A VISIT TO ASPERN AND WAG RAM. 
589 
by the melting of the Alpine snows, the island of Lobau was seized and 
occupied during the night of the 19th, and a bridge tolerably substan¬ 
tially composed of boats and rafts established between it and the 
southern shore. By mid-day on the 20th everything was in readiness 
for further progress, a light bridge of pontoons was thrown across the 
narrow channel which separated the Lobau from the northern bank, 
and the leading troops of Massena’s corps began to defile on to the 
vast plain of the Marchfeld. 
Aspern and Essling were promptly taken possession of by the 
divisions of Boudet, Molitor, and Legrand, and placed in a state of 
defence. I have seen it stated that formerly these two villages were 
connected by a canal, but at present no trace of this is to be seen, and 
nothing larger than the ditches usually used to drain such level ground 
probably ever existed there. No doubt, however, the fields being flat 
and swampy were intersected by many such, and the road which con¬ 
nects the two villages, now traversed by the steam tramway, had a ditch 
on each side, and formed not only an excellent lateral communication, 
but provided some shelter to a defensive line. 
The desperate struggles which centred round these villages must 
have pretty well destroyed the original shape and structure of their 
houses, and those which one sees to-day are, except in a few instances, 
scarcely the same that held the Frenchmen. Their general character, 
however, remains unaltered. All accounts show that they were com¬ 
posed (then as now) of low slate roofed cottages straggling along the 
road which runs between them, and that there was but one substantial 
building capable of prolonged resistance in each. 
In Aspern the church and churchyard still stand out on the west 
flank as a bastion to the remainder, although the walls of the latter are 
not the same which afforded shelter in 1809. 
In Essling we can see practically unaltered the three-storied granary 
jutting out to the north and flanking the fronts of the houses from 
which the Austrians never succeeded in driving their opponents. Its 
handsome doors of iron still show the Austrian bullet holes, and its solid 
walls and three tiers of windows still remain to exemplify what a strong 
redoubt it must have formed. 
Impatient to bring about a catastrophe which should impress the 
world as much by its swiftness as its magnitude, Napoleon hurried his 
troops across with restless energy. All the afternoon and night of the 
20th the stream of men kept ceaselessly flowing from the Lobau, and 
on the morning of the 21st 40,000 men were on the northern bank. 
No serious opposition was encountered from the enemy, nor indeed, 
except for a strong advanced force of cavalry which hovered about in 
front of the villages, did they give any evidence of their presence. 
While inactive, however, the Archduke had been by no means unob¬ 
servant. 
His force lay crouching on the Bisamberg ready to spring on the 
French when he judged that the opportune moment had arrived. The 
large building on that hill which he used as an observatory, and from 
which it is possible with glasses to observe the Lobau, still remains. 
From that look-out he had not failed to note Napoleon^s preparations 
