsed the attack of the French, and took their general prisoner. The

first detachments of Napoleon's army entered Astorga a short time after

the English had evacuated the place, the Marquis de la Romana, withdrawing

as well as his allies, having followed by the same way. The roads were

much cut up by the wheels and footsteps, besides being encumbered by the

dead bodies of many horses, which the English had killed when too tired to

go on. There were also traces left everywhere by the English army of a

troublesome want of discipline; soldiers left drunk because they could not

keep up in the rapid march which their leader had ordered, houses

pillaged, and the Spanish peasants, oppressed both by their defenders and

their enemies, became every day more distrustful and gloomy. Sir John

Moore complained that he could obtain neither food nor information from

the frightened and discontented population.

On the 2nd January, the Emperor Napoleon changed his plans. Feeling that

the danger of a war with Austria became daily more imminent, and finding

that the English would reach the sea in spite of any efforts of his to

intercept them, and that the brilliant stroke which he intended was daily

becoming more impossible of execution, he entrusted the pursuit of the

enemy to Marshal Soult, who was then nearer him than Ney, and marched with

the imperial guard towards Valladolid. Before arriving there he wrote from

Benaventa to King Joseph, on the 6th January, 1809,--

"My brother, I thank you for what you say regarding the New Year. I have

no hope of Europe being at peace in 1809. On the contrary, I yesterday

signed a decree for a levy of 100,000 men. The hatred of England, the

events at Constantinople, everything forewarns that the hour of rest and

tranquillity has not yet sounded. As to you, your kingdom appears to me to

be almost at peace. The kingdoms of Leon, the Asturias, and New Castile,

only want rest. I hope Galicia will soon be pacified, and that the English

will leave the country. Saragossa must soon fall; and General St. Cyr,

with 30,000 men, will soon attain his object in Catalonia."

The English were in fact preparing to leave Spain; and though the

determination was quite recent, it was with a sense of depression, which,

in the case of the general, was increased by the sad plight of his array

and its want of discipline. Their disorder was at its worst when at last

they reached the small town of Lugo (6th January, 1809), exhausted by the

bad weather, want of food, and excess of brandy and other strong liquors.

Sir John Moore had resolved to offer battle to the French, and the hope of

fighting had restored courage and obedience to the soldiers. He waited

three days for Marshal Soult, but the French general's forces were

diminished by the rapidity of the pursuit, and he did not accept the offer

of fighting. Moore resumed his march towards Corunna, reckoning to find,

on his arrival at the coast, the transport vessels which were necessary

for his army. When at last, on the 11th January, he came in sight of the

sea, not a single sail appeared over its vast extent. The contest becoming

inevitable, Sir John ordered the bridges over the Mero to be blown up, and

took up his position on the heights which command Corunna.

Marshal Soult had been delayed, by the necessity of repairing the bridges

and rallying a division of his army which had fallen behind; and when at

last, on the morning of the 16th, he attacked the English positions, the

long-expected transports were crowding into the harbor, and a way of

escape was open to the English army. A keenly-contested struggle took

place, however, around the small village, Elvina, occupied by the troops

of Sir David Baird, who was severely wounded. Sir John went to the

assistance of his lieutenant, and when leading his men within range to the

front, had his arm and collarbone shattered by a ball. He was carried back

to the town by his soldiers, in a dying condition. The English still

retaining their positions at nightfall, their embarkment was now certain,

and General Hope, who had taken the command, pushed forward the

preparations for departure.

Sir John Moore had just expired. "You know well," said he to his friend

Colonel Anderson, "that this is how I always wished to die." After a short

pause, he added, "I hope the English people will be satisfied; I hope that

my country will do me justice." Without losing time in procuring a coffin,

his soldiers dug a grave with their swords, and committed to earth the

body of their general, still wrapped in his military cloak. The English

army, which he had saved by his prudence and resolution, then hurriedly

embarked, "and left him alone in his glory," as the poet has finely put

it. Several weeks afterwards, when Marshal Ney took possession of Corunna,

he had a stone placed on the tomb of his heroic enemy.

From Valladolid, where he was still staying, the Emperor Napoleon directed

the movements of his armies; fortifying the defences of Italy, and

commanding the movements of the troops intended for Germany, he at the

same time wrote to all the princes of the Rheinish Confederation,

reminding them peremptorily of their engagements, and referring to the

lengthened war preparations of Austria as equivalent to a declaration of

war. "Russia, as well as myself, is indignant at the extravagant conduct

of Austria," he wrote to the King of Wurtemberg, on the 15th January; "we

cannot conceive what madness has taken possession of the court of Vienna.

