LVI. 1809. CHAP. the rampart, pointed several guns against its walls, which speedily reduced them to ruins, and formed a sort of breach, by which access might be obtained to the summit. A heavy fire, however, was kept up from the rampart, which rendered the crossing of the glacis highly dangerous, and for long no soldiers could be found who would incur the hazard. Impatient of the delay, Marshal Lannes seized a scaling-ladder, and himself ran forward over the perilous space, swept in every part by the enemy's balls. "You shall see," said he, "that your marshal is still a grenadier." Animated by his example, the troops rushed on, cleared the glacis, leaped into the ditch, and, crowding up the breach formed by the ruined house, forced their way into the place: LABEDOYÈRE, reserved for a melancholy fate in future times, was the first man who was seen on the summit. The troops now followed rapidly into the town: the gates, attacked in flank, were seized and opened, and the streets filled with a multitude of fierce assailants. Still the Hungarian grenadiers maintained their resistance: slowly retiring towards the bridge, they kept up an incessant discharge upon their pursuers; the houses took fire in the conflict; the ammunition waggons were only rescued from the flames by the united efforts of both friends and foes; and, after losing half their numbers in the desperate strife, they reached the barricades of the bridge, where the can1 Stut. 162, nonade from the opposite side was so violent as to render 176, 177. all further pursuit impossible. The French headquarters Pel. ii. 103, were established for the night in the convent of Prull, under the walls; in the course of it, the bridge was iv. 57, 58. evacuated; and, next day, the Austrian rearguard was discovered beyond Stadt-am-Hoff, covering the 178, 180. retreat of the army to the woody heights of the Bohmerwald.1 169. Jom. ii. vii. 235, 236. Sav. Koch, vi. 177, 178. Thiers, x. The advantages gained by these brilliant operations to Napoleon were very great. Twelve days only had elapsed since he left Paris; and already he had reassembled the LVI. 1809. 49. sults of army after its imprudent dispersion by Berthier, com- CHAP. bated the Austrians on four successive days, separated Hiller and the Archduke Louis from the Archduke Charles, thrown the two former back upon the Inn, in Great retoo inconsiderable strength to be able to cover Vienna, and these driven the latter to an eccentric retreat into the Bohemian mountains. Thirty thousand Austrians had fallen or been made prisoners in these disastrous engagements; a hundred pieces of cannon, six hundred ammunition waggons, two pontoon trains, and an immense quantity of baggage taken; and the spirit of the vanquished so thoroughly broken as to render them incapable, for some time, of engaging in active operations. The road to Vienna lay open to the conqueror: it was a matter of mere convenience to him when he should step forward and seize the capital of the monarchy, its magnificent arsenal, and boundless resources of every kind. Twenty thousand men were lost to the French army; but what were they amongst such a host, and what such a diminution compared to the incalculable moral influence upon his own troops and those of his allies, in consequence of such a series of successes at the very outset of the campaign! If ever the words of Cæsar, Veni, vidi, vici, were applicable to a modern conqueror, they might have 177. been used by Napoleon on this occasion.1* 1 Jom. iii. 50. tigable acti his soldiers It was by indefatigable activity, and the nicest calculation of time, that these astonishing results had been The indefaobtained; and never had the Emperor displayed in a more vity of Nastriking manner the untiring energy of his character.poleon and Unwearied by a rapid journey, night and day, for six was the successive days, from Paris, he no sooner arrived at Don-cause of auwörth than he began the incessant questioning and cor- cesses. respondence which, with him, were the invariable preludes * Shortly after this Napoleon reorganised his army. To Lannes was given the two divisions of Oudinot, which had hitherto taken orders from Massena, and the division of St Hilaire drawn from Davoust's corps; while Davoust received back the divisions of Morund and Gudin, which had been temporarily placed under Lannes' command. principal these suc LVI. 1809. CHAP. to great achievements. His letters to his lieutenants, during the next five days, would of themselves make a volume. His calculation of time was so exact, and the habits of precise obedience on the part of his generals so complete, that his divisions invariably arrived on the ground assigned them at the very moment on which he relied, and when their operation was required; and generally again marched and combated on the day following, without any intermediate repose. By this means, though his forces were not, upon the whole, more numerous, at least at that period, than those of the Austrians, they were almost always greatly superior at the point of attack. Nor did the Emperor shun the fatigue which he thus imposed upon his soldiers on the contrary, not one of them underwent anything like the mental and bodily labour to which he subjected himself. From the morning of the 19th, when the battle of Abensberg began, till the night of the 