Military Career of Napoleon the Great Part 20

The Archduke Charles now hastened to the spot to prevent the catastrophe that threatened his centre, and in this critical moment discharged at once the duties of a general and a common soldier. He brought up reserves, replaced the gaps which had been made in his line by the furious onslaught of the French, and while awaiting the execution of these orders, seized a standard and himself led the grenadiers to the charge, while his bravest officers were struck down by his side. Lannes, who also headed his soldiers in person, seeing the Austrian infantry disordered, let loose upon them Bessieres and his own cuira.s.siers, who, charging Hohenzollern's corps, broke several squares and took prisoners, cannon and flags.

Success now seemed certain, and Lannes sent a staff officer to acquaint Napoleon of his progress and asked him to cover his rear whilst he was advancing in the plain and leaving so large a s.p.a.ce between him and Essling. The officer found Napoleon watching the grand spectacle of which he was the director. He did not express anything like the satisfaction he might have been expected to feel at such a communication. The fact was, an unfortunate accident had occurred. At this critical moment the bridge connecting the island of Lobau was being wholly swept away by means of fire-ships sent down the river by the Austrians. Napoleon at once perceived that if he wished to preserve his communication with the right of the Danube, where his reserve still lay, he must instantly fall back on Lobau. The want of troops, however, was not the first consequence of the rupture of the bridge, for the 60,000 already pa.s.sed over were enough to beat the Austrians. What was most to be regretted was the want of ammunition, a prodigious quant.i.ty of which had already been consumed, and of which there would soon be a scarcity.

Napoleon therefore resolved upon a painful sacrifice in order not to expose himself to risks which prudence forbade him to brave. Having formed this resolution, in an instant he ordered the staff officer to return to Lannes as fast as possible and tell him to suspend the movement and fall back gradually on the Essling and Asperne line. He was also to recommend the marshal to be sparing of ammunition.

On receiving this order Lannes and Bessieres were compelled, to their deep regret, to halt in the midst of the vast plain of Marchfield. No sooner did the French troops commence their backward movement than the Austrians recovered their order and zeal, charged in turn, and finally made themselves masters of Asperne.

Essling, where Ma.s.sena commanded, held firm, and under the protection of that village and numerous batteries erected near it, Napoleon succeeded in withdrawing his whole force during the night. The Commander had sent earlier in the day to inquire of Ma.s.sena if he could rely on the possession of Asperne; for as long as it and Essling remained, the safe retreat of the army was insured. The staff officer who took the message found Ma.s.sena on a heap of rubbish, hara.s.sed with fatigue, with blood-shot eyes, but with unabated energy of spirit.

On receiving the message he stood up and replied with extraordinary emphasis: "Go tell the Emperor I will hold out two hours,--twenty-four --so long as it is necessary for the safety of the army!"

It was during this exciting retreat that a dreadful calamity befell the army. Whilst Lannes was galloping in front of the line from one corps to another, encouraging the soldiers by his voice and example, an officer who was alarmed at seeing him exposed to so much danger, entreated him to dismount for greater safety. He followed the advice, though it was far from his habit to be careful of his life. At that instant he was struck by a cannon ball that shattered both his knees. Bessieres and an aide raised him up, and found him bathed in blood and almost senseless.

Bessieres, with whom he had quarreled on the preceding day, pressed his weak hand. He was laid on a cuira.s.sier's cloak and carried to a little bridge where an ambulance was stationed. The news soon spread through the army and filled it with sorrow. The surgeon declared his wounds to be mortal.

In his frenzy the brave marshal called for Napoleon, his friend. The latter observed a group advancing, supporting Lannes on a bier formed of crossed fire-locks and some branches of oak. Twelve old grenadiers, covered with blood and dust, bore this ill.u.s.trious warrior along. As soon as the Emperor saw it was the Duke of Montebello he hastened to meet him. The grenadiers stopped, and Napoleon, throwing himself upon his old companion-in-arms, who had fainted from the loss of blood, in a voice scarcely articulate, said, several times, "Lannes, my friend, do you know me? It is the Emperor, it is Bonaparte, your friend."

At these words Lannes opened his eyes, till then closed, collected his spirits, and made some attempts to speak; but, being unable, he could only lift his dying arms to pa.s.s them round the neck of Napoleon. The fear of exhausting the little life still remaining in the marshal determined the Emperor to leave him.

