610 
A VISIT TO ASPERN AND WAGRAM. 
the Austrian left ere he again moved against them in the centre. He 
hurried Drouot forward with four Horse Artillery Batteries of the Guard 
to check the forward rush of the enemy, while the remaining six Field 
Batteries followed as fast as they could, and soon their sixty guns, 
together with forty more, were formed in a great battery across the 
breach in the French line, and kept the foe at bay by the heavy fire 
they brought to bear. The artillery paid dearly in men and horses for 
their brilliant “ charge,” as it has been called by Pelet, and Drouot, 
though he declined to leave the field, was himself wounded, but their 
splendid self-sacrifice was well repaid by the enemy’s discomfiture, and 
the breathing time they thus afforded to their shaken infantry. The 
Guards who had only just completed their trying march across country 
towards Glinzendorf were countermarched across the whole length of 
the French right wing to the neighbourhood of Aderklaa. Massena 
was sent back to reinforce Boudet, and directed to try and check the 
bold dash at the French communications which the Austrian right wing 
was making. Finally, Davout was ordered to commence a wide turn¬ 
ing movement against Neusiedel and the south-eastern angle, of the 
Wagrarn plateau. The Emperor himself hurried to that spot in front 
of Aderklaa when the peril was for the moment most imminent, and 
together with Massena, who, although bruised and injured, displayed 
unrivalled courage and presence of mind, exerted himself with the 
greatest energy by both words and example to check the disorder into 
which the left of his centre had been thrown. 
The situation of affairs on the extreme left of the French was mean¬ 
while fraught with the greatest peril. The Austrians under Klenau 
and Kollowrath pressing on in superior numbers had easily driven 
Boudet’s division from their positions, had captured Aspern and the 
entrenchments they themselves had evacuated on the previous day, and 
were even asserting their strength in Essling and beyond it towards 
Enzersdorf. Massena having rallied and reformed his corps pushed his 
way from Aderklaa to where he had been the day before to try and 
retrieve matters, but at first found himself unable to make any impres¬ 
sion against the headlong rush of the confident enemy. Napoleon rode 
anxiously up and down the space in front of Aderklaa where at the 
moment his line was dangerously weak, Massena’s troops having left 
ere the infantry of the Guard had time to accomplish their long flank 
march from Glinzendorf, while the great mass which MacDonald was 
to lead forward had not yet been assembled. The Austrian batteries 
pouring a heavy fire on this salient angle of the French position were 
engaged in a tremendous duel with Drouot’s guns, and it needed the 
presence of the Emperor himself and the fine example of courage which 
he gave, to reassure the weak French force at this most important point. 
In the midst of the infernal din, surrounded by wavering troops, and a 
staff who muttered under their breath impatient at a delay they did 
not understand, his features retained their usual impassive appearance, 
but his watchful eye took in every feature of the situation, and his cool 
judgment waited till the moment was ripe for the stroke he had in 
contemplation, and was silently preparing to carry out. 
As one looks from here across the level plain towards Neusiedel the 
