Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0004/00049.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 12KB | 212 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00049}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Chapter XVI}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{napoleon
french
army
austrians
danube
left
archduke
talleyrand
troops
vienna
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1906}
$Log{See Napoleon At Wagram*0004901.scf
}
Title:       Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Book:        Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte
Author:      Tarbell, Ida M.
Date:        1906

Chapter XVI

Talleyrand's Treachery - The Campaign Of 1809 - Wagram

     Two unscrupulous and crafty men, both of singular ability, caused the
interior trouble which called Napoleon from Spain.  These men were Talleyrand
and Fouche.  The latter we saw during the Consulate as Minister of Police.
Since, he had been once dismissed because of his knavery, and restored,
largely for the same quality.  His cunning was too valuable to dispense with.
The former, Talleyrand, made Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1799, had handled
his negotiations with the extraordinary skill for which he was famous, until,
in 1807, Napoleon's mistrust of his duplicity, and Talleyrand's own dislike
for the details of his position, led to the portfolio being taken from him,
and he being made Vice-Grand-Elector.  He evidently expected, in accepting
this change, to remain as influential as ever with Napoleon.  The knowledge
that the emperor was dispensing with his services made him resentful, and his
devotion to the imperial cause fluctuated according to the attention he
received.

     Now, Napoleon's course in Spain had been undertaken at the advice of
Talleyrand, largely, and he had repeated constantly, in the early
negotiations, that France ought not to allow a Bourbon to remain enthroned at
her borders.  Yet, as the affair went on, he began slyly to talk against the
enterprise.  At Erfurt, where Napoleon had been impolitic enough to take him,
he initiated himself into Alexander's good graces, and prevented Napoleon's
policy towards Austria being carried out.  When Napoleon returned to Spain,
Talleyrand and Fouche, who up to this time had been enemies, became friendly,
and even appeared in public, arm in arm. If Talleyrand and Fouche had made up,
said the Parisians, there was mischief brewing.

     Napoleon was not long in knowing of their reconciliation.  He learned
more, that the two crafty plotters had written Murat that in the event of
"something happening," that is, of Napoleon's death or overthrow, they should
organize a movement to call him to the head of affairs; that, accordingly, he
must hold himself ready.

     Napoleon returned to Paris immediately, removed Talleyrand from his
position at court, and, at a gathering of high officials, treated him to one
of those violent harangues with which he was accustomed to flay those whom he
would disgrace and dismiss.

          "You are a thief, a coward, a man without honor; you do not believe
     in God; you have all your life been a traitor to your duties; you have
     deceived and betrayed everybody; nothing is sacred to you; you would sell
     your own father.  I have loaded you down with gifts, and there is nothing
     you would not undertake against me.  For the past ten months you have been
     shameless enough, because you supposed, rightly or wrongly, that my
     affairs in Spain were going astray, to say to all who would listen to you
     that you always blamed my undertakings there; whereas it was you yourself
     who first put it into my head, and who persistently urged it.  And that
     man, that unfortunate [he meant the Duc d'Enghien], by whom was I advised
     of the place of his residence?  Who drove me to deal cruelly with him?
     What, then, are you aiming at?  What do you wish for?  What do you hope?
     Do you dare to say?  You deserve that I should smash you like a wine-
     glass.  I can do it, but I despise you too much to take the trouble."

     All of this was undoubtedly true, but, after having publicly said it,
there was but one safe course for Napoleon - to put Talleyrand where he could
no longer continue his plotting.  He made the mistake, however, of leaving him
at large.

     The disturbance of the Continental peace came from Austria. Encouraged by
Napoleon's absence in Spain, and the withdrawal of troops from Germany, and
urged by England to attempt to again repair her losses, Austria had hastily
armed herself, hoping to be able to reach the Rhine before Napoleon could
collect his forces and meet her.  At this moment Napoleon could command about
the same number of troops as the Austrians, but they were scattered in all
directions, while the enemy's were already consolidated.  The question became,
then, whether he could get his troops together before the Austrians attacked.
From every direction he hurried them across France and Germany towards
Ratisbonne.  On the 12th of April he heard in Paris that the Austrians had
crossed the Inn.  On the 17th the emperor was in his headquarters at
Donauworth, his army well in hand. "Neither in ancient or modern times," says
Jomini, "will one find anything which equals in celerity and admirable
precision the opening of this campaign."

     In the next ten days a series of combats broke the Austrian army, drove
the Archduke Charles, with his main force, north of the Danube, and opened the
road to Vienna to the French.  On the 12th of May, one month from the day he
left Paris, Napoleon wrote from Schonbrunn, "We are masters of Vienna." The
city had been evacuated.

     Napoleon lay on the right bank of the Danube; the Austrian army under the
Archduke Charles was coming towards the city by the left bank; it was to be a
hand-to-hand struggle under the walls of Vienna.  The emperor was uncertain of
the archduke's plans, but he was determined that he should not have a chance
to reenforce his army.  The battle must be fought at once, and he prepared to
go across the river to attack him.  The place of crossing he chose was south
of Vienna, where the large island Lobau divides the stream.  Bridges had to
built for the passage, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the work
was accomplished, for the river was high and the current swift, and anchors
and boats were scarce.  Again and again the boats broke apart.  Nevertheless,
about thirty thousand of the French got over, and took possession of the
villages of Aspern and Essling, where they were attacked on May 21st by some
eighty thousand Austrians.

