614 
A VISIT TO ASPERN AND WAGRAM. 
enough to throw the victors into something like a panic. The camp 
followers, baggage wagons, and other impedimenta that crowd the 
rear of an army, were in a few moments in an indescribable state 
of confusion, and a stream of fugitives for the bridges across the 
Danube soon covered the plain. Napoleon himself had to leave his 
tent and exert his authority to restore confidence. Such a mighty 
effect had the sight of a single squadron of the Archduke John’s 
cavalry been able to produce, and that too when the force to which it 
belonged, so far from intending to attack the French rear, was itself 
about to retreat the way it had come! So sensitive is even a victorious 
force as to the safety of its communications, and so vast is the effect of 
a judicially aimed blow in war. This small incident well illustrates how 
much might have been accomplished had the pressure on the French 
right and rear been brought to bear earlier in the day, when their 
left and centre were likewise dangerously assailed, and shows also that 
the quality of the French troops was no longer what it was. The num¬ 
bers were still there but the moral was perceptibly deteriorating, and 
the indecisive glories of Wagram were not enough to restore the 
prestige and confidence which had received so severe a shake at Aspern. 
Those who have endeavoured to account for the few trophies which 
graced the conqueror’s triumph in this great battle lay stress on the 
fact that Bessieres was wounded and Lasalle dead, and try to show that 
but for these fatalities the Austrian left would have been entirely cut 
off and destroyed. They likewise, in some cases, claim that Napoleon 
was visibly not himself throughout the second day, and point to the 
fact that he retired early in the evening to his tent as a proof of this. 
The real fact, however, seems to be that the Austrians were by no 
means demoralised, that their retreat was covered by a splendid force 
of artillery, and that they had given their opponents so much trouble 
that they themselves were wearied out, and had had enough of fighting. 
The success of the French attack in the centre was assured as early as 
two o’clock, and had it been that their troops were equal to further 
effort, it seems difficult to believe that the victory would not have been 
crowned in the decisive fashion Napoleon had taught his lieutenants to 
adopt on such occasions. The Emperor blamed his cavalry because 
his measure of success was not fuller, but it appears as though it would 
have been juster had he censured the stubborn courage of his foes. 
If the Austrians could claim no triumph at least they had the satisfac¬ 
tion of feeling that they had taught the world that it was possible to 
oppose Napoleon even with inferior forces without being utterly worst¬ 
ed, and they can boast to-day that they were the first to point the way 
to Leipzig and Waterloo. Had Napoleon never won but as he did at 
Wagram, Europe would never have trembled at his name. 