Sometime later Napoleon visited his wounded friend and conversed with him briefly. "My n.o.ble marshal," said the Emperor, "It is all over."

"What!" cried the dying man, "can't _you_ save me?" He died in delirium some days later in the arms of his chief, who wept over him as he had done at the death of Desaix at Marengo. The French soldiery delighted to call him the "Roland of the Camp," and Napoleon said, "It was impossible to be more brave than Lannes." No man could inspire his troops with more confidence than could this brave soldier who had been the companion of the fortunes and glory of Napoleon from the very beginning of his public career.

Napoleon had charged Lannes to maintain Essling at all hazards and he valiantly fulfilled his task. At length, at nine at night, the sanguinary conflict ceased; the French preserving the position they had occupied in the morning, and the Austrians bivouacking where they were.

Both sides sustained an equal loss, from fifteen to twenty thousand men having been killed, or wounded, on both sides. Among the Austrians were four field-marshals, eight generals and six hundred and sixty-three officers killed or wounded.

On the morning of the 23rd of May the French were cooped up in Lobau and the adjacent islands,--Asperne and Essling--the whole left bank of the river, remaining in the possession of the Austrians. On either side a victory was claimed. In the eyes of Europe it was a check for Napoleon, accustomed to crush his enemy, to have been unable at this time to drive the Austrians from their position.

The situation of the French Emperor was imminently hazardous; he was separated from Davoust and his reserves, and, had the enemy either attacked him in the islands, or pa.s.sed the river higher up and so overwhelmed Davoust and relieved Vienna, the results might have been fatal. But the Archduke's loss in these two days had been very great; and, in place of risking an offensive movement, he contented himself with strengthening the position of Asperne and Essling, and awaiting quietly the moment when his enemy should choose to attempt once more the pa.s.sage to the left bank, and the reoccupation of these stubbornly contested villages.

Napoleon availed himself of this pause with his usual skill. That he had been checked was true, and that the news would be heard with enthusiasm, he well knew. It was necessary, therefore, to regain the fame which had surrounded the beginning of the campaign, and he made every preparation for another decisive battle. Some weeks elapsed ere he ventured to a.s.sume the offensive.

On the 4th of July, 1809, Napoleon at last re-established his communication with the right bank, and arranged the means of pa.s.sing to the left at a point where the Archduke had made hardly any preparation for receiving him. On the 5th of July, at 10 o'clock at night, the French began to cross from the islands in the Danube to the left bank.

Gunboats prepared for the purpose silenced some of the Austrian batteries; others were avoided by pa.s.sing the river out of reach of their fire on bridges that had been secretly erected by the French. When Napoleon had a river to be crossed he began the operation by suddenly conveying some determined men to the opposite side in boats. These proceeded to disarm or kill the enemy's advanced posts, and to fix the moorings to which the boats were to be attached that were to carry the bridge. The army then pa.s.sed over as quickly as possible.

The first of these operations was the most difficult in presence of an enemy so numerous and so well prepared as were the Austrians. To facilitate it, Napoleon had large flat boats constructed, capable of carrying 300 men each, and having a moving gunwale to protect the men from musketry, which on being let down, would serve instead of planks for landing. Every corps was provided with five of these flat-boats, which made an advance guard of 1500 men carried over at once, and the enemy, not knowing exactly where the crossing would be made, could not confront the French with advanced posts in sufficient numbers to prevent their landing.

The Austrians having rashly calculated that Asperne and Essling must needs be the object of the next contest, as of the preceding, they were taken almost unawares by Napoleon's appearance in another quarter. They changed their line on the instant and occupied a position, the centre and key of which was the little town of Wagram. Here, on the 6th of July, the final and decisive battle was to be fought. Adding together the troops of Ma.s.sena, Oudinot, Davoust, Bernadotte, Prince Eugene, Macdonald, Marmont, de Wrede and the Guard, there appeared to be 150,000 men; of whom 26,000 were cavalry and 12,000 artillerymen serving 550 guns; an enormous force, such as Napoleon had never yet mustered on a field of battle, and according to some authorities, such a host as had never been brought into action by any leader. Besides this vast force Napoleon had with him the invincible Ma.s.sena, who was then suffering from a fall from his horse, but who was capable of mastering all physical sufferings on a day of battle; the stubborn Davoust, the impetuous Oudinot, the intrepid Macdonald, and a mult.i.tude of others who were ready to purchase the triumph of the French arms with their blood.