23d, when that of Ratisbon terminated, he was on horseback, or dictating letters, at least eighteen hours a-day; he had outstripped his own saddlehorses by the rapidity of his journey, and knocked up those of the King of Bavaria, by the fatigue they had undergone. When all around him were ready to drop down with exhaustion, he began to read and dictate despatches, and sat up half the night receiving reports from the generals and marshals, and completing the 53,59. Thib. directions for the succeeding day. He has himself told ii. 120, 121. us, that his manœuvres at this period in Bavaria were the most brilliant of his life; and without going the 1 Sav. iv. vii. 234. Pel. 2 O'Meara, ii. 206. * "The greatest military manoeuvres I ever executed, and those for which I give myself most credit, were performed at Eckmuhl, and were infinitely superior to those at Marengo, or to any other of my actions." 2 "On this day, I heard the Emperor repeat, what I had often previously heard him say, that the finest manœuvres of his life were those which preceded the battle of Eckmuhl."-LAS CASES, v. 168, 169. The details of the grounds on which this striking opinion is formed, are thus given by Pellet, and quoted by Las Cases: "In four days of combats and manœuvres were completed the destinies of the Austrian army-of that army recently so numerous and arrogant, the most formidable and perfectly equipped which Austria had ever sent forth. By his first dispositions, Napo LVI. length of so extraordinary an eulogium, it may safely be CHAP. affirmed that they never were excelled by the operations either of himself or any other general. 1809. 51. scene in the of military On the day following, the Emperor reviewed a great part of his army at Ratisbon, and one of those imposing Impressive spectacles was exhibited which, almost as much as his conferring military talents, contributed to his astonishing successes. honours at As each regiment defiled before him, Napoleon demanded Ratisbon. from the colonel who were the most deserving among the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates, and in presence of the army conferred on them the honours and distinctions assigned to them. On these interesting occasions he himself decided on every case, and often conferred the reward on a common soldier, in preference to those of higher grade who were recommended. He recognised some of the veterans of Marengo or the Pyramids as they were presented to him, and when conferring the cross, gave them a signal of recognition by a slight tap on the cheek or clap on the shoulder, accompanied by a kind expression, as, "I make you a baron or a chevalier." One of these veterans, on being presented, asked the Emperor if he leon had organised the plan of his great battle, secured his outposts, and recon- LVI. 1809. CHAP. did not remember him. "How should I?" answered Napoleon. "It was I," replied the soldier, "who in the desert of Syria, at the moment of your utmost necessity, gave you a portion of my rations." Napoleon at once recognised him, and said, "Oh! I recollect you perfectly, and make you a chevalier, with an annual endowment of twelve hundred francs" (£50). These heart-thrilling scenes excited the usual transports among the French soldiers; but on the troops of the Confederation, upon whom honours and bounties were wisely and profusely showered, and to whom they were perfectly new, they produced an unbounded impression. It then appeared how strongly the German heart was capable of being moved by those appeals to honour and generous feeling, of which the Allied sovereigns in after times so largely availed themselves. At the same time, forty of the most deserving of the 65th regiment, which had capitulated at Ratisbon, were admitted into the Old Guard, to show that the Emperor entertained no displeasure at that corps for that untoward event; and a proclamation was addressed to the army, which, with just pride, though in exaggerated terms, recounted their great exploits." 1 Pel, ii. 111, 112. Thib. vii. 237. * But though these splendid triumphs attended the arms of Napoleon, where he commanded in person, the fate of war was very different in other quarters; and already were to be seen convincing proofs, from the disasters "Soldiers, you have justified my anticipations: you have supplied by bravery the want of numbers, and marked the difference which exists between the soldiers of Cæsar and the armed rabble of Xerxes. Within the space of a few days we have triumphed in the battles of Thaun, of Abensberg, and Eckmuhl, and in the combats of Freysing, Landshut, and Ratisbon: one hundred pieces of cannon, forty standards, fifty thousand prisoners, three bridge equipages, three thousand baggage waggons with their horses, all the regimental caissons, such are the fruits of the rapidity of your marches and of your courage. The enemy, seduced by a perjured cabinet, appeared to retain no recollection of you: his wakening has been speedy, for you have appeared more terrible than ever. Lately he crossed the Inn and invaded the territory of our allies; lately he talked of nothing less than carrying the war into the bosom of our country: now defeated, dispersed, he flies in consternation. Already my advanced guard has passed the Inn; in a month we shall be at Vienna."--NAPOLEON to his troops, April 24, 1809; PELET, ii. 115. |