THE RUSSIAN GUARD COME UP
Vandamme was in the middle of the move when one of his brigades met with a sudden and unexpected disaster. Two battalions belonging to the 24th Light Infantry and the 4th of the Line, who fought side by side on the extreme left of Vandamme’s command, were all but annihilated. As they were wheeling round, the Russian Imperial Guard came up, hurrying forward from the Reserve, and set on them fiercely. It was just to the left of the village of Pratzen, as approached from the French side, on the farther side of the plateau. The Russian Foot Guards forced the 4th and the 24th Light Infantry back into some vineyards adjoining the village in disorder. The last to retire was the First Battalion of the 4th. They had hardly gained the edge of the tract of vineyards, when, without the least warning of their approach, coming up on their flank and unseen in the smoke and turmoil of the contest, a more formidable enemy still assailed them. The Russian Cuirassiers of the Guard, 2,000 horsemen, troopers of the finest cavalry in the world, came down on them, and charged them at a gallop on the flank. The Grand Duke Constantine, brother of the Czar, in person led the Cuirassiers. Disaster, hideous, overwhelming, crushing, for the two hapless battalions—that of the 24th Light Infantry was, in like manner, caught just beyond cover exposed in the open—was the instant result. They tried to form square at the last moment, but the Cuirassiers were on them before they could begin the evolution. Both battalions were practically hurled out of existence within three minutes.
HOW ONE EAGLE MET ITS FATE
They were ridden down, trampled on by the huge Russian horses, and slashed to pieces mercilessly by the giant Russian troopers with their long straight swords. Both battalions lost their Eagles. That of the 24th Light Infantry was picked up later on the field and restored to what was left of the ill-fated corps. The Eagle of the 4th was carried off by the Russians, and is now in the Kazan Cathedral at St. Petersburg. Yet it was lost with honour; bravely defended to the last. The Eagle-bearer was cut down. A lieutenant tried to get hold of the Eagle and save it; he, too, was cut down. A private then snatched it from the dead officer’s hands, and was in the act of waving it on high when he in turn was sabred and fell. The Russians made prize of the trophy at once, and it was carried direct to the Czar Alexander on the battlefield.
Napoleon, who had moved up near the fighting in the centre, witnessed the disaster with his own eyes.
The corps, as it happened, too, was one he had taken an interest in. The 4th of the Line had been in favour with him, and he had appointed his brother Joseph as its colonel when the 4th was at the Camp of Boulogne as part of the “Army of England.” He had, indeed, specially chosen that particular corps for its steadiness. He announced Joseph’s appointment to it in a message to the Senate on April 18, 1804, “in order that he should be allowed to contribute to the vengeance which the French people propose to take for the violation of the Treaty [of Amiens] and be afforded an opportunity of acquiring a fresh title to the esteem of the nation.”
In wild panic the survivors of the disaster fled to the rear, tearing by close past where Napoleon and the Staff were. “They almost rushed over us and the Emperor himself,” describes De Ségur, who as an aide de camp was close to the Emperor at the moment. “Our effort to arrest the rout was in vain. The unfortunate fellows were quite distracted with fear and would listen to nothing. In reply to our reproaches for so deserting the field of battle and their Emperor, they shouted mechanically ‘Vive l’Empereur!’ and they fled away faster than ever.
“Napoleon smiled pitifully. With a scornful gesture, he said to us: ‘Let them go!’ Retaining all his calmness in the midst of the confusion he despatched Rapp to bring up the Cavalry of the Guard.”
Rapp, another of the Imperial aides de camp, was also Colonel of the Mamelukes of the Guard. He was at the moment riding close behind the Emperor. Rapp darted off, and, after taking Napoleon’s order to charge the Russian Cuirassiers to Marshal Bessières, in command of the Cavalry of the Guard, he himself led their headmost squadrons forward; his own swarthy Mamelukes with two squadrons of Chasseurs and one of Horse Grenadiers. Waving his sabre and calling at the top of his voice, “Vengeons les! Vengeons nos drapeaux!” “Avenge them! Avenge our standards!” he led them forward at full gallop. “We dashed at full speed on the artillery and took them,” described Rapp in a letter. The guns were those of a Russian battery which had just come into action close by where the Guard Cuirassiers had charged. “The enemy’s horse awaited our attack at the halt. They were overthrown by the charge and fled in confusion, galloping like us over the wrecks of our squares.”
“WE FOUGHT MAN TO MAN”