LVIII. 1809. CHAP. English, not content with their exertions in other quarters, were, it was well known, preparing an expedition of unprecedented magnitude in the harbours of the Channel: fame had magnified to a hundred thousand armed men and forty sail of the line the forces to be employed on the occasion; the Scheldt, the Elbe, the Seine itself, were alternately assigned as the probable destination of this gigantic armament; and Napoleon, with all his resources, was too clear-sighted not to perceive that he might ere long be overmatched by the strength of a more formidable confederacy than he had yet encountered; that the English standards would soon rouse the might of northern Germany into mortal hostility; and that a second reverse on the shores of the Danube would at once dissolve his splendid dominion, and bring the forces of Europe in appalling strength to the banks of the Rhine.* 66. Situation and prospects of Napoleon after the battle of Aspern. The Duke of Bruns wick takes Dresden. June 1. The impression produced over the Continent by the battle of Aspern was immense. It dissipated in a great degree the charm of Napoleon's invincibility; and, more even than the dubious carnage of Eylau, diffused a general hope that the miseries of foreign domination were approaching their termination, and that a second victory over the remains of the French army, now shut up in the island of Lobau, would at once restore freedom to an injured world. While the English nation abandoned themselves to transports of joy at the prospects which were thus dawning upon Europe, active endeavours were made by Austria to turn to the best account the extraordinary prosperous change which had taken place in their fortunes. Not discouraged by the failure of former attempts to rouse the north of Germany, the Duke of Brunswick-Oels again advanced from Zittau, at the head of his gallant band of volunteers, towards Westphalia; while a considerable body of Imperial landwehr from Bohemia, under General Amende, invaded Saxony; and another, under Radivojivich, five thousand strong, overran * See Chaps. LX. and LXI. where the events here alluded to are narrated. The forces CHAP. LVIII. 1809. Franconia and penetrated to Baireuth. remaining in that kingdom, the bulk of which had been drawn under Bernadotte to the banks of the Danube, were in no condition to oppose this irruption; and the royal family, flying from their dominions, took refuge in France. Dresden and Leipsic were occupied by the Austrian troops; Baireuth and Bamberg fell into their June 12. hands; the insurrection spread over all Franconia and Suabia; symptoms of disaffection were breaking out in Saxony and Westphalia; and a chain of Austrian posts, extending from the Elbe, by Nuremberg and Stockach, to the mountains of the Tyrol, entirely cut off the communication between France and the Grand Army. Mean- June 22. while, the most energetic appeals were made everywhere by the Austrian commanders to the people of their own and all the adjoining countries, to take up arms; while Napoleon, weakened by a disastrous battle on the banks 22, 26. of the Danube, could maintain himself only by a concen- 393, 394. tration of all his forces under the walls of Vienna.1 1 Pel. iv. 18, Hard. x. 67. tion and energetic of the Duke of Bruns "Germans!" said the Duke of Brunswick, "will you continue to combat Germans? Will you, whose mothers, Proclamawives, and sisters have been outraged by the French, shed your blood in their defence? It is your brothers who proceedings now invoke you-come to break fetters-to avenge wick. your the liberty of Germany! To arms, then, Hessians, Prussians, Brunswickers, Hanoverians! all who bear the honourable name of Germans, unite for the deliverance of your fatherland, to wipe away its shame and avenge its wrongs. Rise to deliver your country from a disgraceful yoke, under which it has so long groaned. The day of its emancipation has arrived: none more favourable can ever be desired."-" Aspern," said General Radivojivich, who had penetrated into Franconia, and occupied Baireuth with five thousand men from Egra, in Bohemia"Aspern has destroyed the invincibility of Napoleon! Arm yourselves for the cause of liberty, of justice, of Austria, to deliver Europe and the human race."_" You LVIII. 