604 
A VISIT TO ASPERN AND WAGRAM. 
On the 4th, the corps of Marmont, Eugene, and Davout having 
advanced into the Lobau, all was felt to be in readiness, and that night 
was chosen for the great enterprise. 
At 10 o'clock p.m. all was still silent on both banks. The French, how¬ 
ever, were all on foot and ready, while their opponents were asleep. 
Eain began to fall in torrents, pitchy darkness cast an impenetrable 
veil around, and a heavy storm of wind drowned the slight noise the 
cautious preparations may have occasioned. Boats filled with light 
infantry were swiftly unfastened from the southern side of the Lobau, 
silently glided round into the narrow channel opposite Miihlleuthen, 
and landed the French soldiers on the left bank. These rapidly spring¬ 
ing forward attacked the Austrian outposts, and the sound of their 
musketry gave the signal for which all were waiting. In a moment 
tbe whole length of the northern shore of the Lobau and of the opposite 
bank was lit by the fire of artillery, and an incessant rattle of musketry 
burst forth. Napoleon, as we have said, had mounted an immense num¬ 
ber of guns, some of large calibre, the spoil of the Arsenal of Vienna, 
in his works, and from them he poured a tremendous fire on the Austrian 
lines in front of Aspern. At the same moment a false attack by the troops 
under Legrand, from the wood they had seized to the west of Asperu, 
kept the enemy's attention riveted on the bridge before him, and held 
Klenau's corps chained to their entrenchments. The batteries opposite 
Enzersdorf likewise pounded it with an incessant cannonade, and soon 
set fire to its shattered houses. In the midst of such a commotion, and 
under the pelting of a pitiless storm, the real designs of the Emperor 
were carried out, and the bridges, lying ready near at hand, swiftly swung 
across the narrow arm that separated his troops from their enemies. 
So well had all been arranged that in spite of the weather no hitch 
occurred. In a quarter-of-an-hour one bridge was in position, and the 
corps of Oudinot began to file across, three others, each, opposite the 
place where the troops allotted to it were waiting in readiness to move, 
were also soon ready to be used, and by 3 o'clock in the morning as 
many as six were available. The obstacle had been annihilated, and, 
so far from being hampered by it, no army could anywhere have moved 
under more favourable circumstances, for in no place would six roads 
be found available leading directly from such an entrenched camp as 
they had occupied. The entrenchments opposite Enzersdorf were seized 
and turned against their former occupants, who were thus prevented by 
a heavy flanking fire from issuing* from that village to interfere with 
the progress of the passage. Napoleon himself displayed the most 
wonderful energy and activity throughout the night, and moved from 
bridge to bridge to personally superintend the movement of every corps. 
The heavy fire unceasingly kept up at bis former point of passage 
and Legrand's demonstration effectually deceived his opponents, and 
they did not for a moment doubt that a great effort to cross at the old 
place was being made. 
When one visits the spot and sees the comparative narrowness of 
the channel, and the facilities the banks offer for a passage at any point 
along the Lobau to the east of the villages, one cannot understand how 
tfie Archduke, a man who had studied war closely, and an able General 
