he had received, broke up from his position on the Adige, to unite with the Austrian grand army for the defence of the capital. But he was so warmly pursued by Eugene Beauharnois, and conducted his retreat so indifferently, that the viceroy was enabled to cut off a large portion of his troops, take his artillery, and capture a number of important fortresses on the route; in addition to which disasters, he was eventually forced into the plains of Hungary, and thereby prevented from taking any immediate part in the important events about to occur near Vienna.

The eyes of all Europe were now turned to the banks of the Danube, near Vienna, where two armies, each a hundred thousand strong, prepared for a deadly, and, to all appearance, a final conflict. The Danube, as it approaches the Austrian capital, swells into a wide expanse, and em. braces several islands in its course: some of these are large and highly cultivated, but the greater part are small and covered with woods. The island of Prater, with its beautiful shady avenues and recesses, and that of Lobau, with its rich inclosures, are the most considerable: the latter is nearly three miles in length, by two in breadth, and the space between it and the southern bank of the stream, is studded by several smaller islands. It was at this point that Napoleon resolved to force a passage across the Danube, and the whole army was occupied for some days in the undertaking: at length, everything being in readiness, a strong detachment embarked in boats and effected a landing at Lobau. The troops now readily established a bridge from the southern shore to that island; they next threw a pontoon train across to the northern bank, and on the morning of the 21st, forty thousand men had defiled to the opposite side of the river, and established themselves in front of the Austrian position.

The Archduke Charles had, in the meantime, remained with the greater part of his army on the heights of Bisamberg, carefully observing the French movements, and offering no obstacle to their progress; but resolved, the moment a sufficient number should have crossed the river and become temporarily separated from the support of the main army, to fall upon them with his whole force. He also sent instructions to Kollowrath, Nordman, and other officers in command farther up the river, to collect boats with combustible materials, and float them down to destroy the enemy's bridge. At twelve o'clock, on the 21st, he gave the signal to advance, and his troops, with loud shouts, rushed from their elevated encampment toward the French position.

The termination of the pontoon bridge rested on the plain of Marchfield, and on either side of this open space were the two villages of Aspern and Essling, each distant half a mile from the river. The houses of these villages were built of stone, chiefly two stories in height, and surrounded by inclosures and garden walls, so that they were capable of an obstinate defence.

Aspern, into which Massena had not with sufficient promptitude thrown an adequate garrison, was at first carried by Hiller's advanced guard; but Molitor came up with his whole division and not only retook it, but pursued the Austrian detachment, until the advance of Hohenzollern drove him in turn back to the village; and as Hiller's column rapidly followed on, a desperate combat ensued there. The Austrian infantry, the Hungarian grenadiers, and the volunteer corps of Vienna, strove to outdo each other in feats of daring and valor; while the several divis

ions of Massena's corps, fighting under the veteran marshal's eye, bravely sustained every attack, and from the streets, gardens, windows and housetops, kept up a murderous fire on their assailants. Hour after hour the battle raged, and when the sun went down, the scene of strife was illuminated by the burning houses: at eleven o'clock, the Austrians finally prevailed, and the village remained in their hands for the night.

The plain between Aspern and Essling, had also been the scene of a desperate battle. The Austrian artillery were posted in great strength in this open field, and the French columns were so galled on all sides by their tremendous fire, that Napoleon ordered a general charge of cavalry to dislodge them. The light-horse of the Guard first undertook this service, but they were easily repulsed. The cuirassiers followed next, but the Hungarian grenadiers formed squares around the guns, and by their sustained volleys of musketry, stretched nearly one half of those terrible cavaliers on the plain.

The attack on Essling, though not less bloody than the battle in the other parts of the field, was more successfully resisted, and at nightfall the village remained in possession of the French troops.

The night was consumed in the most strenuous efforts on both sides to repair their losses, by bringing forward reënforcements; and as soon as the first gray of the summer's dawn shed a doubtful light over the field on the 22nd, the Austrian columns under Rosenberg renewed the attack on Essling, and at the same time, Massena came forward in force to reconquer Aspern. Both assaults were attended with varied success. Aspern yielded to the impetuosity of Massena's charge, while the Archduke's grenadiers carried Essling at the point of the bayonet, and forced the enemy back almost to the banks of the Danube. The battle raged with the utmost fury during the whole day; Essling was at length retaken by the French, and Aspern, after having been captured and recaptured three several times, remained in the hands of the Austrians.

