CHAP. LVII. 1809. centre of the line. So severely, however, were his troops in both villages, and even those of the most distant reserves, galled by the sustained and incessant discharge of this tremendous array of guns, that Napoleon ordered a grand charge of cavalry in his centre to wrest them from the enemy. Bessières first sent forward the light horse of the Guard: they made repeated charges; but were unable to withstand the terrible storm of grape which was vomited forth by the Austrian batteries. Upon their repulse the French marshal ordered the cuirassiers of the Guard to charge. These gallant horsemen, cased in shining armour, whose weight the English afterwards felt so severely at Waterloo, advanced at the gallop, shaking their sabres above their heads, and making the air resound with cries of "Vive l'Empereur !” So swift was the onset, so vehement the attack, that the Imperialists, who saw at once the danger of the artillery, had barely time to withdraw the guns, and throw the foot-soldiers in their rear into squares, when the tempest was upon them. In vain, however, Bessières, D'Espagne, and Lasalle, at the head of these indomitable cavaliers, swept round the now insulated foot, routed the Austrian cavalry of the reserve under Lichtenstein, which was brought up to oppose them, and enveloping the infantry formed in squares of battalions on all sides, summoned them in the pride of irresistible strength to surrender. Cut off from all other support, the brave 1 Pel. ii. Hungarians stood firm back to back in their squares, and 298, 302. kept up so vigorous and so sustained a fire on all sides, Archduke that after having half their numbers, including the Account, gallant D'Espagne, stretched on the plain, the French Ann. Reg. cuirassiers were obliged, shattered and defeated, to retire Jom. iii. 20. to their own lines, and both parties at this point slept upon the field of battle.1 Charles's 1809, 387. 48. Essling, Rosenberg's columns followed the course prescribed to them; but, as the fifth corps, which was to make the circuit towards Enzersdorf, and attack Essling on the Bloody extreme flank, necessarily required more time for its attack on movement than the fourth, which advanced direct by which proves Raschdorf upon the same point, the latter retarded their march, and the combined attack did not take place till five in the afternoon. Enzersdorf was evacuated by the VOL. XII. T unsuccessful. CHAP. 1809. enemy upon the approach of the Imperialists; and Lannes, at the head only of a single division, was threatened with an attack by forces more than double his own, both in front and flank. The fourth column, which attacked the village on the western side, was vigorously charged in flank in its advance by a large body of French horse, detached by Bessières from the centre of the line; and the necessity of forming squares, to resist these attacks, retarded considerably the assault on that side. At length, however, the unsuccessful charge on the Austrian central batteries having thrown back the French cuirassiers in that quarter, and he reserve dragoons of Lichtenstein having been re-formed, and brought up in great strength to the support of the centre, the Archduke ordered a general advance of the whole line, at the same time that a combined attack of Rosenberg's two columns, now perfectly able to cooperate, was made on Essling. In spite of the utmost efforts of Napoleon, the centre of the Austrians sensibly gained ground, and it was only by the most devoted gallantry on the part of the French cuirassiers, who again and again, though with diminished numbers, renewed the combat, that he was able to prevent that part of his line from being entirely broken through. The violence of the flanking fire of grape and musketry, however, which issued from Essling, was such as to arrest the Imperialists when they came abreast of that village; and, although many assaults were made upon it by Rosenberg's columns, and it was repeatedly set on fire by the Austrian shells, yet, such was the intrepid resistance of Lannes, with his heroic division, who defended with invincible obstinacy every house and every garden, that all the assailants could do was 389. Pel. ii. to drive them entirely within its walls; and, when Jom. iii. 202. darkness suspended the combat, it was still in the hands of the French.1 1 Stut. 239, 250. Archduke Charles's Account, Ann. Reg. 1809, 388. 296, 299. 49. Feelings The night which followed this desperate conflict was spent with very different feelings in the two armies. On with which both sides, indeed, the most strenuous efforts were made to repair the losses which had been sustained, and prepare for the conflict on the morrow; but it was with very opposite emotions that the soldiers' breasts were agitated both parties passed the night on the fleld of battle. CHAP. LVII. 1809. in the two hosts. On the side of the French, to the proud confidence of victory had succeeded the chill of disappointment, the anticipation of disaster. The wonted shouts of the men were no longer heard; a dark feeling of anxiety oppressed every breast; the brilliant meteor of the empire seemed about to be extinguished in blood. They could not conceal from themselves that they had been worsted in the preceding day's fight. Aspern was lost; Essling was surrounded; the line in the centre had been forced back; the enemy slept among the dead bodies of the French; while the multitude of slain, even in the farthest reserves of their own lines, showed how completely the enemy's batteries had reached every part of their position. The Austrians, on the other hand, were justly elated by their unwonted and glorious success. For the first time, Napoleon had sustained an undoubted defeat in the field; his best troops had been baffled in a pitched 1 Pel. ii. 305, battle; his position was critical beyond example, and the 307. Sav. iv. well-known hazard of the bridges diffused the hope that, 75, 76. Ann. on the morrow, a decisive victory would rescue their coun- 389. try from the oppressor, and at one blow work out the deliverance of Germany.1 Reg. 1809, French. But though anxiety chilled the hopes, it no ways daunted the courage of the French. Stretched amidst 50. the dead bodies of their comrades, they sternly resolved Heroic conto combat to the last man on the morrow, for their stancy of the beloved Emperor and the