     The battle which followed lasted all day, and the French sustained
themselves heroically.  That night reenforcements were gotten over, so that
the next day some fifty-five thousand men were on the French side. Napoleon
fought with the greatest obstinacy, hoping that another division would soon
succeed in getting over, and would enable him to overcome the superior numbers
of the Austrians.  Already the battle was becoming a hand-to-hand fight, when
the terrible news came that the bridge over the Danube had gone down.  The
Austrians had sent floating down the swollen river great mills, fire-boats,
and masses of timber fastened together in such a way as to become
battering-rams of frightful power when carried by the rapid stream.  All hope
of aid was gone, and, as the news spread, the army resigned itself to perish
sword in hand.  The carnage which followed was horrible.  Towards evening one
of the bravest of the French marshals, Lannes, was fatally wounded.  It seemed
as if fortune had determined on the loss of the French, and Napoleon decided
to retreat to the island of Lobau, where he felt sure that he could maintain
his position, and secure supplies from the army on the right bank, until he
had time to build bridges and unite his forces.

     Communications were soon established with the right bank, but the isle of
Lobau was not deserted; it was used, in fact, as a camp for the next few
weeks, while Napoleon was sending to Italy, to France, and to Germany, for new
troops.  A heavy reenforcement came to him from Italy with news which did much
to encourage him.  When the war began, an Austrian army had invaded Italy, and
at first had success in its engagements against the French under the Viceroy
of Italy, Eugene de Beauharnais.  The news of the ill-luck of the Austrians at
home, and of the march on Vienna, had discouraged the leader, Archduke John,
brother of Archduke Charles, and he had retreated, Eugene following.  Such
were the successes of the French on this retreat, that the Austrians finally
retired out of their way, leaving them a free route to Vienna, and Eugene soon
united his army to that of the emperor.

     With the greatest rapidity the French now secured and strengthened their
communications with Italy and with France, and gathered troops about Vienna.
The whole month of June was passed in this way, hostile Europe repeating the
while that Napoleon was shut in by the Austrians and could not move, and that
he was idling his time in luxury at the castle of Schonbrunn, where he had
established his headquarters.  But this month of apparent inactivity was only
a feint.  By the 1st of July the French Army had reached one hundred and fifty
thousand men.  They were in admirable condition, well drilled, fresh, and
confident.  Their communications were strong, their camps good, and they were
eager for battle.

     The Austrians were encamped at Wagram, to the north of the Danube. They
had fortified the banks opposite the island of Lobau in a manner which they
believed would prevent the French from attempting a passage; but in arranging
their fortification they had completely neglected a certain portion of the
bank on which Napoleon seemed to have no designs. But this was the point,
naturally, which Napoleon chose for his passage, and on the night of July 4th
he effected it.  On the morning of the 5th his whole army of one hundred and
fifty thousand men, with four hundred batteries, was on the left bank.  In the
midst of a terrible storm this great mass of men, with all its equipments, had
crossed the main Danube, several islands and channels, had built six bridges,
and by daybreak had arranged itself in order.  It was an unheard-of feat.

     Pushing his corps forward, and easily sweeping out of his way the advance
posts, Napoleon soon had his line facing that of the Austrians, which
stretched from near the Danube to a point east of Wagram.  At seven o'clock on
the evening of July 5th the French attacked the left and centre of the enemy,
but without driving them from their position.  The next morning it was the
Archduke Charles who took the offensive, making a movement which changed the
whole battle.  He attacked the French left, which was nearest the river, with
fifty thousand men, intending to get on their line of communication and
destroy the bridges across the Danube. The troops on the French centre were
obliged to hurry off to prevent this, and the army was weakened for a moment,
but not long.  Napoleon determined to make the Archduke Charles, who in person
commanded this attack on the French left, return, not by following him, but by
breaking his centre; and he turned his heavy batteries against this portion of
the army, and followed them by a cavalry attack, which routed the enemy.  At
the same time their left was broken, and the troops which had been engaging it
were free to hurry off against the Austrian right, which was trying to reach
the bridges, and which were being held in check with difficulty at Essling.
As soon as the archduke saw what had happened to his left and centre he
retired, preferring to preserve as much as possible of his army in good order.
The French did not pursue.  The battle had cost them too heavily.  But if the
Austrians escaped from Wagram with their army, and if their opponents gained
little more than the name of a victory, they were too discouraged to continue
the war, and the emperor sued for peace.

[See Napoleon At Wagram: In the midst of a terrible storm this great mass of
men had crossed the main Danube.]

     This peace was concluded in October.  Austria was forced to give up
Trieste and all her Adriatic possessions, to cede territory to Bavaria and to
the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and to give her consent to the continental system.