So desperate, indeed, did things look for the French at one time, a little before midnight, that some of his staff appealed to Mortier to make his escape and get across to the other side of the Danube in a boat, “so that a Marshal of France shall not fall into the hands of the enemy!”
But the gallant veteran flatly refused to listen to the proposal.
“No,” was his answer, “certainly not! I will not desert my brave comrades! I will save them or die with them! Keep the boats for the wounded,” he went on. “We have still two guns and some case-shot—rally and make a last effort!”
Almost immediately afterwards an opportunity did offer for the marshal to save them.
MARSHAL MORTIER.
A DASH IN THE DARK TO HELP
Two of Dupont’s regiments at that moment reached the battle. By persistent exertions, outstripping the rest of the Second Division, and continuing in the dark, guided by the flashes of the guns, they had made their way by a goat-path along the steep rocky slopes at the side of the defile and taken the Russians barring Mortier’s retreat in rear. Instantly the new arrivals flung themselves hotly into the fight. They were the 9th Light Infantry and the 32nd of the Line, that old favourite of Napoleon’s in the days of the Army of Italy, whose flag on the Eagle-staff bore, as has been said, the golden inscription which Napoleon had placed there—“J’étais tranquille, le brave 32me était là.”
The golden legend was of good omen for Mortier.
Their interposition put the Russian main force between two fires, weakening the attack on Mortier and compelling a portion of them to face about. Its effect was speedily felt, and at once; although a desperate effort by the two regiments to break through and join hands with Mortier, in which the Eagles of the 9th and 32nd were “taken and retaken,” was beaten back under pressure of numbers.