The heroic Lannes was the only one missing. Fate had forbidden him to witness a victory to which he had powerfully contributed by his conduct in this campaign.

When the day dawned on the banks of the river, about 4 o'clock in the morning, a most imposing spectacle presented itself to both armies. The sun glistened on thousands of bayonets and helmets, and seventy thousand men were already in line of battle on the enemy's side of the river capable of making a good fight with the Archduke's forces. Seeing Napoleon ride along the front of the lines his soldiers raised their shakos on their bayonets and cried: "Vive l'Empereur!" The ground covered by the two armies was about two leagues in extent. The troops nearest were about 1200 fathoms from the city of Vienna, so that the towers, steeples, and tops of the highest houses, were covered by the numerous population, thus become spectators of the terrible contest then preparing.

The Archduke had extended his line over too wide a s.p.a.ce, and his former error enabled Napoleon to at once see an opportunity to ruin him by his old device of pouring the full shock of his strength on the centre. In fact, so apparently weak was the position of the Austrians at this time that the Emperor, in his bulletin of the engagement sent to Paris, had this to say: "This disposition of the army appeared so absurd that some snare was dreaded, and the Emperor hesitated some time before ordering the easy dispositions which he had to make in order to annul those of the enemy, and render them fatal to him." At sunrise the cannonade commenced upon the two lines. Napoleon, perceiving that the Prince of Rosemberg was moving upon Marshal Davoust, repaired in person to the right wing, which he reinforced with the cuira.s.siers under General Arrighe, and caused twelve pieces of light artillery to advance upon the flank of the enemy's columns. After an obstinate engagement of two hours' duration, Davoust succeeded in repulsing his adversary as far as Neusiedel.

While the French army thus signalized itself by success in the beginning of the day, the battle was carried along the rest of the line with great determination. The fire of musketry and cannon was now general on that vast front of nearly three leagues, along which 300,000 men and 1100 pieces of cannon were arrayed against each other. It was a principle of Napoleon's that by concentrating on one point the action of certain special arms that grand effects were to be produced, and therefore it was that he bestowed an immense amount of artillery on the Guard and had kept under his hand a reserve of fourteen regiments of cuira.s.siers.

The Emperor now ordered that the whole of the artillery of the Guard, together with all that could be spared by the several corps, advance at a gallop. Just then General de Wrede arrived on the ground with twenty-five pieces of excellent artillery, and solicited the honor of taking part in the decisive movement, to which Napoleon consented. He then sent for General Macdonald, his design being to shake the Austrian centre with 100 guns, and then pierce it with Macdonald's bayonets and Nansouty's sabres. These orders were obeyed on the instant.

While awaiting the carrying out of these movements, impatient for the arrival of Macdonald and Lauriston, Napoleon rode about the field on his Persian horse of dazzling whiteness, giving orders to his aides constantly. The cannonading had by this time acquired the frequency of musket-firing, and everybody shuddered at the thought of seeing the man, on whose life so many destinies depended, struck by one of those blind messengers of death. The hundred guns were now ranged in line and instantly began the most tremendous slaughter ever known to those who witnessed it. Napoleon observed with his gla.s.s the effect of that formidable battery, saw the enemy's artillery dismounted, and was satisfied with the correctness of his own conceptions. But artillery was not sufficient to break the Austrian centre; bayonets, too, were requisite.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From a Painting by Baron Gros

NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF EYLAU]

The intrepid Macdonald now advanced at the head of his corps under a deluge of fire, leaving the ground covered at every step with his dead and wounded, still closing the ranks without wavering, and communicating his own gallant bearing to his soldiers. "What a brave man!" Napoleon exclaimed several times, as he saw him thus march under the shower of grape and bullets. The Archduke's centre, shaken by the fire of a hundred pieces of ordinance, retreats, as does also his right. Davoust now shakes the Austrian left wing, and as he does so Napoleon exclaims: "The battle is won!",--and so it was. Lauriston, with a hundred pieces of cannon, and Macdonald at the head of a chosen division, charged the Austrians in the centre and broke through it. The victory was for the French once more.

