CHAP. 1809. ardour through every heart. Their much-loved capital, the abode of their Emperor, was in sight, polluted by the eagles of the stranger; their homes were the prize of victory; before them was a splendid battle-field, where they would combat for their sovereign, their liberty, and their country, under the eyes of their wives, their parents, their children. Descending from their elevated encamp1 Archduke ment, horse, foot, and cannon rapidly and eagerly pressed forward towards the enemy; and soon, to those who yet Aspern, Ann. lingered on the Bisamberg, but a small space of clear 382. Chron. green intervened between the volumes of dust which enveloped the extremity of the bridge of Lobau, and the moving clouds which marked the advance of the German host.1 Charles's Account of Reg. 1809, Stut. 230, 235. Pel. ii. 275, 276. army. 42. ""Twixt host and host but narrow space was left, A dreadful interval; and front to front Presented stood in terrible array Of hideous length."* Midway between the villages of ASPERN and ESSLING, each situated at the distance of half a mile from the bank Position and of the Danube, the French bridge opened upon the vast dangers of the French plain of the Marchfield. These villages, therefore, formed the bastions on either flank of Napoleon's army, which extended in line across the open space, a mile broad, which lay between them. Built of stone houses, most of them two stories in height, and surrounded by enclosures and garden walls of the same durable materials, both offered valuable points d'appui to the bridges, under cover of which, it was hoped, Massena and Bessières would be able to maintain themselves, till the remainder of the army could be brought over to their support. Essling had a large stone granary, three stories in height, furnished with loop-holes, capable of containing several hundred men; while Aspern, a long straggling village, above two miles in length, was strengthened, like Eylau, by a churchyard surrounded by a strong wall. A double line of trenches, intended to draw off the water, extended between these two natural bastions, and thence from Aspern to the Danube, and served as a wet ditch, which afforded every possible security to the troops debouching from the island of Lobau. The whole ground was per * Paradise Lost, vi. 105. CHAP. LVII. 1809. Archduke fectly level, gently sloping upwards, like a vast natural glacis, towards Raschdorf: white villages alone, bosomed in tufted trees, rising above the tender green of the plain, which was covered with rich crops at that early season, broke the uniformity of the expanse. Among them, 1 Personal on the right, the glittering pinnacles of Breitenlee, and Observation. the massy tower of Neusiedel, were conspicuous; while Charles's on the left, the woody heights of the Bisamberg shut in Ann. Reg. the scene. The wide-spread light of the bivouacs, along peli. 283, the broad expanse of the horizon, revealed the magnitude 287. of the force to which they were opposed, and inspired an anxious disquietude through the French army.1 Account, 1809, 383. 43. surprised, but Uneasy at the situation of the troops which had crossed over, Napoleon was on horseback by break of day, and in person rode forward to the outposts to satisfy himself as Napoleon is to the amount of the enemy's force by which he was resolves to likely to be assailed. Lannes, with his usual impetuosity, give battle. maintained that there was nothing but a curtain of ten thousand men in front, and proposed that they should be attacked without delay; but Massena, instructed by long experience, and who had surveyed the fires of the enemy from the steeple of Aspern the preceding night, gave a decided opinion that the whole Austrian army was at hand. Napoleon saw too good reason to adhere to the latter view, and instantly appreciating the magnitude of the danger, rode back to the bridge to hasten the passage of the troops. Orders were despatched in every direction to assemble the forces on the right bank: the corps of Lannes was already beginning to cross over; that of Davoust, which had arrived at Vienna the evening before, was ordered up with all imaginable expedition; the cuirassiers, the Guards, the reserve cavalry, the park of artillery, all received orders to hasten to the bridges. But it was too late their narrow breadth would only permit 2' Nap. in a very limited number of soldiers to march abreast upon Month. ii. 77 them; the cavalry and artillery could only be got across Charles's with considerable difficulty; and the one over the main Account, branch of the river was so much damaged by the rise and 1809, 383, impetuosity of the stream, that by four o'clock in the 384. Chron. afternoon it was almost impassable.2 Meanwhile the 287. Stut. Austrian army in great strength, eighty thousand strong, Jom. iii. 200 of whom fourteen thousand were magnificent cavalry, Archduke Ann. Reg. Pel. ii. 283, 240, 247. CHAP. 1809. 44. forces on both sides. with two hundred and eighty-eight pieces of cannon, was already upon them. The Imperialists advanced in five massy columns, preceded by a strong cloud of horse, which concealed their Austrian plan direction and probable points of attack from the enemy. of attack, and The first, under Hiller, next the Danube, moved by the meadows on the northern bank of that river direct upon Aspern; the second, under Bellegarde, with the generalissimo by his side, advanced upon Leopoldau, and also directed its steps towards the same village; the third, led by Hohenzollern, moved by Breitenlee also upon Aspern; the fourth, commanded by Rosenberg, was to advance by Raschdorf towards Essling; the fifth, also directed by Rosenberg, was to turn the right flank of the enemy by Enzersdorf and co-operate in the attack upon Essling; the cavalry, all massed together, was to move over the open country between Raschdorf and Breitenlee, so as to assist the head of any column which might find itself assailed by the enemy's horse. No less than eleven of the Austrian batteries were of position, which, as they drew near to the enemy's lines, sent a destructive storm of round shot through their ranks. The French were far from having an equal force at their disposal, and they were