As we moved from Mölk to Saint-Pölten, the Emperor and Marshal Lannes put many further questions to me as to the doings of that night. They halted opposite to the old castle of Dürrenstein, on the further bank. This place had a double interest for us, both as commanding the scene of the memorable fight 1when Marshal Mortier, separated from the rest of the French army in 1805, had to cut his way through the Russian troops, and as having, in the middle ages, been the prison of Richard Cœur de Lion. While studying these rains, and meditating on the fate of the royal warrior who was so long shut up there, Napoleon fell into a deep reverie. Had he a presentiment that his enemies would one day shut him up, and that he would end his life as a captive?
Marshal Lannes, hearing several cannon-shots in the direction of Saint-Pölten, moved rapidly on that town, and a few charges took place in the streets between our advanced guard and a small force of light cavalry which the enemy still had on the right bank. All my colleagues being at the moment on duty, I happened to be alone with the marshal when we entered Saint-Pölten. Passing in front of a nunnery we saw the abbess come out with a crozier in her hand, followed by all her nuns. The holy women, terrified, were coming to seek protection. The marshal reassured them, and, as the enemy were flying and our troops in the occupation of the town, he thought he might safely dismount. A scorching sun had followed the tempest of the previous night. The marshal had just covered three leagues at a gallop, and was very hot. The abbess invited him to come and take some refreshment. He accepted; and behold us two in the convent surrounded by some fifty nuns! In a moment the table was laid and a splendid luncheon served. I never saw such a profusion of syrups, preserves, sweet-meats of all sorts. We did them full justice, and the nuns filled our pockets with them, presenting several boxes to the marshal, who said that he would take them as a present from these ladies to his children. Alas! he was never to see his dear children again.
That night the Emperor and the marshal slept at Saint-Pölten; two days more brought us to Vienna, which we reached very early on May 10. The Emperor made his way at once to the royal palace at Schönbrunn, thus being at the gates of the Austrian capital twenty-seven days after leaving Paris. We had thought that the Archduke Charles would have hastened his march on the left bank, and crossed the river by the bridge of Spitz, so as to reach Vienna before us; but he was several days behind, and only a feeble garrison defended the capital. The city proper of Vienna is very small, but is surrounded by immense suburbs, which are enclosed by a single wall too weak to stop an army. The Archduke Maximilian, who commanded in Vienna, abandoned the suburbs, therefore, and withdrew with all the combatants behind the old fortifications of the town. If he had chosen to make use of the assistance offered by the courageous population, he might have held out for some time, but he did not do so, and on their arrival the French troops occupied the suburbs without striking a blow. Marshal Lannes, deceived by an incorrect report, and thinking that the enemy had also abandoned the city, sent Colonel Guéhéneuc in a hurry to tell the Emperor that we occupied Vienna, and Napoleon, eager to announce this great news, ordered M. Guéhéneuc to set out at once for Paris. But the place still held out, and when Lannes tried to enter at the head of a division, we were received with cannon-shots. General Tharreau was wounded and several soldiers killed. The marshal withdrew the troops into the suburbs, and decided to send Colonel Saint-Mars with a summons to the governor. He was accompanied by M. de la Grange, who, having been for a long time attached to the French embassy at Vienna, knew his way perfectly. A flag of truce ought to go forward alone, accompanied by a trumpeter; but instead of acting according to this custom, Colonel Saint-Mars took three orderlies, and M. de la Grange the same number, so that with the trumpeter there were nine of them, which was far too many. The enemy thought, or pretended to think, that they were coming to inspect the fortifications rather than to bring a summons to surrender. A gate suddenly opened, and there came out a squad of Hungarian hussars, who charged sword in hand upon the party, wounded them all severely, and carried them prisoners into the town. The troopers who committed this act of barbarism belonged to the Szekler regiment, the same which, in 1799, had murdered the French plenipotentiaries, Roberjot and Bonnier, and severely wounded Jean Debry outside Rastadt. 2
On hearing of the unworthy manner in which the Austrians had shed the blood of the party sent with a flag of truce, the Emperor came up indignantly, and sent for a great number of howitzers to bombard Vienna in the night. The defenders, meanwhile, had opened a terrible fire on the suburbs, and kept it up for twenty-four hours at the risk of killing their fellow-citizens.
On the morning of the 11th, the Emperor went round the outskirts of Vienna, and noticing that the Archduke Maximilian had committed the serious mistake of not lining the Prater with troops, he resolved to take possession of it by throwing a bridge over the small arm of the Danube. To this end two companies of voltigeurs crossed in boats and occupied the 'Lusthaus,' with the neighbouring wood to protect the construction of the bridge. This was finished during the night, and as soon as it was known in Vienna that the French held the Prater and could march thence towards the Spitz bridge, the only way of retreat open to the garrison, there was great agitation, which fresh events soon increased. By ten o'clock in the evening our gunners, covered by the solid buildings of the imperial stables, began to throw shells into the town, which soon was on fire in several quarters, and notably in the Graben.
It has been said, and repeated though wrongly by General Pelet, that the Archduchess Louisa lying ill at that time in her father's palace, the commander of the garrison gave notice of this to the Emperor of the French, and that orders were given to change the positions of the batteries. 3This story is quite fictitious, for Marie Louise was not in Vienna during the attack, and if she had been the Austrian generals would certainly not have exposed their Emperor's daughter to the hazards of war, when she could with proper care have been taken in a few minutes to the other side of the Danube. But there are some people who will discover the marvellous everywhere, and have pleased themselves by making out that the life of the archduchess was saved by him whose throne she was shortly to share.