1809. CHAP. combat," said Noditz, one of the chiefs of the Tugendbund, to the Prussians of Baireuth, "in order to restore your country to your beloved King.' The Duke of Brunswick's volunteers wore a light-blue uniform, with a death's head and cross-bones on their cloaks, to indicate the mortal hostility in which they were engaged, from whence they acquired the name of the Death's Head Hussars. The officers were distinguished from the privates, in a corps where all were respectable, only by a small cross on their arms. The Duke himself was as simply dressed as any of his followers: he shared their fare slept beside them on the ground-underwent their fatigues. These martial qualities, joined to the ascendant of a noble figure and unconquerable intrepidity, so won the hearts of his followers, that they disdained to desert him even in the wreck of the fortunes of Germany, after the battle of Wagram; followed his standard with dauntless confidence across all Westphalia and Hanover, cmbarked in safety for England, and lived, as will appear in the sequel, to flesh their swords in the best blood of France on the field of Waterloo.1 1 Hard. x. 392, 394. Pel. iv. 26, 27. CHAPTER LIX. CAMPAIGN OF WAGRAM. LIX. 1809. 1. Views and Napoleon ture. BOTH the military and political position of Napoleon CHAP. was now full of peril; and it was obvious to all the world, that a single false step, one additional defeat, would expose him to certain ruin. But it was precisely in such circumstances that his genius shone forth with the brightest lustre, and that he was most likely by a sudden blow to reinstate his affairs, and overturn all the calculations of his enemies. No man ever saw so clearly where was the decisive point of the campaign, or so firmly made up his mind to relinquish all minor advantages, in order to accumulate his forces upon that vital quarter where defeat to his antagonists would prove certain ruin. In doing so, he followed the natural bent of his genius, which was never inclined to owe to combination what could be effected by audacity: but he was powerfully aided by the despotic nature of the authority which he wielded, and the irresponsible character of the command with which he was invested. Many other generals might have seen equally clearly the policy of concentrating all their strength for a blow at the heart of their adversary's power, without possessing either the power to effect such a concentration, or the independence of others necessary to incur its responsibility. In the present instance, he saw at once that the vital point of the war was to be found under the walls of Vienna ; VOL. IX. K LIX. 1809. CHAP. and that, if he could succeed in defeating the Archduke Charles on the plain of the Marchfeld, he need not disquiet himself either about the victories of the Tyrolese in their Alpine valleys, the insurrection of the Germans on the banks of the Elbe, or the distant thunder of the English on the shores of the Scheldt. Fixing all his attention, therefore, upon the restoration of the bridges, the concentration of his forces, and the reanimating of his soldiers in the centre, he gave himself little concern about the tardy movements of the coalition upon the vast circumference of the theatre of hostilities; and wrote to his lieutenants only to keep open the communications of the Grand Army with the Rhine, and 77. Sav. iv. he would soon find the means of dissipating the host of enemies who were now accumulating round his extremities.1* 1 Pel. iv. 76, 94. Jom. iii. 246, 247. 2. Forces of Napoleon in the island of Lobau. May 25. The force which remained at the disposal of the French Emperor, even after the very serious losses of the battle of Aspern, was still immense. The chasms produced by that disastrous engagement had been more than supplied by the opportune arrival of Eugene's army at the Imperial headquarters; while the corresponding forces of the Archduke John were, for the time at least, lost to the Austrian generals by that prince having retreated to the Hungarian plains, instead of obeying his instructions and menacing the French communications from the Tyrolese mountains.+ From the confidential correspondence of Napoleon with Berthier at this period, which has since been published, it appears that, in the beginning of June, the Grand Army numbered, present with the eagles, no less than one hundred and * On the 6th June, Napoleon wrote from Schönbrunn to Marshal Kellermann, who commanded the army of reserve in the north of Germany. "Before the enemy can have accomplished anything of essential importance in Saxony, the Emperor will have passed the Danube, and be on their rear. But a corps which should approach the line of communication of the Grand Army might prove really dangerous: far more so than anything which could occur in the north of Germany."-NAPOLEON to KELLERMANN, June 6, 1809; PELET, iv. 77, 78. + Ante, Chap. LVII. § 25. |