In the meantime Napoleon, resolved to bring this murderous contest to a conclusion, ordered an attack on the Austrian centre in the plain of Marchfield. The whole corps of Lannes and Oudinot, together with the cuirassiers and the Imperial Guard in reserve, moved forward in echelon, preceded by a powerful train of artillery, and fell with irresistible weight on the Austrian line. The dense columns of Lannes pressed through the ranks of their opponents and threw some battalions into confusion, while the cuirassiers, rushing on with loud shouts, threatened to disorder the whole Imperialist army. But at this critical moment, the Archduke proved himself equal to the emergency. He directed the reserve grenadiers, under the prince of Reuss, to be formed in squares, and the dragoons of Lichtenstein to take post behind them; and then, seizing with his own hand the standard of Zach's corps, which was beginning to falter, he addressed a few energetic words to the men and led them back to the charge. The soldiers, thus reanimated, held their ground; the column of Lannes was arrested, and the squares among which it had penetrated, poured in upon it destructive volleys from all sides, while the Austrian batteries, playing at half musket shot, caused a frightful carnage in the deep masses of the French troops. The cuirassiers made desperate efforts to retrieve the day, but their squadrons were decimated by musketry, and at length driven off the field by an impetuous charge of Lichtenstein's dragoons.

Hohenzollern now rushed forward, and with a powerful division assailed the flank of the French columns, which, wholly unable to resist this fresh attack, fell backward in the direction of Essling: at the same time, intelligence spread through the ranks of both armies, that the flotilla directed against the bridge had destroyed that portion of it which connected the island of Lobau with the southern bank of the river, thus cutting off the French army from its supplies and reserves. At this terrible crisis, Napoleon's courage did not forsake him. He immediately ordered a retreat over the remainder of the bridge, reaching from the northern bank to Lobau, and pushed forward the troops that had been least engaged to hold the Austrians in check during this perilous manœu vre. As the French now fought not to conquer, but to escape their enemies, the Archduke was enabled to turn his advantages of position to the best account, and press, with his whole reserve, on the retiring and discouraged columns of Napoleon. He brought forward all his artillery, and, by disposing the guns in a semicircular line, concentrated their iron storm on the narrow line of retreat, so that the slaughter became terrific; and, at the same time, his grenadiers and cavalry, by repeated charges on the indomitable rear-guard, rapidly diminished the numbers, though they could not disorder the ranks of those dauntless veterans. During this scene of carnage, Lannes and St. Hilaire were both mortally wounded. The fire of the Austrian batteries was maintained until past midnight, when the last of the French troops defiled over the bridge, fol. lowed by the remnants of the invincible rear-guard; and the Archduke's soldiers, exhausted with fatigue, sunk to sleep on the ground beside their guns.

In this memorable battle of Aspern, the first great action in which Napoleon had been entirely defeated, the French loss exceeded thirty thousand men, and that of the Austrians was something more than twenty thousand; but few guns or prisoners were taken on either side. The Austrians were for several days occupied in burying the dead, and the waters of the Danube were for an equal length of time polluted with the floating corses of the combatants.

The situation of the French troops on the island of Lobau, during the night of the 22nd, was truly deplorable. Cut off from retreat and from their communications by the destruction of the bridge, menaced by a victorious enemy, destitute of ammunition and provisions, and threatened with an inundation by the fast rising waters of the Danube-an escape by boats to the southern bank, together with an abandonment of all the wounded, the artillery and the horses, seemed at first to be the only alternative. But, although this measure was apparently inevitable, and as such was strenuously urged by Massena, Davoust, Berthier and Oudinot, Napoleon determined to remain and convert the island into an impregnable fortress, whence he could subsequently strike a fatal blow at the Austrian army.

In pursuance of this plan, a large number of boats from the southern shore were put in requisition; troops, ammunition and provisions were brought across to Lobau, fortifications on a gigantic scale were projected, and, in one month, not only were the works on the island capable of resisting any attack from the enemy, but three solid bridges connected the fortress with the south bank of the Danube, and rendered the com munication perfect and easy between them.

CHAPTER XXXI.

FROM THE CAMPAIGN OF WAGRAM TO THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE.

WHILE Napoleon, strongly fortified in his position on the island of Lobau, was, by hostile demonstrations, leading the Austrians to believe that he intended to renew the attack on Aspern, he was in fact secretly preparing to cross the river at a lower point, where the passage was less cautiously guarded, and whence he could, with little opposition, fall suddenly on the flank and rear of the Austrian encampment. In the meantime, the Archduke Charles, to resist the assault which he supposed was to be made on Aspern, erected a vast line of intrenchments, running from that village across the late battle-field, through Essling, and terminating on the bank of the Danube. These works consisted of field redoubts and ravelins united by a curtain, strengthened along their front by palisades, and armed with a hundred and fifty pieces of heavy artillery.

