A ViSIT TO ASTERN AND WAGRAM - . 
591 
them. Hillers corps, which moved along the bank of the Danube on the 
Austrian right, and that of Bellegarde, which was next to it, assailed 
Aspern almost simultaneously. Hohenzollern’s corps moved by Breiteu- 
lee to the left of these, the fourth column of advance commanded 
by Rosenberg advanced through Raasdorf on Essling, while the fifth 
under the same direction made a detour on Enzersdorf to turn the 
French right and co-operate in the attack on Essling. The cavalry 
massed together moved towards the open ground which stretches be¬ 
tween the villages. To Massena, who had the divisions of Molitor and 
Legrand with him, was entrusted the defence of Aspern. Lannes 
held Essling with the Boudet division. The ground between was 
occupied by the remainder of Massena’s corps, the Imperial Guard, the 
German auxiliaries, and the cavalry divisions of Nansouty, Espagne, 
and Lasalle, under Bessieres. 
Massena had endeavoured to convert Aspern into a sort of citadel, 
and entrenched in it received the first shock of the Austrian advance. 
The church and cemetery, which we passed on the extreme west of the 
village as we entered it, had been particularly strengthened, and here 
the Marshal himself took up his position, and by his unsurpassed 
energy and courage infused a vigour into the defence which saved the 
French fortunes on that day. The first rush of the Austrian advanced 
guard found their opponents in far inferior numbers and hardly pre¬ 
pared for the assault, and they were driven out of a considerable portion 
of the houses at the first onset. The Molitor division, however, quickly 
rallied again and forced the Austrians back to the columns advancing 
in their rear. The three heavy masses of men advancing to their support 
soon however reinforced and reassured them, and converging on Aspern 
now threatened the French position with an imposing display of 
strength. Massena’s men, however, lining the churchyard walls and 
the adjacent houses, poured such a heavy fire upon them as made up for 
any disparity in numbers there was between them. The disadvantages 
inherent in the column formation were here once more exemplified, the 
densely crowded masses were unable to turn their numbers to account, 
and were rent and torn by the storm of lead which burst on them from 
every Avail and window. The church and cemetery, as we noticed, to 
some extent flanked the remainder of the village and entirely commanded 
the street down its centre, both sides therefore realised the importance 
of this part of the position, and fought for it with murderous zeal during 
the remainder of the day. The Austrian batteries were brought up to 
a short range and their grape shot rattled through the boughs of the 
trees which then grew round the church, and tore the little pointed 
steeple, which still remains, but though the Molitor division Avas at 
length driven from the village, in spite of a desperate resistance in 
every house and enclosure of its straggling length, columns of attack 
surged against this vantage point in vain. There Massena still held 
out, although assailed likewise by a heavy fire from the neighbourhood 
of Stadtlau, and calm and collected throughout this tremendous 
struggle he threatened the Austrian flank with the Marnlaz cavalry, 
and drove them again from the village with the division of Legrand. 
Meanwhile the gallant Lannes had been sustaining an uneven contest 