At length the Austrian army fell into disorder, their centre was driven back two or three miles out of the line; cries of alarm were heard, the right wing gave way and the left soon followed. The rout was now complete. At the close of the battle there remained 20,000 prisoners, besides all the artillery and baggage in the hands of the French.

Napoleon showed all his courage and talents on this day, and was ever in the hottest of the action, though the appearance of his retinue drew on him showers of grape by which he was repeatedly endangered. From early morning, he was occupied in galloping through the different lines, encouraging the troops by his presence and persuasive eloquence; many being killed by the b.a.l.l.s that flew about him. It was observed that the enemy's fire was particularly directed against the Emperor; in consequence of which Napoleon was obliged to change his surtout three times. The aides-de-camp and officers of the staff were also given to understand that they should keep more at a distance, and the regiments were instructed not to salute the Emperor with acclamations at the moment he was pa.s.sing.

On the following morning, after surveying the field of battle, Napoleon went to place himself in the midst of his troops who were about to pursue the retreating enemy. He walked round the bivouacs without either hat or sword, his hands being crossed behind him, and as he talked with the soldiers of his Guard his manner and countenance expressed the utmost satisfaction and confidence. On pa.s.sing Macdonald, with whom he had lost favor, and who had not followed the fortunes of the Emperor for some years, Napoleon stopped and held out his hand, saying: "Shake hands, Macdonald; no more animosity between us, we must henceforth be friends; and, as a pledge of my sincerity, I will send you your marshal's staff, which you so gloriously earned in yesterday's battle."

The general, pressing the Emperor's hand affectionately, exclaimed: "Ah, sire; with us it is henceforth for life and for death." The act was heightened by the grace and good will with which it was performed. The same rank was granted a few days after to General Oudinot and the Duke of Ragusa (Marmont), for their eminent services.

After the battle Napoleon recognized among the dead a colonel who had displeased him. He stopped and looked at the mangled body for a moment and then said, "I regret not having told him before the battle that I had forgotten everything."

The Archduke fled in great confusion as far as Znaim in Moravia, abandoning, as trophies of his defeat, ten standards, forty pieces of cannon, nearly 18,000 prisoners, nine thousand wounded, and a great quant.i.ty of equipage.

The loss of the French, while much less than that of the enemy, was 6,000 wounded and 2,600 killed. Marshal Bessieres was among the former.

The French army had to lament the loss of the valiant LaSalle, one of the first generals of light cavalry. His death was greatly regretted both by the Emperor and the army. He was considered the best light cavalry officer for outpost duty and had the surest eye. He could take in a whole district in a moment, and seldom made a mistake, so that his reports on the enemy's position were clear and precise. He was a handsome man of bright wit, an excellent horseman and brave to the point of rashness. He first attracted the notice of General Bonaparte at the battle of Rivoli when he galloped down a descent to which the fleeing Austrians had resorted to escape, and took some thousand prisoners under the eyes of General Bonaparte and the army. From that time LaSalle was in high favor with Napoleon who promoted him rapidly and took him to Egypt where he made him colonel. He distinguished himself at Austerlitz and in Prussia.

The Imperial Council perceived that further resistance was useless and an armistice was agreed to at Znaim. Napoleon, on returning to Vienna, continued occupied until October. For the third time he found himself master of the destinies of the House of Lorraine, which he had accused of ingrat.i.tude and perjury before Europe and in the face of history; for the third time this conqueror, so violent in his menaces, so overwhelming in his reproaches, eagerly received the proposals of those who had provoked the war, whose hopes had been overthrown, and whose resources were destroyed on the day of Wagram. The results of the battle, without being as extraordinary as those of Austerlitz, Jena or Friedland, were great nevertheless.

The announcement of the armistice with Austria put an end, in effect, to all hostile demonstrations on the Continent, except in the Peninsula, and Germany in apparent tranquility awaited the result of the negotiations of Vienna.

