1809.] PONIATOWSKI OCCUPIES CRACOW. 221 Villach on the 20th, when he received orders from the Commanderin-Chief to join him by Lintz, and forthwith directed his march across Carinthia. At this time, without knowing it, he was not far distant from the Archduke John, whom the Viceroy was following with 30,000 men, by way of Villach and Tarvis. On the 18th Eugène stormed and carried the fort of Madborghetto, and proceeded the same day to carry Prasel, while General Macdonald took the road by Laybach, with 26,000 or 27,000 men, with which he proposed to unite himself with Marmont. On the 22nd Macdonald came unexpectedly on the Austrian General Meerveldt, forming Archduke John's rearguard, who at once capitulated with 4,000 men in an entrenched camp in the mountains, which contained considerable magazines, and was defended by 63 pieces of artillery. The Austrian corps under Chastelan had reached Innspruck, and had pushed forward its patroles as far as Lofer and Reichenthal, on the road to Salzburg. This corps and that of General Jellalich, who was opposed to the Bavarian General Wrede in the passes of the Tyrol, together formed 16,000 or 17,000 men; but they were commanded to act separately in the difficult passes of the Alps, of which they had both great experience and perfect local knowledge. Lefebvre, however, had, as above stated, been sent by Napoleon to look after these divisions of the enemy, and on the 13th of May came up with General Chastelan at Worzel, whom he attacked and routed; and, advancing on Innspruck, that town surrendered to his summons. The patriots under Hofer and Teimar still held the inaccessible Alps which divide the German and French Italian; but the regulars, abandoning the ground altogether, now marched under Chastelan on Vienna, cutting_transversely the road by which the Viceroy was coming up out of Italy. The Prince Joseph Poniatowski was opposed to the Archduke Ferdinand in Poland, and had relinquished to him the city of Warsaw, with the whole of the left bank of the Vistula; but while the Archduke descended to seize upon Thorn, Poniatowski ascended the right bank to possess himself of Cracow, and Ferdinand was very nearly cut off from Galicia. 22. NAPOLEON CROSSES THE DANUBE. As Napoleon looked from the windows of Schönbrunn upon the splendid scene where the Danube throws its thousand channels to light up the landscape, rich in woods and verdure, he pondered over the means at his disposal to pass to the other side of the river, where the Austrian host, in their white habiliments, peopled the valley and held their own with a vast power. How was he to pass the mighty river? Both as it approaches to and as it quits the neighbourhood of Vienna, it is a strong deep current restrained within a precipitous gorge, but where it revels in the plain the stream is comparatively gentle and not, in general, deep. To attempt to cross such a river, in the face of so large a force, was a strategical as well as a natural difficulty, but not to Napoleon's genius an impossibility. He seems to have resolved that, at all events, he must not quit 222 NAPOLEON PREPARES TO CROSS THE DANUBE. [A.D. Vienna to seek a passage at a distance from the city, in the expectation of any advantage that would correspond with the risk of losing the capital. At Krems, for example, he could cross with ease, but he knew that as soon as he had quitted for that object the Archduke would be invited, nay, constrained, to repossess himself of Vienna. To descend for the purpose of crossing lower down would be to aggravate the chances; for, in addition to losing the city, he might also lose possession of his present base of operations. He therefore anxiously reconnoitred, with the most able men under his command, the right banks of the Danube, both up and down the stream. The river, in the immediate neighbourhood of the city, divides and subdivides into many channels, and the many streams intersecting cut up the country. About half a league higher up, at Nussdorf, the principal branch is 180 toises across, in a deep and impetuous channel, with only one island, separated from the left bank by a branch 50 toises broad; but the Bisamberg at that spot completely commands both streams and the island between them. At Kaiser Ebersdorff there is the large island of Lob-Awe, separated from the right bank by a current of 170 toises broad. It was determined, after much discussion, to make an attempt at both these points before the Archduke could come up with the bulk of his army. Lannes, who was encamped up stream, was accordingly directed to take steps to place a bridge at Nussdorf, and Massena to do the same below, opposite the island called Lob-Awe; and the former was to seek by a demonstration to distract the attention of the enemy. St. Hilaire detached two battalions, on the 13th of May, to cross by boats to the island at Nussdorf, called the Schvertze Lacken; but no sooner had they set foot on it than General Nordeman, despatched by Hiller, ad vanced into the island, crossed over a dykehead which had been overlooked, and both battalions were made prisoners. The attempt at this point had, of course, diverted the attention of the Austrians towards it, but, though the passage was now abandoned, it was made useful by distracting observation from the island of LobAwe (or Lobau, as the French call it), where every endeavour was to be directed to establishing a bridge across the three streams with which the Danube is here divided-one about 500 yards wide, one about 300, and one of 150; and the great island being partly covered with fine trees and shrubs would conceal, in a great measure, the operation from the enemy. Massena was directed to take possession of Lob-Awe, and on the 17th sent General Molitor from Ebersdorf, who, with little difficulty, cleared the island of the few troops who occupied it. The great arsenal of Vienna, which had so fortunately for Napoleon come into his possession, offered abundance of material for constructions of every kind; but the Austrians had removed or burned all the boats on the river, and there was a deficiency of cordage and an absolute want of anchors. The wonderful forethought of the Emperor, who before quitting Paris had written to the Minister of Marine, Admiral Decrès, to send to the army 1,200 sailors, was now fully appreciated, when it had become necessary to find substitutes for these deficiencies; but the 1809.] DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED. 223 rapidity of march had outstripped their arrival, and the work had to be done by the French corps of engineers, a very able body of men, who had made many campaigns under Napoleon, and were up to many of those expedients which the mother of invention teaches. About 90 boats, which had been sunk in the river, were discovered and floated; cordage, though of no great power, was also sought out and obtained from holes and corners; and the idea was started of forging anchors from the iron nails and hinges that could be got out of the stores; but, as time was of the utmost value, this idea was abandoned, and great rocks were brought down stream to which to moor the boats, and some large guns, and immense boxes, filled with shot, were used for the same purpose. It was foreseen, however, that, in addition to the difficulty of getting past a vigilant enemy, the freshets which suddenly came down the stream from the melting of the snow in the mountains at this season, would probably overwhelm all such expedients. All these appliances were, nevertheless, collected in the little village of Ebersdorf, to which village the Emperor had moved his head-quarters, and here he was indefatigable day and night in personally overlooking the preparations and superintending the minutest details. The construction of the bridge was intrusted to General Bertrand, with the General of Artillery, Pernetti, under him. On the 19th all the troops, which had been brought up from every side, were passed across into Lob-Awe. The island was a league and a half in length by a league in breadth, and the centre of it was perfectly out of the range of the enemy's shot, so that a large force once in it, could not readily be driven out again. The division Molitor crossed in boats, followed by the division Boudet, both belonging to the corps of Massena. The only Austrians who were met with in the island were a strong guard of cavalry, but these retired before the French, and at once abandoned it to them. At the moment of Davoust's obeying the Emperor's summons, the Austrians were reported to have shown in force at Lintz, and he was directed with the three divisions of Friant, Gudin, and Morent, to watch Kollowrath vigilantly, and Lannes, Massena, and Bessières, with the Guard and the whole of the cavalry, including 14 regiments of cuirassiers, were forthwith crossed into the island with 80,000 men. Molitor reported a very convenient locality, which the French call un rentrant de la rivière, where the bridge to the mainland, near Essling, could be placed under the protection of works and floating batteries on either hand; and the Emperor having approved of it, the pontoons which had been taken at Landshut were brought to the front, and the work was begun and finished on the 20th. While the Emperor continued to hasten operations by his presence, news was brought him that the Austrians had effected a landing on the right bank at Nussdorf. Satisfied that the troops there, under Davoust, would deal satisfactorily with this diversion, he nevertheless sent a brigade of cuirassiers, under Savary, to watch and bring him word of the enemy's proceedings. 224 NAPOLEON CROSSES THE DANUBE. [A.D. 23. BATTLE OF ESSLING OR ASPERN. The Archduke Charles could see from the Bisamberg the works in progress, and on the 20th came down to the island with a strong reconnoissance, under General Klenau. He immediately ordered the concentration of his army, and the three corps of Hiller, Bellegarde, and Hohenzollern were brought down to the Marckfeld (as the district lying between Wagram and Essling is named), while the corps of Count Rosenberg was sent into Enzersdorf, and the grenadiers and cavalry in considerable masses formed the reserve. The Prince of Reuss remained upon the Bisamberg to watch the movements of Davoust along the right bank of the Danube, and 300 guns were placed in position to bear on any advance of the French from the rentrant out of the island, where they had, with great boldness and expedition, thrown up a double parapet, or tête du pont, resting on either hand on the river. At 3 in the afternoon, General Lasalle, with 4 regiments of