A VISIT TO ASTERN AND WAGRAM. 
613 
execution against such a target, and the fate of the battle was for a 
time again doubtful. But Davout’s unmistakeable success on the 
plateau of Wagram paralysed the Austrian defence, and cut oh as he 
was from his brother, the Archduke felt he could no longer hope for a 
victory. He therefore directed all his efforts to securing the retreat of 
his right, which was pushed dangerously far forward, and sent orders 
to withdraw it, while he endeavoured to check the French attack against 
his centre. All his available forces were directed, therefore, upon 
MacDonald, and the great column which was somewhat isolated suffered 
terribly at his hands. But the divisions of Durutte, Serras, Pachtod, 
and Wrede’s Bavarians, with the young Guard under Reille behind 
them, were moved up to its support, while Nansouty’s Cuirassiers and 
Walther’s Dragoons on the left and right charged the Austrian masses 
and, though at a great sacrifice, relieved the column from the pressure 
it was struggling against. It was once more enabled to move forward, 
and the fate of the day was decided. 
But though the French might justly claim the victory, they could 
show but lew trophies of their success. The Austrians fell back every¬ 
where unbroken, and leaving none of the traces that usually mark a 
retreat behind them. A few dismounted guns and 2000 prisoners, 
mostly wounded, were all that fell into the hands of their opponents, 
while they could also boast of 5000 prisoners captured by their right, 
and their powerful artillery still intact admirably covered their retreat. 
The French cavalry, either because their best leaders were hors de 
combat (Bessieres was wounded and Lasalle dead), or because they 
were exhausted by their previous efforts, did not respond to the call of 
the Emperor, hardly charged at all, and incurred his bitterest reproaches 
in consequence. In truth, the result was so indecisive that the 
Austrians could claim almost as much credit from the battle as the 
French, and the pedestal of the Archduke Charles’s statue in Vienna 
to-day blazons Wagram and Aspern amongst the names of his other 
triumphs. The losses on both sides were about equal, and amounted 
in each case to about 25,000 men killed and wounded. I was much 
struck, both on this battle-field and that of Aspern, by the absence of 
any memorials or tombstones to mark the spot where so many must 
have been buried. The truth is, I believe, that the bones of those who 
fell have all been dug up and collected together, and certainly in the 
crypt of the church at Neusiedel a ghastly pile of skulls and bones is 
shown which is said to represent the remains of 40,000 men. 
An incident which occurred in the evening when the battle was over 
serves to show how much the nerves, even of the victors, were shaken 
by all they had gone through, and suggests reflections as to what might 
have happened had the Archduke John behaved with the energy 
Blucher and the Crown Prince displayed under similar circumstances 
at Waterloo and Sadowa. 
Between 3 and 4 o’clock, when his brother’s army was already 
defeated, and when the chance of effective co-operation was gone, the 
head of his columns appeared in Davout’s rear at Obersiebenbrunn, 
and some of his scouts are said to have penetrated as far as Wagram. 
The sudden apparition of even the advanced party of his force was 