When your Majesty reads this letter I shall be in Paris. One part of my

army of Spain is now returning, to form an army of reserve; but,

independently of that, without touching a single man of my army of Spain,

I can send into Germany 150,000 men, and be there myself to advance with

them upon the Inn at the end of February, without counting the troops of

the Confederation. I suppose that your Majesty's troops are ready to march

on the slightest movement; you are sensible of the great importance, if

war is absolutely necessary, of carrying it on in our enemy's territory,

rather than leaving it to settle on that of the Confederation. I beg of

your Majesty to let me know in Paris your opinion on all those points. Can

the waters of the Danube have acquired the property of the river Lethe?"

At the same time, to instruct King Joseph in the government of Spain, at

the moment when that prince was about to visit his capital again, he thus

wrote to him, at Prado:--"General Belliard's movement is excellent; a

score of worthless fellows ought to be hanged. To-morrow I am to have

seven hanged here, known to have had a share in all the excesses, and a

nuisance to the respectable people, who have secretly denounced them, and

who now regain courage on finding themselves rid of them. You must do the

same at Madrid. Five-sixths of the town are good, but honest folks should

be encouraged, and they cannot be so except by keeping in check the riff-

raff. Unless a hundred or so of rioters and ruffians are got rid of,

nothing is done. Of that hundred, get twelve or fourteen shot or hanged,

and send the rest into France to the galleys. I think it necessary,

especially at the first start, that your government should show a little

vigor against the riff-raff. They only like and respect those whom they

fear, and their fear alone may procure you the love and esteem of the rest

of the nation.

"The state of Europe compels me to go to spend three weeks in Paris, and

if nothing prevent I shall return here about the end of February. I

believe I wrote you to make your entry into Madrid on the 14th. Denon

wishes to take some paintings. I should prefer you to take all that are in

the confiscated houses and suppressed convents, and make me a present of

about fifty of its master-pieces, for the Paris museum. At the proper time

and place I shall give you others. Send for Denon, and give him a hint of

this. You understand that they must be really good; and it is said you are

immensely rich in that kind."

King Joseph retook possession of his capital with a great display of

magnificence, the brilliant success of the French arms having rallied

round him the timid, and the discontented keeping silence. Before setting

out for Paris, where he arrived on the 24th, the emperor said, "The attack

upon Valentia must not be thought of until Saragossa is taken, which must

be during the month of February:" and Marshal Lannes, who had charge of

the siege operations for a month, justified the hopes of his master. On

the 21st February, 1809, Saragossa at last surrendered, having been the

object of several French attacks since June, 1808.

After the battle of Tudela the whole of the army in Aragon had fallen back

upon Saragossa. Joseph Palafox had shut himself up in it with his two

brothers, and the country population having followed in great numbers,

100,000 human beings were crowded together behind the ramparts of the

town, in its old convents, within the dull walls of its embattled houses--

almost everywhere without outside windows, and already threatening the

enemy with their gloomy aspect. Throughout the province, at the call of

the defenders of Saragossa the insurgent peasants intercepted the convoys

of provisions intended for the French army, and the besiegers no less than

the besieged suffered from want of food.

Napoleon had undervalued the resistance of the inhabitants of Saragossa.

Always ordering the movements of his troops himself, and from a distance,

he had sent Marshal Moncey with insufficient forces; and soon after, Junot

was entrusted with the attack. The sallies of the Spanish were easily

repulsed, but each assault cost a large number of men. The Aragonian

riflemen, posted on the ramparts or the roofs of the houses, brought down,

without exposing themselves, the bravest of our grenadiers. Everywhere the

women brought the artillery-men food and ammunition; and one of them,

finding a piece abandoned, applied the match to it herself, and continued

firing it for several days. The whole of the population fought on the

walls until they should have to fight in the streets and houses.

