CHAP. 1809. fications were no protection, they deemed further resistance useless, and capitulated with the whole artillery at their disposal, consisting of fifteen pieces. Meanwhile Trieste, which was unarmed, and incapable of resistance, fell an easy prey to General Schilt, with the Trieste, Lay- light troops of Macdonald's division; and the artillery 30. Fall of whole frontier defences of Austria. May 22. bach, and the taken at Gorizia and the Prevald was forthwith forwarded to that important seaport, to place it in a posture of defence against the English cruisers who were then blockading some Russian ships of war. Rapidly following up his advantages, Macdonald, immediately after making himself master of the Prevald, turned towards Laybach, where an intrenched camp, armed with fifty pieces of cannon, commanding the approach to the capital of Carniola, was garrisoned by five thousand landwehr. Joining conduct to vigour, the French general, at the same time that he approached the intrenchments with the bulk of his forces in front, detached Broussier, with two brigades, which threatened to cut off their line of retreat towards Croatia, while several squadrons on the left bank of the Saave made preparations for crossing that river, and assailing them on the other side. Alarmed at the simultaneous appearance of the enemy's forces in so many different quarters, and deeming further resistance useless, now that Vienna had surrendered, the commander of the intrenched camp laid down his arms, with nearly five thousand militia, and sixty pieces of cannon. This important success ensured the submission of all Carniola, and left Macdonald at liberty to follow the forward movement of the Viceroy towards Vienna; while the occupation of Trieste, and the passes leading to it, opened up a communication with Marmont in Dalmatia, who was already preparing to effect his junction with the Grand Army, and concur in its operations. By these successes the whole 1 Erz. Johan. frontier fortifications of the Hereditary States were forced, 129. Pel. iii. With the loss to the Austrians of ten thousand men, and 236, 243. ninety pieces of cannon; but they were dearly purchased, for at Malborghetto, Tarwis, and Prediel, nearly half that number of French had fallen.1 Feldz. 120, Jom. iii. 227. 229. These disasters, however, considerable as they proved, were not the only, nor the greatest, which befel the CHAP. LVII. 1809. 31. Total defeat of the Muhr. retreating army. Jellachich, who had advanced towards Salzburg, in order to prepare the way for the prescribed lateral movement of the Archduke John towards Lintz, having received counter orders from that prince to descend by the valley of the Muhr towards Gratz, in order of Jellachich in the valley to form a junction with the bulk of the Italian army, encountered, at the bridge of St Michel, Serras with his May 24. powerful division, who, after forcing the valley of the Prevrel, was descending the narrow defiles of the Muhr, on the road to Leoben. The Austrian general was following the lateral vale of Lessing, which unites at right angles with that of the Muhr at St Michel; and the two divisions came suddenly and unexpectedly in contact at that romantic pass. The Imperialists at first made a vigorous resistance, and Jellachich, arranging his troops on the road at the foot of the rocks on each side of the bridge, kept up so heavy a fire that, for two hours, all the French columns which presented themselves were swept away. Attracted to the front by the cannonade, the Viceroy came up, and immediately detached several battalions on the road to Mautern, on the other side of the Muhr, who speedily scaled the mountains in the rear of the Imperialists, and commenced a plunging fire upon them from behind. Panic-struck by this unexpected apparition, which they conceived was a second army come to complete their destruction, the Austrians broke and fled; some by the road of St Michel, where they were pursued without mercy, and for the most part either cut down or made prisoners; some by the valley of Lessing, where they fell into the hands of a French brigade, under General Valentin. Nearly two thousand Imperialists were killed or wounded, and above three thousand made prisoners in this disastrous affair: and such was the terror now inspired by the French armies, and such the depression arising from the fall of the 1 Pel. iii. capital, and their multiplied defeats, that on the road 242, 245. from Salzburg to Leoben, four hundred recruits, and 129, 135. twice that number of militia, laid down their arms to a captain followed by a single dragoon.1 Jellachich, having lost all his baggage and cannon, with difficulty escaped at the head of two thousand men, by cross mountain-paths, to Gratz, where his Erz. Johan. LVII. 1809. 32. Eugene ad.. vances to Vienna, and joins Napo- CHAP. arrival, and the woful condition of his troops, excited such consternation that the Archduke forthwith set out in the direction of Kormond in Hungary, abandoning all attempt to bar access to the capital to the invader. Relieved by this retreat from all further molestation in his advance, Eugene moved on rapidly in the footsteps trod twelve years before by Napoleon, to Judenberg and Leoben; and next day, amidst shouts of joy from both armies, his advanced posts fell in with the patrols of Lauriston, who belonged to the Grand Army, on the Erz. Johan. Simmering, and on the day following the junction of 137. Jom. iii. the two armies was fully effected; while the army of the Archduke John, driven to a circuitous and eccentric retreat into Hungary, was entirely lost for the present to the monarchy.1 1 Pel. iii. 242, 247. Feld. 129, 229, 230. Thib. vii. 266, 267. 