Our shells continued to pour upon the town till midnight, when Napoleon, leaving the task of directing the fire to the artillery generals, started with Marshal Lannes to return to Schönbrunn. It was bright moonlight, and, the road being good, the Emperor set off as usual at a gallop. He was riding for the first time a handsome horse presented to him by the King of Bavaria. His equerry, M. de Canisy, among whose duties was that of trying the Emperor's horses, had doubtless neglected this precaution, but affirmed that the horse was perfect. After a few paces the horse fell; the Emperor rolled off and lay at full length without giving a sign of life. We thought he was dead, but he had only fainted. He was quickly picked up, and, in spite of all that Marshal Lannes could say, insisted on riding the rest of the way. He took another mount, and started again at a gallop. On reaching the great court of the palace, he made all the staff and the squadron of his guard who had witnessed the accident draw up in a circle round him, and forbade anyone to speak of it. The secret, though entrusted to more than two hundred persons, half of whom were common troopers, was so religiously kept that the army and Europe never knew that Napoleon had nearly lost his life. The equerry, Count de Canisy, expected a severe reprimand, but Napoleon only punished him by ordering him to ride the Bavarian horse every day, and after the next day, when he had been off several times owing to the weakness of the animal's legs, the Emperor pardoned him, bidding him only examine better in future horses which he gave him to ride.
Finding his retreat threatened, and the capital in danger of being burnt to the ground, the Archduke evacuated Vienna in the night and retired behind the main branch of the Danube, destroying the Spitz bridge. It was by this very bridge that the French army crossed the Danube in 1805, when, as I have related, Marshals Lannes and Murat got possession of it by a trick. After the departure of the troops, the populace were beginning to pillage the town, and the authorities sent General O'Reilly and the Archbishop, with some of the principal officials, to ask for aid from Napoleon. Upon this, several regiments entered as protectors rather than as conquerors. The citizens were disarmed, with the exception of the civic guard, who showed themselves as worthy of this mark of confidence as they were in 1805.
Marshal Lannes' headquarters were in the magnificent palace of Prince Albert of Sachs-Teschen near the Kärnthner Thor. Prince Murat had occupied this during the Austerlitz campaign, but the marshal did not stay there, preferring to be lodged in a private house at Schönbrunn, where he could more readily communicate with the Emperor. In Vienna we found MM. Saint-Mars and de la Grange, with their escort all severely wounded. The marshal had M. Saint-Mars taken to Prince Albert's palace.
From the opening of the campaign of 1809, the English had done all in their power to stir up fresh enemies for Napoleon by raising the German populations against him and his allies. The first to rise in revolt were the Tyrolese, 4who, taken from Austria and given to Bavaria by the treaties of 1805, saw an opportunity of returning to their former master. The Bavarians, under Marshal Lefebvre, fought many bloody engagements with the mountaineers, who, led by a simple innkeeper named Hofer, fought with heroic courage. But after some brilliant successes they were beaten by French troops coming from Italy, and their commandant, Hofer, was taken and shot. 5
Prussia, humiliated by the defeat of Jena, but not daring, in spite of pressure from England, to run the risks of a fresh war with Napoleon, was willing enough to put a fresh spoke in his wheel by adopting a middle term between peace and war, such as is reprobated among all civilised nations. Major Schill, leaving Berlin in open day at the head of his regiment of hussars, swept the north of Germany killing and plundering the French, and calling on the people to revolt. In this way he succeeded in forming a band of more than 600 men, at whose head he had the hardihood to attack, with support from the English fleet, the fortress of Stralsund, defended by the brave General Gratien. 6There was fighting in the streets, and Major Schill was killed. Many young men belonging to the best families of Prussia, who were taken fighting with him, were brought to trial by the Emperor's order, and sent off to Brest, condemned as thieves and assassins to penal servitude for life. The Prussian nation was angry enough at this treatment, but the Government, realising the true character of such acts of brigandage, did not venture to make any remonstrance, and contented itself with disavowing Schill and his troops, whom it would have rewarded had their enterprise brought about the rising of Germany.
The Prince of Brunswick-Oels, who had lost his states under the treaty of Tilsit and taken refuge in England, went to Lusatia, and, raising a band of 2,000 men, carried on a guerilla war against the French and their allies, the Saxons. In Westphalia, Colonel Derneberg. an officer of King Jerome's guard, spread sedition in several districts, and even marched upon Cassel, with the intention of carrying off Jerome. Katt and several other Prussian officers raised bands in different places, as it was afterwards proved, with the tacit consent of the Prussian Government. If these various insurgent bodies, led by able and enterprising chiefs, had combined, the consequences to us might have been very awkward; but they all broke up when the news came of the battle of Eckmühl and the capture of Vienna. The moment had not yet come to unite all the forces of Germany against Napoleon; Russia was then our ally, and her agreement was lacking. She had even furnished us with a contingent of 20,000 men, who were acting, though very slackly, in Galicia. Russia, however, had no scruple at the peace about claiming her share of the Austrian spoils, with which she never again parted.