particularly inferior in the number and weight of their artillery; but by two o'clock in the afternoon, when the opposing hosts came into collision, seven divisions* of native troops, besides the guards of Wirtemburg, Hesse Darmstadt, and Baden, in all fifty thousand men, were in 1 Archduke line; and from the known character of the soldiers, as Account of well as the firmness of their leaders, a desperate resistance was to be anticipated. Massena, with two strong divisions, was posted round Aspern; Lannes, with a third, was in Essling; the intermediate space was occupied by the remainder of Massena's corps, the Imperial Guard, and German auxiliaries, with the formidable cuirassiers of Bessières glittering in their front.1 Charles's Aspern, Ann. Reg. 1809, 384, 385. Pel. ii. 291, 295. Stut. 231, 235. iii. 208. Jom. * Viz. those of Molitor, Le Grand, Boudet, Ferrand, Nansouty, Espagne, and Lasalle. The first four were infantry, the last cavalry of the reserve and cuirassiers. Their united strength, with the German auxiliaries, must have been at least fifty thousand men, as Molitor's and Boudet's were twelve thousand each. The French, however, assert that they had only thirty thousand native troops in action on the first day. See ARCHDUKE CHARLES'S Official Account of the Battle of Aspern, Ann. Reg. 384; App. to Chron. 384; and PELET, ii. 287. LVII. 1809. Aspern, into which Massena had not had time to throw CHAP. an adequate garrison, was in the first instance carried by the advanced guard of Hiller under Giulay. But the French marshal having quickly attacked it with the 45. Desperate whole division of Molitor, it was not only retaken, but conflict at the Imperialists pursued to a considerable distance to the Aspern. northward; till the broad and deep columns of Hiller, Bellegarde, and Hohenzollern, advancing to their support, warned the skilful French commander of the necessity of withdrawing all his troops to the defence of the village itself. The prospect which now presented itself was capable of daunting the most intrepid hearts. On the left, three broad and deep columns were seen converging towards Aspern; at a greater distance on the right, vast clouds of dust announced that other masses were threatening Essling; while along the whole front, a formidable array of artillery, vomiting forth fire and smoke, steadily advanced, rendering more awful the scene by the obscurity in which it involved all behind it. But this suspense was of short duration, and in a few minutes the Austrian battalions of Hiller, with loud shouts, advanced to the attack. If, however, the assault was impetuous, the defence was not less heroic; and never had the experienced skill and invincible tenacity of Marshal Massena been so conspicuously displayed. Stationed in the cemetery of Aspern, under the boughs of the great trees which overshadow the church, he calmly awaited the result, directing the movements of his troops, and giving his orders to support the points which most required it, with the coolness and precision 1 Stut. 230, of veteran courage; while the crash of the boughs above 235. Pelet, his head, and the incessant clatter of grape-shot on the Jom. ii. 201. steeple, told how near the enemy's batteries had approached.1 ii. 295, 297. by the Both parties were aware that the fate of the day mainly depended on the possession of this important 46. point, and incredible efforts were made on either side Which is at to attain it. For several hours the murderous conflict length carried continued; fresh troops were brought up on both parts Austrians. to supply the place of those who had fallen, or were exhausted in the strife: the Austrian infantry, the Hungarian grenadiers, the volunteers of Vienna, rivalled CHAP. 1809. 1 Archduke Charles's Account, Ann. Reg. 1809, 385, 386. Stut. 230, 239. Pel. ii. 295, 305. Jom. iii. 201, 202. 47. of the French each other in courage and perseverance in the assault, while the different divisions of Massena's corps in succession nobly sustained the defence. Every street, every house, every garden of the village, became the theatre of mortal combat: the shouts of transient success, the cries of despair, were heard alternately from both parties; an incessant shower of bombs and cannon-balls from the concentric batteries of the Imperialists spread death on all sides, alike among friend and foe; while great part of the village took fire, and the flames of the burning houses afforded, as night approached, a ghastly light wherewith to continue the work of destruction, and illuminated the whole field of battle. A desperate conflict at the same time was going on in the marshy plain between Aspern and the river, where the wet ditches leading to the Danube athwart their front, and the thickets of alder-bushes, gave the French the advantage of a natural fortification. For long the superior numbers of the Austrians impeded each other, as the position of the French centre prevented them from attacking the village on more sides than one; but at length, at eleven at night, their line having gained ground in that quarter, a combined attack was made by Hiller in front, and Vacquant, commanding part of Bellegarde's corps, which had just repulsed a formidable charge of cavalry, in flank. In spite of the most heroic efforts on the part of Massena, Molitor, and his officers, the village was carried amidst deafening shouts, which were distinctly heard above the roar of the artillery along the whole line. The French marshal made a gallant effort to regain his ground, and succeeded with Le Grand's division, which had taken the place of Molitor's in this tremendous strife, in wresting some of the houses from the enemy; but the churchyard, and the greater part of the bloodstained village, remained through the night in the hands of the Imperialists.1 While this tremendous struggle was going on in Aspern, the central space between it and Essling was almost Grand charge denuded of infantry: the numerous and formidable Auscavalry in the trian batteries in that quarter being chiefly guarded by cavalry, with Hohenzollern's infantry in their rear; while the splendid horsemen of the French Guard concealed on the opposite side the weakness of their infantry in the centre. |