588 
A VISIT TO ASPERN AND WAG RAM. 
selves. The banks of the Danube are here perfectly level, and the 
unbroken plain before us stretches away from the river till it meets 
the plateau of Wagram and the heights of the Bisamberg. The eye 
of the skilled General would not fail to notice also the two straggling 
villages we have come to see to-day, about a mile apart and perhaps 
the same distance from the river, which might be held by the portion 
of the troops already over while the remainder were effecting their 
passage behind. 
Napoleon, after a careful study of the ground, determined to make 
preparations for forcing the passage at both these points at the same 
moment. It is difficult to judge of the facilities presented at Nussdorf 
now, because the island of Schwarze-Laken, formerly near the northern 
shore, has disappeared and conditions are therefore no longer as they 
were, but it is tolerably certain that the Emperor never really intended 
his preparations there as more than a feint. The collection of material 
and gravitation of troops towards the Lobau, independently of other 
considerations, seem clearly to point to this conclusion, but whatever 
his original intentions may have been, the force of circumstances soon 
made him determine to make his real effort from that island. 
On May the 13th Lannes, to whom the operations at Nussdorf had 
been entrusted, had thrown two battalions into the island of Shwarze- 
Laken. This advanced guard was at once subjected to a heavy fire from 
the northern shore, and, assailed by Hiller with superior forces, was 
so roughly handled that it was compelled to capitulate ere succour could 
arrive from the more distant southern bank. Such a reverse, clearly 
showing as it did the difficulties inherent in the position of the island, 
determined Napoleon, even if his mind were not already made up, to 
confine his efforts here to deceiving the enemy, and to strain every 
nerve to quickly achieving the passage lower down, where Massena had 
been left in charge of the operations. 
The Archduke Charles had neglected to occupy the Lobau in any 
strength, Massena had secretly collected a flotilla of boats and bridging 
material behind the island of Prater, then a wild tangle of forest, five 
days, during which Napoleon himself superintended the preparations 
with incessant vigilance, were enough to gather sufficient stores from 
the inexhaustible supply the captured arsenal of the Austrians placed 
at his disposal, the sixth saw the enterprise commenced, and the 
different parts of the structure were fitted together and floated down 
the little river Schwachat to the Danube. 
In the midst of his preparations the Emperor heard that an Austrian 
corps had tried to cross the river at Linz and fall on his communica¬ 
tions, while at Krems, too, his rear was threatened in a way which 
gave him considerable anxiety. A smaller man than he might easily 
have been frightened from his project by such menaces, but, so far 
from deterring, they more than ever urged him to swiftly carry out his 
plans, giving as they did clear evidence that the Archduke’s forces 
were disunited, and in part at anyrate removed from the scene of 
action. He recognised at once where the decisive point really lay, and, 
as was his wont, disregarded the minor danger when his eyes were fixed 
on a great coup. In spite, therefore, of a rapid rise in the river caused 