cavalry, here crossed the bridge into the tête du pont, followed by the divisions Molitor and Boudet. Lasalle went forward and charged the scattered troops in observation, and scoured the plain, while the infantry advanced to occupy the villages of Essling and Aspern, and the wood which lies between the latter village and the river, and which covers all the river bank and islands on this flank. Molitor was immediately attacked by Hiller and Bellegarde, but Massena came up to his aid, when the battle became general about 4 o'clock. Napoleon had just come up when he received a report that the bridge at Ebersdorf, connecting the island to the mainland of the right bank, had been carried away by a freshet from the mountains, falling suddenly when but half the light cavalry of Marulaz, which was crossing at the time, had got over. He sent orders to Bertrand and Pernetti to use the utmost activity to repair the breach, while he himself overlooked the battle. Lannes took command of the division Boudet, which occupied the village of Essling, where he was attacked by Rosenberg. 300 pieces of cannon thundered over Aspern and Essling, of which every house was occupied by French troops; and Boudet in Essling, and Molitor in Aspern, received the attacks made under cover of the gun fire by Hiller and Bellegrade with unflinching courage, in which they were supported and encouraged by the guidance of Marshals Marmont and Lannes, and by the approving eye of Napoleon himself, who ordered Bessières forward to fall with the cavalry of the guard on the batteries, while D'Espagna and Lasalle charged the infantry of Hohenzollern, but without shaking it. The French troops held the villages all through the night, which Napoleon passed en bivouac, surrounded by the cavalry of Lasalle in the small plain between them. By the exertions of Bertrand and Pernetti the bridge was re-established before the middle of the night, and Le Grand's division and some cuirassiers crossed by it before dayiight on the 21st. Berthier, whose power of sight was something . 1809.] NAPOLEON IN A DILEMMA. 225 remarkable, was sent to the summit of the clock tower at Essling, whence he could see clearly the immense columns of the Archduke's army still marching up across the Marckfeld, which he calculated at 80,000 or 90,000 men. Whilst he was making his report to the Emperor, word came that the great bridge to the main bank was again broken by the rise of the waters. Napoleon, for the moment, flinched before adversity: he had not yielded to the first blow, but the second stunned him. He ordered the abandonment of the villages, and the retreat into Lob-Awe; but Molitor, opportunely, came up and entreated a recall of the order. He showed that the possession of the village of Aspern, in which he had posed the night, was of immense importance, and only to be recovered again by torrents of blood, and that he believed the same was true of the village of Essling. The Emperor withdrew to weigh this representation, and while so occupied word was brought that the bridge was rendered passable again, and that the guns and ammunition were crossing it; he therefore allowed himself to be persuaded, and sent immediate orders to Boudet to retain possession, while Molitor was ordered to re-enter Aspern. Nevertheless, he had but two divisions of infantry across, and the cavalry of the reserve, for the cuirassiers had yet to pass the river, and this was fearful odds on which to risk his fortune. The Emperor had about his person his Guards, with Marshal Bessières and some German troops, numbering in all at least 50,000 men. Uneasy at the disparity in numbers between his troops and those opposed to them, Napoleon was on horseback by break of day of the 21st, and rode forward to the outposts to satisfy himself as to the force by which he might expect to be assailed. The villages formed as it were two stout bastions, not more than one British mile asunder; the houses in them were of stone, and only two stories high, and these were surrounded by enclosures and garden-walls of the same material. Essling pos sessed in addition a stone granȧry, three stories high, furnished with loopholes, which was capable of being rendered a small citadel. Aspern was more scattered than Essling, but had a churchyard surrounded by a wall. The ground sloped gently with a natural glacis to the river in the rear, and both were within easy reach of the bridges. As soon as Napoleon had made these observations, he resolved to maintain his ground and wait the arrival of more troops, who had already crossed the great bridge at Ebersdorf, and were now more than half across the island. He therefore sent orders to Boudet, who was still in Essling, to hold it at all hazards, and Marshal Lannes undertook the charge. Molitor had been driven out of Aspern, but Massena was directed to assist Molitor in re-entering and holding it, while Bessières, with all the cavalry, occupied the space between the villages, where was a sunken road, or dry watercourse or ditch, which was well filled with tirailleurs. The artillery was placed under the superior direction of Napoleon himself, so as to bear with the fullest effect on either hand. The Austrians at length moved forward in five massy columns ; the right column, under Hiller, marching direct upon Aspern with |