A VISIT TO ASPEEN AND WAGRAM. 
605 
measured by the ordinary standard, left such an opening for Napoleon, 
and allowed himself to be so completely outmanoeuvred. I have had 
considerable discussion on the ground itself with officers of the Austrian 
army, and they themselves were the first to admit that they could not 
understand how such a blunder was made. It is easy to be wise after 
the event, and there may have been circumstances to be considered that 
are now left out of sight, but, however it was, the fact remains that 
Napoleon was let do unopposed the very thing which his character and 
antecedents might have led his opponents to expect he would attempt. 
When day dawned the following morning the Austrians found noth¬ 
ing in their front at Aspern, but a dense mass of troops on the left 
bank of the Danube south of Enzersdorf. By 6 o’clock the level plain 
between that village and Mlihlleuthen was simply covered by the vast 
array who were drawn up in almost contiguous columns opposite the 
bridges they had crossed over. These were now securely fixed, and the 
French army would no longer fight under the disadvantages they had 
experienced at Aspern, but possessed a secure line of retreat and a vast 
rallying place in their rear to receive them in the event of a disaster. 
Alison places their force at 150,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, and 600 
guns, and these numbers may be accepted as probably about correct. 
The tempest cleared away, the sun shone out with the splendour of July, 
and the spirits of the French soldiers rose to the highest enthusiasm as 
they saw what the genius of the Emperor had accomplished. Massena 
easily drove the Austrians out of Enzersdorf, and then, as the whole 
of the immense army wheeled forward to the left round that village, the 
meaning of all that had been accomplished during the night was fully 
realised. The Austrian works and entrenchments erected with so 
much labour and patience to bar the French advance during the last six 
weeks were completely turned, and rendered untenable, while the difficult 
task of crossing a great river in the presence of a powerful foe had 
been accomplished almost without a struggle and with but little loss. 
The opportunity for engaging the French at a disadvantage had been 
let slip, and there was nothing the Austrians could now do but fall back 
on the strong positions behind them which extended in a vast semi¬ 
circle from Stadlau, their extreme right, to the centre at Wagram, and 
the left at Margraf Neusiedel. From the banks of the Danube the level 
plain of the Marchfeld stretches away in monotony, unbroken even by 
trees except where the little white villages spring abruptly from its 
surface to a low plateau extending from Wagram to Margraf Neusiedel, 
which is thrust out into the plain beneath like a sort of bastion from the 
heights further to the north. At its highest part, that opposite Mar¬ 
graf Neusiedel, it has a command over the ground in front of about 
thirty feet, but at Wagram its elevation is diminished to not more than 
half that amount. The top of the plateau is again perfectly level and 
well adapted for the movement of troops. Parallel to its front at a 
distance of a few hundred yards from it, flows a stream called 
the Bussbach, which forms an obstacle impassable to artillery and 
cavalry, and if at all flooded, as it must have been on the 5th of July, 
1809, a serious hindrance to the advance of infantry. Low pollarded 
willows mark its course, and it is spanned by bridges only at the villages 