From redoubt to redoubt, from convent to convent, General Junot had slowly

advanced, till the middle of January, 1809. When at last Marshal Lannes

appeared before Saragossa, he had called to his assistance large

reinforcements; and the troops posted in the suburbs, and who had not yet

shared in the action, dispersed the hostile crowd there. The attack

commenced with a vigor which quite equalled the energy of the resistance;

and on the 27th January, after a general assault, which was deadly and

long-continued, the entire circuit of the walls was carried by the French

troops. It is a maxim of war that every town deprived of the protection of

its walls capitulates, or surrenders at discretion; but in Saragossa the

real struggle--the struggle of the populace--was only beginning. On the

28th, Lannes wrote to the emperor: "Never, sire, have I seen such keen

determination as in putting our enemies here on their defence. I have seen

women come to be killed at a breach. Every house has to be taken by storm;

and without great precaution we should lose many soldiers, there being in

the town 30,000 or 40,000 men, besides the inhabitants. We now hold Santa-

Engracia as far as the Capucine convent, and have captured fifteen guns.

In spite of all the orders I have given to prevent soldiers from rushing

forward, their ardor getting the better of them has given us 200 wounded

more than we ought to have."

And a few days afterwards: "The siege of Saragossa resembles in nothing

any war we have hitherto had. It is a business requiring great prudence

and great energy. We are obliged to take every house by mining or assault.

These wretches defend themselves with a keen determination which is

inconceivable. In a word, sire, it is a horrible war. At this moment three

or four parts of the town are on fire, and it is crushed with shells, yet

our enemies are not intimidated. We are laboring might and main to get to

the faubourg; and once we are masters of it, I hope the town will not long

hold out."

During the first siege of Saragossa, Marshal Lefebvre, on getting

possession of one of the principal convents, sent to Joseph Palafox the

short despatch: "Head-quarters, Santa-Engracia. Capitulation." And the

defender of the place replied: "Head-quarters, Saragossa. War to the

knife." It was war to the knife, to the musket, to the mine, which was

pursued from house to house, from story to story. To go along the streets,

the French soldiers were obliged to slip past close to the walls, the

enemy being so keen and eager that a shako or coat held up on the point of

a sword to deceive them was instantly riddled with balls. More than one

detachment after taking a building were suddenly blown up, by being

secretly undermined. Our soldiers in their turn replied by some important

underground works, which were ably organized by Lacoste, colonel of the

engineers. From the 29th January to the 18th February the same struggle

was pursued, with the same keen determination. A day was chosen for the

assault of the faubourg, which General Gazan had long invested. The troops

were impatient to make this last effort, being both irritated and

depressed. They both suffered and saw others suffer. The misery in the

town, however, was greater than the besiegers could suspect. A terrible

epidemic was decimating those who were left of the defenders of Saragossa.

Joseph Palafox himself was dying.

After the breach was opened in the ramparts of the faubourg, a frightful

explosion announced the destruction of the immense University buildings,

laying open to our soldiers the Coso, or Holy Street, which passed through

the whole town. The ground was everywhere mined, and the very heart of

Saragossa was at its last extremity, when the Junta of Defence at last

yielded to the necessity which was bearing them down, and a messenger

presented himself before Marshal Lannes in the name of Don Joseph Palafox.

We have seen the painful illusions created by the isolation of a besieged

town: the defenders of Saragossa believed that the Spanish had been

victorious everywhere, and it was only on the word of honor of Marshal

Lannes that they accepted the sad truth. The 12,000 men of the garrison

who had resisted all the horrors of the siege, surrendered as prisoners of

war. Of 100,000 inhabitants who had crowded Saragossa, 54,000 had

perished. There were heaps of dead bodies round the old church, Our Lady

del Pilar, object of the passionate devotion of the whole population. In

their real heart, and at the first moment of victory, the French soldiers

felt for the defenders of Saragossa an admiration mixed with anger and

alarm. Rage alone animated the heart of their most illustrious leader.

Napoleon had sometimes honored the resistance of his enemies, as at

Mantua; now, on his attaining the height of power and glory, he no longer

admitted that the Spanish should defend their independence against a

usurpation stained with perfidy. "My Brother," he wrote to King Joseph on

the 11th March, "I have read an article in the _Madrid Gazette_, giving an

account of the taking of Saragossa, in which they eulogize those who

defended that town--no doubt to encourage those of Valencia and Seville.

That is certainly a strange policy. I am sure there is not a Frenchman who

has not the greatest scorn for those who defended Saragossa. Those who

allow such vagaries are more dangerous for us than the insurgents. In a

proclamation, mention is already made of Saguntum: that, in my opinion, is

most imprudent."