glory of their country. Sleep, induced by extraordinary fatigue, soon closed the eyes of the soldiers; the sentinels of either host were within a few yards of each other; Napoleon lay down in his cloak on the sand of the Danube, within half a mile of the Austrian batteries. But no rest was taken by the chiefs of either army; both made the most strenuous efforts to improve their chances of success for the following day. 2 Archduke During the night, or early in the morning, the infantry Charles, Ann. Reg. of the Imperial Guard, the corps of Lannes, and the troops 1809, 389. of Oudinot, were with much difficulty got across the Pel. ii. 308, bridges, so as to give Napoleon, even after all the losses of 75, 76. the preceding day, fully seventy thousand men in line 2* *These numbers are ascertained in an authentic manner. Napoleon admits that "the French army on the second day, on the two banks of the Danube, was 20,000 men superior to that of the Archduke, who had 100,000 men in the field." Davoust's corps was, at the utmost, not above 40,000 men after the 309. Sav. iv. CHAP. 1809. 1 Tacit. Hist. v. 15. 51. the 22d. Aspern and Essling are again obsti nately disputed. while Davoust, with thirty thousand more, was just commencing the passage of the bridges. The Archduke, on his side, brought up the reserve, consisting of the grenadier corps of the Prince of Reuss, from the Bisamberg to Breitenlee, a mile in the rear of the field of battle. "Ejus prælii eventus utrumque ducem, diversis animi motibus, ad maturandum summæ rei discrimen erexit. Civilis instare fortunæ; Cerialis abolere ignominiam. Germani prosperis feroces; Romanos pudor excitaverat."1* Short as the night was at that season on the banks of the Danube, that period of rest was not allowed to the Renewal of wearied soldiers. Long before sunrise, the moment that the action on the first gray of the summer's dawn shed a doubtful light over the field of battle, the Austrian columns of Rosenberg again assailed Essling in front and flank; and Massena, with strong reinforcements, renewed his attacks on the churchyard of Aspern. Both assaults proved successful. Essling for the first time was carried by the Archduke's regiment of grenadiers in the early twilight, and the Imperialists, following up their success, forced the French lines on their left back towards the Danube, and straitened them considerably in that quarter. But this important success was counterbalanced by the loss of Aspern, which at the same moment was taken, with the battalion in the churchyard, and four pieces of cannon, by the French division of Cara St Cyr. Both parties made the utmost efforts to retrieve these momentous losses. St Hilaire came up with his division of Lannes' 2 Archduke corps to the assistance of that gallant marshal, who was now driven out of all parts of Essling except the great count, Ann. granary, and by a sudden effort expelled the Austrians, who were never able again to recover their footing in that important village till the very conclusion of the battle, though the most desperate conflict, both of foot and horse, went on the whole day in its immediate neighbourhood.2 Charles, Official Ac Reg. 1809. 339, 390. Stut. 250, 255. Pel. ii. 310. The regiment of Klebeck rushed, about the same time, losses it had undergone: at this rate, therefore, the French army, which was all across excepting that marshal's corps, would have been 80,000; and, deducting 10,000 for the losses of the preceding day, 70,000 must have remained on the field on the 22d.-See NAPOLEON in MONTHOLON, ii. 78. *"The result of this day's action stimulated both generals, from different motives, to hasten the final issue of the struggle. Civilis, to follow up his good fortune: Cerialis, to wipe out his disgrace. The Germans elated by their success, the Romans roused by shame."-TACITUS, History, v. 15. CHAP. LVII. 1809. 52. Austrians. with fixed bayonets into the burning ruins of Aspern; the French under Cara St Cyr were expelled by the violence of the shock; but they returned to the charge reinforced by several battalions of the Imperial Guard, and after a Aspern is struggle of an hour's duration, again drove out the Impe- finally carried rialists, and got possession of the churchyard, which by by the this time was literally covered with the dead. Hiller, however, was not to be outdone in this tremendous struggle. Again forming a column of attack, in conjunction with part of Bellegerde's corps, he himself led on the charge at the head of the regiment Benjossky. Trampling under foot the dead and the dying, these heroic assailants advanced through burning houses and a storm of shot, and by great exertions succeeded in driving the French entirely out of the village. The Austrian commander instantly ordered the pioneers to pull down the walls of the churchyard, and burn the church and parsonage-house, so as to prevent these important points from being again rendered a shelter to the enemy. Some additional regiments were soon after brought up under 1 Archduke's General Bianchi, which enabled the Imperialists not only Account, Ann. Reg. to maintain themselves till the close of the battle in this 1809, 390, 391. Chron. obstinately contested village, but to advance in the even- stut. 250, ing somewhat beyond its limits, and direct the fire of 261. Jom. their artillery upon the flank of the French lines, drawn Pel. ii. 310, up between it and Essling, which played till nightfall Month. il. 78, 311. Nap. in with tremendous effect upon the dense masses, who were 79. there accumulated within a space of little more than a mile in extent.1 iii. 203, 204. 53. grand attack Austrian These bloody contests in the villages were not such as by any means suited the ardent and impetuous mind of Napoleon. Relieved from the necessity of remaining on Napoleon the defensive, by the important accessions of force which makes a he had obtained during the night, he was preparing a on the grand attack in the centre. For this purpose, instructions centre. were sent to Massena, who had not yet been expelled from Aspern, to maintain himself in that village; Davoust was to debouch from the bridges, in the direction of Essling; while Oudinot and Lannes, supported by the infantry and cavalry of the Guard, were to make a united attack on the Archduke's centre, which it was hoped might be thus driven back, and entirely separated |