Behind this formidable barrier, the Austrian commander awaited Napoleon's movements, and at the same time, made great exertions to recruit the numbers and condition of his army. By the end of June, nearly a hundred and forty thousand men, with seven hundred pieces of cannon, were assembled under his orders, though not yet concentrated to act upon one field: the Prince of Reuss guarded the line of the Danube from Stockerau to Vienna, having his head-quarters at Stammersdorf; Kol. lowrath lay at Hagenbrunn, on the northwestern slope of the Bisamberg; the reserve of grenadiers were posted at Gerarsdorf; Klenau occupied the intrenchments opposite the bridge at Aspern; Nordman, with the advanced guard, at Enzersdorf, watched the course of the Danube as far as Presburg; Bellegarde, Hohenzollern and Rosenberg were at Wagram and along the bank of the Russbach; and the reserve cavalry awaited orders at Breitenlee, Aderklaa, and the villages in that neighborhood. Thus, the Archduke's army formed two lines: the first stretching twenty leagues along the course of the Danube; the second, two leagues in the rear, resting on the plateau of Wagram and the heights of the Russbach. The Archduke John lay at Presburg, ten leagues from Wagram, with forty thousand men, whose numbers are not included in the preceding estimate of the Austrian forces; and, with a view to bring him into communication with the grand army for a general action, which was now seen to be at hand, the Archduke Charles dispatched a courier to Presburg on the evening of July 4th, urging him to press on by a forced march toward Aspern.

On the 2nd of July, Napoleon, who had remained for a time at Schoenbrunn, rode to Lobau and there established his head-quarters. On the same day, his reënforcements began to arrive. First, came Bernadotte with the Saxons from the bank of the Elbe; then, Vandamme came with the Wirtembergers and troops of the Confederation from Swabia and the Rhenish provinces; after him, followed Wrede with the Bavarians from the Lech, Macdonald and Broussier from Carinthia and Carniola, Marmont from Dalmatia, and Eugene Beauharnois from Hungary. By the evening of the 4th, their numbers amounted to no less

than a hundred and eighty thousand men, with seven hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, concentrated in one mass, commanded by one generalin-chief, and prepared to act in concert on a single field of battle.

As soon as the junction of the several corps was completed, Napoleon ordered his batteries in front of Aspern to open their fire, as if to cover a landing at that point; and the moment that this demonstration, together with the approach of night, had sufficiently arrested the attention of the Archduke, the Emperor took his station on horseback, at the lower extremity of the island, where the passage was in fact to be attempted, and by his personal exertions hastened forward the movement. In the short space of ten minutes, three bridges, previously prepared in huge single sections, were thrown across the branch of the river, and soon after midnight, three more were added to these, making six in all, over which the troops defiled with such rapidity that before seven o'clock on the morning of the 5th, the entire French force, with the principal part of the artillery, stood on the northern bank of the Danube. The Archduke was astounded when, early in the day, he took a survey of the enemy's position, and, instead of beholding the French mustered in great strength at the bridge of Aspern, descried an enormous black mass of troops on the plain near Enzersdorf. He saw at a glance that his lines were turned, that his intrenchments, constructed with so much labor, were valueless, and that a retreat could alone enable him to maintain his communications, and give or receive battle with advantage. He therefore immediately called in his outposts; and his centre, with a celerity rival. ling the manœuvres of the French soldiers, fell back in good order to the plateau of Wagram.

This plateau consists of an elevated plain, in the form of a vast par allelogram, rising at a distance of four miles from the Danube, and stretching thence some miles to the north. The villages of Wagram and Neusiedel occupy the two southern angles of this plain, the Russbach runs along its southern front, and half a mile to the south, opposite the centre of the position, lies the village of Baumersdorf. Beyond the plateau, the Austrian lines extended over a ridge of heights to the west, as far as Stammersdorf.

The French army was drawn up in one line on the bank of the river, and when the order was given to advance, the several corps moved forward in a curve, spreading like the folds of a fan to the north, east and west. Massena, on the left, marched toward Essling and Aspern; Bernadotte toward Aderklaa; Eugene and Oudinot between Wagram and Baumersdorf; Davoust and Grouchy, on the right, in the direction of Glingendorf, and the corps of Wrede, Marmont and the Imperial Guards formed a reserve under the Emperor in person.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon, having ascertained that the Archduke John had not arrived, resolved to take advantage of his great superiority of numbers, and attack immediately; for he had grouped in his centre nearly a hundred thousand men, including the reserves, while the Austrian force on the plateau did not exceed sixty thousand. Powerful batteries were accordingly brought up, which opened a severe fire on the Imperialist line; but the Archduke's guns, placed on higher ground, replied with much greater effect. Oudinot's corps came first into action. He attacked Baumersdorf, which was gallantly defended by General Hardegg; and, with such obstinacy did the latter maintain his ground,