Many things at this juncture chafed the mind of the imperious master of

the world. He had left Spain immediately after a series of successes,

without deceiving himself as to their importance and decisive value with

reference to the permanent establishment of the French monarchy in Madrid.

He foresaw the difficulties and perpetually recurring embarrassments of a

command being divided, when the nominal authority of King Joseph was

unable to govern lieutenants who were powerful, distinguished, and

jealous. To obviate this inconvenience, and maintain that unity of action

which he considered an indispensable element of success, he had kept to

himself the supreme direction of the military operations, and attempted to

govern the war in Spain from a distance, at the moment when he was

organizing and recruiting his armies to support in Germany a determined

struggle against all the forces of the Austrian empire. Italy, Holland,

the Rhenish Confederation, all the states which he had founded or subdued,

claimed his support or vigilance. Russia remained quiet because she was

powerless and disarmed, but a serious check would have speedily thrown her

with ardor on the side of his enemies. Russia, compelled by recent

treaties and pressing interests, concealed under friendly phrases a secret

indifference, and the beginning of her enmity: being, moreover, occupied

by her own conquests, by the uncompleted subjugation of Finland, and a

renewal of her struggle with Turkey. England, irritated and humiliated by

the check undergone by her attempts at intervention in Spain, was

energetically preparing new and more successful efforts. In presence of so

many enemies, concealed or declared--compelled to regulate so many

affairs, the government, oppression, and conquest of so many races--

Napoleon, on returning to Paris after his Spanish campaign, had found

men's dispositions changed, and precursory signs of an open discontent

which he was not accustomed to meet or to suffer.

Even in Spain the rumor of this modification of the national thought had

already reached Napoleon's ears: he had read it in the letters of his most

intimate correspondents, and imagined it even in the eyes of his soldiers.

The rage of the despot burst forth one day in Valladolid: when passing

along the ranks of the troops he was leaving behind, on hearing some of

them muttering he is said to have snatched from the hand of a grenadier a

musket, which seemed awkwardly held, exclaiming, "You wretch! you deserve

to be shot, and I have a good mind to have it done! You are all longing to

go back to Paris, to resume your habits and pleasures:--well, I shall keep

you under arms till you are eighty."

On reaching France, and especially Paris, Napoleon thought the atmosphere

felt charged with resistance and disobedience. There was more freedom of

speech, and men's thoughts were more daring than their words. Those whom

he distrusted now came nearer, and others had taken the liberty to

criticise his intentions and his acts. Even in the Legislative Body, the

arrangements of the code of criminal justice, recently submitted to the

vote, had undergone a rather lively discussion. Fouché had the courage to

raise the question of the succession to the throne, when speaking to the

Empress Josephine herself about the necessity of a divorce. The most

daring had ventured to anticipate the possibility of a fatal accident in

the chances of war, some affirming that Murat aimed at the crown. The

Arch-chancellor Cambacérès, who always showed prudence and ability in his

relations with his former colleague, now his master, attempted in vain to

calm the increasing irritation of his mind. His anger burst forth against

Talleyrand during a sitting of the Ministerial Council. For several months

previously a coldness and distrust had reigned between the emperor and

this confidant of several of the gravest acts of his life--who was always

self-possessed even when he seemed devoted, too clever ever to give

himself up entirely, and invariably impassible in manner and feature.

Napoleon poured forth his displeasure in a long speech, reminding

Talleyrand of advice he had formerly given him, being carried away both by

his passion and the desire to compromise and humiliate a man whose

intrigues he was afraid of. At the conclusion of this noisy scene, still

more humiliating for the emperor than for the minister, Talleyrand quietly

withdrew, limping through the galleries, among the officers and courtiers,

astonished at the noise which had reached even them, and looking at him

with curiosity or spite. It was the starting-point of that secret

animosity to which Talleyrand was afterwards to give cold and biting

expression, when, in 1813, after a similar scene, he said, "You have a

great man there, but badly brought up!" Napoleon's anger did not last

long, although his distrust remained fixed. Talleyrand's pride underwent

numerous eclipses. Commencing, however, from that day, the separation

between them became irreparable; and when the emperor's decadence began,

Talleyrand was already gained over to other hopes, and ready to serve

another cause.

