It was about this time that he sent for the pastor of Wendenheim, a respectable man and an excellent patriot. "Are you acquainted," he said to him, "with General Rapp?"—"Yes, my Lord."—"Will you undertake a mission to him?"—"Assuredly, if its object is in no respect contrary to the interests of my country."—"Well then, go, and tell him that if he will deliver up Strasburg to me for the King of France, wealth and honours shall be showered on him."—"My Lord, General Rapp is an Alsacian, and consequently a good Frenchman; never will he consent to dishonour his military career. I consequently beseech your Highness to entrust some one else with this message." At these words the venerable pastor bowed and departed, leaving the Prince astonished and confused at having proposed in vain this piece of meanness. Nevertheless, his Highness was not discouraged. On the 3d of June, he despatched General Vacquant to me, with a flag of truce, to demand of me in the name of the King of France the surrender of Strasburg. In order to inspire more confidence, the Austrian officer wore an enormous white ribband and the decoration of the lily. I asked him whether he came from the King; he replied that he did not. "Well then," I said to him, "I will not give up the place till my soldiers shall have eaten the thighs of Austrians, as those I had at Dantzic ate those of Russians." Importuned by the insignificant communications which the commander of the allied forces was every day sending me, I endeavoured to penetrate into his motives. With this object a general reconnoissance was made on the 6th on the Austrian positions. Our soldiers took some posts of cavalry, cut others to pieces, and returned to the camp, after having made all the enemy's army get under arms.
Having heard, two days after, a heavy cannonade in the direction of Phalzburg, I resolved to make a second reconnoissance, as well to make myself precisely acquainted with the forces that I had before me, as to hinder the Prince of Wurtemburg from detaching troops against that place. Albert's division and the cavalry marched against the entrenched camp, which the Austrians had formed all the way from the strong position of Oberhausbergen to Hiderhausbergen. The attack commenced at three o'clock in the morning: it was impetuous, and crowned with the most complete success. The enemy's cavalry were repulsed and put to flight by the brigade of General Grouvel; the principal villages were taken at the point of the bayonet, and the entrenchments carried by force. Several officers were taken in their beds, and others at the very moment they were rushing to arms. Some generals escaped in their shirts, and owed their safety only to the darkness which protected them.
The 10th light infantry, commanded by the gallant Colonel Cretté, displayed in this affair the same valour as at the battle of the 28th. The 18th, under the orders of Colonel Voyrol, one of the most intrepid officers in the French army, made itself master of the village of Mittelhausbergen, where he withstood for a long time numerous forces, and incessant attacks on every point.
The signal for retreat having been given, General Albert ordered the 57th to form in echelon towards the attack on the right, and the 32d towards that on the left. We retired in the best order. The enemy endeavoured to disturb us; he attacked our troops. The 57th received him without wavering, and opened a fire at musquet-length which disorganized his columns. Twice the allied cavalry returned to the charge, twice was it repulsed with loss. General Laroche, who led it on, was wounded, and fell under the feet of the horses; he would have perished if the French had not come to his assistance. "Friends," cried he, "I once served in your ranks, save me." He was immediately taken up, and restored to his own men. A troop of cuirassiers had nearly surprised the 18th in its retrograde movement, but the chief of the staff, Colonel Schneider, having skilfully opposed to it a battalion that he had by him, broke their shock, and saved the regiment from an inevitable defeat.
The Allies, convinced that they could not succeed in cutting us off, left us peaceably to continue our march. Our troops returned to their camp, after having accurately ascertained the immense superiority of the forces that they had to contend with. Both parties entered into cantonments. A military convention was signed a few days afterwards, and hostilities ceased throughout all Alsace.
CHAPTER XLVIII.
Inactivity soon engendered sedition. Other armies, other corps, which had not the excuse of being misled by a political combination, had trampled under foot military discipline. Is it strange that, in the midst of the general effervescence, my soldiers should for a moment have forgotten themselves? this episode is painful to me. I ought neither to write it, nor omit it. I can well bear the blame which Joubert, Massena, and so many other Generals, whom I do not pretend to equal, have incurred. The following are the terms in which this act of disobedience is related by an anonymous writer:—he has not thought proper to tell every thing, but it is my own conduct that is concerned; I must imitate his reserve. I submit, moreover, to the judgment which he has delivered.
"The Austrians, despairing of ever getting possession of Strasburg by force of arms, endeavoured to form an understanding with a party in the town. They succeeded by their sagacity in the application of the two means which act the most powerfully on the heart of men—gold and terror. They decoyed some by the attraction of riches, they subdued others by making them dread the vengeance of the government. When they were in this manner assured of all those whom they thought open to seduction, they hastened to execute their perfidious designs.