A few days after Napoleon had returned to Schoenbrunn from Moravia he narrowly escaped the dagger of a young man who rushed upon him at a grand review of the Imperial Guard, and while in the midst of all his staff. Berthier and Rapp threw themselves upon the would-be a.s.sa.s.sin and disarmed him at the moment when his knife was about to enter the Emperor's body.

Napoleon demanded to know what motive had actuated the a.s.sa.s.sin. "What injury," said he, "have I done to you?"

"To me personally, none," answered the youth, "but you are the oppressor of my country; the tyrant of the world; and to have put you to death would have been the highest glory of a man of honor."

The youth, a son of a clergyman of Erfurt named Staaps, was condemned to death. It is said Napoleon wished to pardon Staaps, whose frankness and courage had struck him, and in whom, besides, he saw but a blind instrument of the pa.s.sions incited by the monarchy; but his orders arrived too late. The young German met his death with the greatest coolness, exclaiming: "Hail, Liberty! Germany forever! Death to the tyrant!"

The length to which the negotiations with Austria were protracted excited much wonder, but Napoleon, who was occupied incessantly with his ministers and generals, and seldom showed himself in public, had other business on hand besides his treaty with the Emperor Francis. His long-standing quarrel with the Pope now reached its crisis, growing out of the Concordat, involving affairs in Spain and Portugal, and finally by a refusal of the pontiff to acquiesce in the Berlin and Milan decrees against England's commerce. On the 17th of May Napoleon had issued from Vienna his final decree declaring the temporal sovereignty of the Pope to be wholly at an end, incorporating Rome with the French Empire, and declaring it to be his second city, settling a handsome pension on the holy father in his spiritual capacity, and appointing a committee of administration for the civil government of Rome. The Pope replied with a bull of excommunication against Napoleon which finally resulted in the removal of His Holiness to Fontainebleau where he continued a prisoner, though treated personally with respect and magnificence, during more than three years.

The treaty with Austria was at last signed at Schoenbrunn on the 14th of October, Austria giving up territory to the amount of 45,000 square miles, with a population of four millions, and depriving her of her last seaport. Yet, when compared with the signal triumphs of the campaign at Wagram, the terms on which the conqueror signed the peace were universally looked upon as remarkable for moderation. Napoleon afterwards expressed himself as highly culpable in having left Austria too powerful after the affair at Wagram, using the following words on that occasion: "The day after the battle I ought to have published in the order of the day that I would ratify no treaty with Austria, until after a previous separation of the crown of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia; to be placed on three different heads."

Napoleon quitted Vienna on the 16th of October, and was congratulated by the public bodies of Paris at Fontainebleau on the 14th of November as "the greatest of heroes, who never achieved victories but for the happiness of the world." When he reappeared at the palace at Fontainebleau on Oct. 26th 1809, crowned with the victory of Wagram, there was one to whom dark forebodings came--Josephine felt that her fate was sealed. In fact, as a modern writer has said, the immediate result of Wagram was the divorce from the Empress.

The first public intimation of a measure which had for a considerable period occupied Napoleon's thoughts came from the Emperor himself when he said, in an imperial speech in which he described the events of the past year, and the state of France: "I and my house will ever be found ready to sacrifice everything, even our own dearest ties and feelings, to the welfare of the French people."

XII

CAMPAIGN OF RUSSIA

Long before Napoleon a.s.sumed the imperial t.i.tle his hopes of offspring from the union with Josephine were at an end, but the Empress lived for a time in hope that the Emperor would be content to adopt her son Eugene. Louis Bonaparte married Hortense Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine, and an infant son became so much the favorite of Napoleon that the Empress, as well as others, come to regard this boy as the heir of France. But the child died early and the Emperor then began to direct his thoughts towards the best means of dissolving his marriage with Josephine, in order that he might form an alliance with some daughter of Russia, or other imperial family. The Emperor Alexander was approached on this subject, and informed that one of his sisters, the Grand d.u.c.h.ess Anne, would be acceptable, but the Empress-mother hesitated, and this being taken by Napoleon as a refusal, he sought the hand of the Archd.u.c.h.ess Marie Louise, daughter of the Emperor Francis of Austria.

On the 15th of December, 1809, the Emperor summoned his council and announced to them, that at the expense of all his personal feelings, he, devoted wholly to the welfare of the State, had resolved to separate himself from his most dear consort. "Arrived at the age of forty years"