It was during the first moments of a growing discontent, already

unmistakable in Paris and the large towns, that Napoleon found himself

compelled to ask from France new efforts and cruel sacrifices. To make the

old contingents equal to the new, he has already, they said, raised 80,000

men by the past conscriptions; the same expedient if soon applied to more

remote years will bring to his standards grown-up men able to undergo long

fatigue. The contingent of 1810 was at the same time raised to 110,000

men. In order to furnish officers to this enormous mass of conscripts, the

emperor wrote on the 8th March, to General Clarke, minister of war: "I

have formed sixteen cohorts of 10,000 conscripts of my guard. Present to

me sixteen lists of four pupils in the St. Cyr Military College, to be

appointed as sub-lieutenants in those cohorts; that will supply employment

to sixty-four scholars. These youths will be under the orders of the

officers of my guard, and will assist them in forming the conscripts, and

fulfilling the duties of adjutant. They can also be of use in marching

with detachments to the regiments where they will have their definitive

appointment. Thus, with the 104 scholars necessary for the fifth

battalions, the school must supply 168 pupils this year. Present to me 168

young people to replace those at St. Cyr.

"Let me know what can be supplied by La Flèche School, and the lycées. I

have forty lycées; if each of them can furnish ten pupils of eighteen

years old, that makes 400 quartermasters. I shall have to send 200 to the

different regiments, and 200 to the army of the Rhine. Find also whether

the Polytechnic School cannot supply fifty officers; and whether the

Compiègne School cannot supply fifty youths of over seventeen, to be

incorporated with the companies of artillery workmen."

As if to supply the troublesome gaps thus made in the schools by the

unexpected removal of so many boys, Napoleon had written beforehand to

Fouché from Benaventa (31st December, 1809):

"I am informed that some families of the emigrants are removing their

children to avoid conscription, and keeping them in troublesome and

culpable idleness. It is clear that the old and rich families who are not

for our system are against it. I wish you to get a list drawn up of ten of

those principal families in each department, and fifty for Paris, showing

the age, fortune, and quality of each member. My intention is to pass a

decree to send to the Military School of St. Cyr the young men belonging

to those families whose ages are between sixteen and eighteen. If any

objection is made, the only answer to make is, that it is my good

pleasure. The future generation should not suffer from the hatred and

petty spite of the present generation. If you have to ask the prefects for

information, do so in similar terms."

With her will or against it, by the impulse of enthusiasm still left or

under the law of good pleasure, France followed her insatiable master upon

the ever open battle-fields. Napoleon was not deceived as to his arbitrary

measures. "I wish to call out 30,000 men by the conscription of 1810," he

wrote on the 21st March to General Lacuée, director-general of the reviews

and conscription; "I am obliged to delay the publication of the 'Senatus-

consulte,' which can only be done when all the documents are published.

Let the good departments be preferred in choosing. The levy for France

generally will only be one fourth of this year's conscription. The

prefects might manage it without letting the public know, since there is

no occasion for their assembling or drawing lots."

Financial difficulties also began to be felt. For a long time, by war

contributions and exactions of every kind imposed upon the conquered

countries, Napoleon had formed a military treasury, which he alone

managed, and without any check. This resource allowed him to do without

increasing taxes or imposing additional burdens. The funds, however,

became exhausted, and war alone could renew them. "Reply to Sieur Otto,"

he wrote on the 1st April, 1809, to Champagny, "that I will have nothing

said about subsidies. It is not at all the principle of France. It was

well enough under the ancient government, because they had few troops, but

at the present day the power of France, and the energy impressed upon my

peoples, will produce as many soldiers as I wish, and my money is employed

in equipping them and putting them on the field."

Negotiations were still being carried on. The fifth coalition was secretly

formed, and diplomatic plots were everywhere joining their threads.

Napoleon strove to engage Russia in a common declaration against Austria;

England enrolled against France the new government just established at

Constantinople by revolution. On both sides the preparations for war

became more patent and hurried. Metternich complained at Paris of the

hostile attitude of France, and announced the reciprocity imposed upon his

master. On the 1st April, Napoleon wrote, "Get articles put in all the

journals upon all that is provoking or offensive for the French nation in

everything done at Vienna. You can go as far back as the first arming.

There must be an article of this tendency every day in the _Journal de

l'Empire_, or the _Publiciste_, or the _Gazette de France_. The aim of

these articles is to prove that they wish us to make war."

