[496] "Asperne was ten times taken, lost, and again conquered. Essling, after repeated attacks, could not be maintained. At eleven at night the villages were in flames, and we remained masters of the field of battle. The most complete victory crowned our army."—Austrian Official Bulletin.—See Supplement to the London Gazette, 11th July.
[497] Tenth Bulletin of the French Army; Jomini, tom. iii., pp. 303, 214; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 82; Rapp, p. 123.
[498] Mémoires sur la Guerre de 1809.
[499] "The enemy had a complete view of our body in its whole extent; and contriving to fill with stones the largest boats they could find, they sent them down the current. This contrivance proved but too successful."—Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 85.
[500] "He twined himself round me with all he had left of life; he would hear of no one but me, he thought but of me, it was a kind of instinct."—Napoleon, Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 353. On the 31st May, Napoleon wrote to Josephine—"La perte Duc de Montebello, qui est mort ce matin, m'a fort affligé. Ainsi tout finit!! Si tu peux contribuer à consoler la pauvre Maréchale, fais-le."—Lettres à Joséphine, tom. ii., p. 67.
[501] "The Emperor perceived a litter coming from the field of battle, with Marshal Lannes stretched upon it. He ordered him to be carried to a retired spot, where they might be alone and uninterrupted: with his face bathed in tears, he approached and embraced his dying friend."—Savary, tom. ii., part i., p. 87.
[502] "The two arms of the Danube which traversed the island, and had hitherto been found dry, or at least fordable, had become dangerous torrents, requiring hanging bridges to be thrown over them. The Emperor crossed them in a skiff, having Berthier and myself in his company. When arrived on the bank of the Danube, the Emperor sat down under a tree, and, being joined by Massena, he formed a small council, in order to collect the opinion of those about him as to what had best be done under existing circumstances. Let the reader picture to himself the Emperor sitting between Massena and Berthier on the bank of the Danube, with the bridge in front, of which there scarcely remained any vestige, Davoust's corps on the other side of the broad river, and, behind, in the island of Lobau itself, the whole army separated from the enemy by a mere arm of the Danube, thirty or forty toises broad, and deprived of all means of extricating himself from this position, and he will admit that the lofty and powerful mind of the Emperor could alone be proof against discouragement."—Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 88.
[503] "Malevolence has delighted in representing the Emperor as of a mistrustful character; and yet on this occasion, where ill-intentioned men might have made any attempt upon his person, his only guard at headquarters was the Portuguese legion, which watched as carefully over him as the veterans of the army of Italy could have done."—Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 91.
[504] "General Bertrand, the Emperor's aide-de-camp, was the officer who executed this splendid work. He was one of the best engineer officers that France could boast of since the days of Vauban. The exhaustless arsenal of Vienna had supplied us with a profusion of timber, and also with cordage, iron, and with forty engines to drive the piles in."—Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 93.
[505] Nineteenth Bulletin of the French army; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 248; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 105.