33. Chances of the conflict under the walls of Vienna to The eyes of all Europe were now fixed with absorbing interest on the shores of the Danube, near Vienna, where a hundred thousand men on either shore stood prepared for mortal, and to all appearance decisive conflict. Defeat to either party seemed fraught with irreparable ruin ; for either party. while the Austrians had no other army or reserves to fall back upon if the Archduke's army were defeated in the heart of the monarchy, the French, on their side, had a disastrous retreat to the Rhine to anticipate, if their arms should prove unsuccessful. Prussia and the North of Germany, it was well known, would start up the moment that a serious reverse befell their eagles; and though the contest took place under the walls of the Austrian capital, it was in reality one of life and death for the French empire. Nor were the chances so unequal as might at first sight appear; for though the Austrian armies had been driven back, separated from each other, and repeatedly defeated, yet their physical strength was not reduced in a much greater proportion than that of their antagonists; and though their capital was taken, still this had been accomplished only by a bold irruption which exposed the invader to nearly the same peril as the invaded. Every one felt, what Napoleon at the time admitted to be true, that a single defeat on the Danube would soon bring the Imperialists to the Rhine; and though the Archduke Charles could not * In the council of war held after the battle of Aspern, when some voices had lay claim to the transcendent military talents of his CHAP. 1809. 1 Pel. iii. 250. Stut. 160, 34. resolves to cross the During the week which immediately followed the occupation of Vienna, the Emperor, being well aware of the crisis which had arrived, was indefatigable in his Napoleon efforts to station his troops in such a manner in echelon, attack the along his line of communication, as to secure his rear enemy, and from insult; while, at the same time, innumerable de- Danube. spatches in every direction provided for the supplies of the army. Titles, decorations, ribbons, crosses of honour, and pensions, were liberally distributed among the soldiers; splendid reviews reanimated the spirits of the men, which the fatigues of the campaign had somewhat depressed, while confident announcements in the bulletins, predicted the speedy destruction of the Austrian monarchy. He had now assembled round Vienna the whole corps of Massena and Lannes, the Imperial Guard and reserve-cavalry under Bessières; and though their strength had been much diminished by the losses of the campaign, they could still, after deducting the sick and wounded, bring above eighty thousand veteran troops into the field; Davoust at St Polten, and Bernadotte at Ebersberg and Enns, kept up his communications, while the Viceroy was daily expected with forty thousand men from Italy. Supported by the battlements of Vienna, such a force was beyond the reach of attack from any force the Imperialists could bring against them; but it was neither consistent with the Emperor's principles of war, nor political policy, to remain shut up behind walls while the enemy kept the field, and was accumulating 255, 259. the forces of the monarchy around him, and he resolved, Thib. vii. 277 therefore, to attempt by main force the passage of the river.2 been expressed for retreating, Napoleon said-" If we retreat, we shall admit in the face of all Europe that we have been defeated. Where shall we retire to? the Traun, the Inn, or the Lech? No! we must fly at once to the Rhine; for the allies whom victory or fortune has given us will all turn against our standards the moment we acknowledge a reverse."-PELET, iii. 331. 2 Jom. iii. 189, 190. Pel. iii. 251, CHAP. 1809. 35. Description near Vienna, ent channels The Danube, which, till within a few leagues of Vienna, flows in a narrow channel, there swells into a wide expanse and spreads over the plain, embracing several islands in its course. Some of these are of the islands extensive, and richly cultivated; but the greater part are of the Danube smaller, and covered with wood. The island of Prater, and the differ with its beautiful umbrageous avenues and much-loved of the river. Woody recesses; and that of Lobau, at a greater distance down the river, and varied with enclosures and cultivation, are the most considerable. The latter is two miles and a half in length, and a mile and three quarters in breadth, covered with rich meadows, swampy thickets, and verdant copsewoods; it has been immortalised in history from the memorable events of which it soon became the theatre. By far the most favourable point for forcing a passage from the right bank is at Nussdorf, half a league above Vienna. There the principal branch of the Danube, a hundred and eighty toises in breadth, flows in a deep and impetuous channel, separated from a similar branch, fifty toises broad, by an island which would serve as an advantageous support for assembling and putting under cover the first troops employed in the operation. Another point for attempting the same enterprise was in front of Ebersdorf, across the great island of Lobau. This island is separated from the right bank by another isle about a mile in length, and half that extent in breadth; while several smaller islets are scattered in the principal channel of the river. Thus, an army attempting the passage at that point has four branches of the Danube to cross, each of which may be considered as a separate river. There is, first, the channel separating the right bank from the lesser island, which is two hundred and forty toises broad; then the main body of the stream, flowing in a deep current, a hundred and seventy toises in breadth, which separates it from Lobau, with a small island in its course dividing this main stream into two parts; finally the northern branch which lies between the isle of Lobau and the 1 Personal Observation. banks of the Marchfield on the left of the river; it is Stut. 202, 210. Pel.'ii. seventy toises in,breadth, and in like manner broken in its course by several smaller islands. Thus, at Ebersdorf, many more bridges required to be constructed than at Nussdorf, and a military road across the islands was 259,267. Jom. ii. 192, 194 |