In France the decided, if not expressed, wish of the Emperor Napoleon, and

in Austria the patriotic indignation and warlike excitement of the court

and army, must necessarily have brought on a rupture; and the most

trifling pretext was enough to cause the explosion. The arrest of a French

courier by the Austrians at Braunau, the violation of the imperial

territory by the troops of Marshal Davout then posted at Wurzburg,

provoked hostilities several days sooner than Napoleon expected; and

Metternich had already asked for his passports when, on the 10th April,

the Archduke Charles crossed the Inn with his army. The Tyrol at the same

time rose in insurrection under the orders of a mountain innkeeper, Andrew

Hofer; and the Bavarian garrisons were everywhere attacked by hunters and

peasants. Like the Spanish, the Tyrolese claimed the independence of their

country.

The troops of the Emperor Napoleon already covered Germany; Davout being

at Ratisbon, Lannes at Augsburg, and Masséna at Ulm. Marshal Lefebvre

commanded the Bavarians, Augereau was appointed to lead the Wurtembergers,

the men of Baden and Hesse; the Saxons were placed under the orders of

Bernadotte. On the evening of the 9th April, the Archduke Charles wrote to

the King of Bavaria that his orders were to advance, and treat as enemies

all the forces which opposed him; that he fondly trusted that no German

would resist the liberating army on its march to deliver Germany. The

Emperor Napoleon had already offered to the Kings of Saxony and Bavaria

one of his palaces in France as an asylum, should they find themselves

compelled to temporarily abandon their capitals. The King of Bavaria set

out for Augsburg.

The unexpected movement of his enemies modified Napoleon's plan of attack.

A delay in the arrival of the despatches sent to Major-General Berthier

caused some difficulty in the first operations of the French army. When

the emperor arrived at Donauwerth, on the morning of the 17th, his army

was spread over an extent of twenty-five leagues, and was in danger of

being cut in two by the Archduke Charles. It was Napoleon's care and study

on beginning the campaign to avoid this danger, which soon afterwards he

subjected his adversary to. The Austrians, after passing the Isar at two

places, and driving back the Bavarians who had been appointed to defend

the passage, advanced towards the Danube.

Already, before touching Donauwerth, Napoleon's orders had begun the

concentration of his forces. Masséna was at Augsburg, and received the

order to march upon Neustadt, and similarly Davout left Ratisbon to

advance to the same place. The Archduke Charles was also striving to reach

it, hoping to gain upon the French by speed, and pass between the

divisions posted at Ratisbon and Augsburg. This manoeuvre was baffled by

Napoleon's prompt decision. "Never was there need for more rapidity and

activity of movement than now," he wrote on the 18th to Masséna.

"Activity, activity, speed! Let me have your assistance."

The emperor's lieutenants did not fail him in this brilliant and

scientific movement, everywhere executed with an ability and precision

worthy of the great general who had conceived it. The Archduke Charles was

a consummate tactician, but often his prudence degenerated into

hesitation--a dangerous fault in presence of the most overpowering

military genius whom the world had yet beheld. Napoleon himself said of

Marshal Turenne that he was the only general whom experience had made more

daring. A long military experience had not exercised that happy effect on

the archduke; he still felt his way, and neglecting to take advantage of

the concentration of his forces, dispersed the different parts of his

army. The chastisement was not slow in following the fault. On the 19th,

Marshal Davout, ascending the Danube from Ratisbon to Abensberg, met and

defeated the Austrian troops at Fangen, thus being able to effect his

junction with the Bavarians. On the 20th, the emperor attacked the enemy's

lines at several points, and forced his way through them towards Rohr

after several active engagements, thus securing the point of Abensberg,

and separating the Archduke Charles from General Hiller and the Archduke

Louis. On the 21st, this last part of the enemy's army precipitated itself

in a body upon the important position of Landshut, where all the Austrian

war material was collected, with a large number of wounded; but at the

same moment the emperor himself came up, eagerly followed by Lannes and

Bessières, commanding their regiments. Masséna also made haste to join

them. The bridges on the Isar were all attacked at once, and bravely

defended by the Austrians: when carried they were already in flames. The

Archduke Charles, however, attacking Ratisbon, which Davout was obliged to

leave protected only by one regiment, easily took possession of that

important place, commanding both banks of the Danube. He was thus, on the

22nd, before Eckmühl opposite Davout. Informed of this movement, which he

had partly guessed from the noise of the cannon on the 21st, the emperor

directed the main body of his army towards Eckmühl. His troops had already

been fighting for three days, and Napoleon asked a fresh effort from them.

"It is four o'clock," he wrote to Davout, "I have resolved to march, and

shall be upon Eckmühl about midday, and ready to attack the enemy

vigorously at three o'clock. I shall have with me 40,000 men. I shall be

at Ergoltsbach before midday. If the cannon are heard I shall know I am to

attack. If I don't hear it, and you are ready for the attack, fire a salvo

of ten guns at twelve, another at one, and another at two. I am determined

to exterminate the army of the Archduke Charles to-day, or at the latest

to-morrow."

The day was not finished, and the cuirassiers were still fighting by

moonlight to carry and defend the Ratisbon highway, yet the victory was

decisive. The Archduke Charles was beaten, and falling back upon Ratisbon,

he, during the night, took the wise step of evacuating the town and

withdrawing into Bohemia, where General Bellegarde and his troops awaited

him. Henceforth the Austrian army formed two distinct bodies. On the 23rd,

Napoleon marched upon Ratisbon, which bravely defended itself. Slightly

wounded in the foot by a ball, the emperor remained the whole day on

horseback, Marshal Lannes directing the assault. At one moment the

soldiers hesitating because the Austrians shot down one after another of

those who carried the ladders, Lannes seized one, and shouted, "I shall

show you that your marshal has not ceased to be a grenadier." His aides-

de-camp went before him, and they themselves led the troops to the

escalade. At last the gates were opened, and Napoleon entered Ratisbon.

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 Cæsar and the armed hordes of Xerxes.

"In a few days we have triumphed in the three pitched battles of Thann,

Abensberg, and Eckmühl, 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 passed 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 Eugène, 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

God'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 Masséna; if I had sent him, that

which has happened would not have taken place. Masséna 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 Masséna, 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 Eugène, 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 Eugène 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

Eugène 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 Eugène immediately

started in pursuit, passed 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 Eugène 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

assistance being composed of recruits, the patriotic passion 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 God'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

embarrassment. 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 Bessières 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.

Masséna took possession of Passau, and by the 1st May all the troops had

crossed the river. Masséna 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.

Masséna 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 passed 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 passed 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 assist 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 Schönbrunn, in the palace abandoned by the

Emperor Francis; and after appointing as governor of Vienna, General

Andréossy, recently his ambassador 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 circumstances 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 Eugène 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 assistance 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 assistance 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 passage, 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 Masséna'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 passionate

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 assault, however fierce, was able to dislodge

Masséna 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 Bessières, ordered him, in a voice of thunder, and

without regard for his rank or age, to put himself at the head of the

cuirassiers for a "thorough" charge. Deeply hurt by this order, and the

tone in which it was given, Bessières 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 assistance 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 Bessières 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, Masséna 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 cuirassiers, who

were then defiling over. The passage 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 circumstances, 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 cuirassiers, 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 Bessières

assisted his terrified officers in wrapping round him a cuirassier'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

Masséna 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 masses against the village of Essling. Marshal

Bessières 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 chasseurs 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 masses 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 Masséna 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 bloody 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 passage. 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

massed behind useless cannon, and supported by the cavalry, which covered

at one part the road from Essling to Aspern, and at another the

unprotected space 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-balls, 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

illustrious 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 Masséna 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 repassed 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 repassing 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 Masséna;

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 Eugène, 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. Masséna 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. Masséna 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 passed 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 Masséna 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 shipwrecked vessel is the last to quit the remains of

his ship. Day was now dawning; the balls 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 Cassel

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 ambassador 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

embarrassments of his situation. Prince Eugène 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 Eugène, 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 pass

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 passing 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 Eugène, 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 nobility, were

dispersed. "I compliment you on the battle of Raab," wrote the emperor to

Prince Eugène; "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

constitutes one of the most necessary elements of government. At the

commencement of July all was at length ready--men, provisions, ammunition,

and bridges. "With God'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 passage of the Danube. One hundred and fifty thousand

French were assembled around Vienna; Massena 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 massed themselves little by little on

the island. The cannon-balls of the enemy began to rain on the shores of

Lobau, but the space 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 massed 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 shores 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 pass, that I may drive them presently into its waves."

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

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 mass of ruins when Marshal Masséna

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 Masséna, 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

repass 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 Masséna, talking a few minutes with him

under a storm of balls 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 mass, 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 Znaïm, on the road to Prague.