Wolf Hunt (26 page)

‘There’s something I can’t grasp,’ said Margont worriedly. ‘If we're to the north-east of the left wing ... who exactly is the left wing?’ ‘Boudet,’ replied Saber.

Margont, Lefine and Piquebois looked at him in consternation. ‘Surely there must be other divisions ...’ said Lefine.

When they looked towards the south-west they could indeed only see Boudet’s division, a minuscule dark blue rectangle surrounded by the immense golden blanket of ripe corn that no peasant had come to harvest. Whereas looking towards the centre, they could make out a stupefying conglomeration of troops. The regiments were stacked one against the other. Column succeeded column, blue rectangle succeeded blue rectangle, lines of cuirassiers glinted in the sun, batteries were positioning themselves ... Compared to these masses, Boudet’s division appeared derisory, a little stone fallen by accident from Napoleon’s pocket. ‘It’s bait designed to attract a very large Austrian fish,’ explained Saber. ‘But if the fish is hungry and if he struggles, he will swallow everything ...’

Should Boudet’s division get into difficulties, there was every chance that the Legrand Division, the closest unit, would be sent to help them out. Margont realised that after having been unwitting bait in Relmyer’s trap, he now found himself bait once again, this time in Napoleon’s trap ...

Massena was being carried in a barouche, having been injured a few days earlier in a fall from his horse. His carriage, pulled by four white horses, attracted round shot that missed the marshal but felled the members of his general staff one by one. Massena had come to supervise the assault on the village of Aderklaa. He launched the Carra Saint-Cyr Division, which did indeed succeed in taking over the village. Bernadotte’s Saxons supported it on the right. But the soldiers of Carra Saint-Cyr, galvanised by their success, passed on from Aderklaa and flung themselves on Belle-garde’s Austrians, whereupon they were decimated by horrifying fire power. Archduke Charles arrived to lead a counterattack and the Austrians retook the village. The Saxons were in the process of withdrawing when the enemy light cavalry charged them. Under the nose of the appalled Marshal Bernadotte, the majority of IX Saxon Corps disintegrated into a mass of fleeing men. Napoleon, who had hurried to the right flank to try to avert disaster, crossed the battlefield in the opposite direction, trying to rally the fleeing and demoralised Saxons.

Margont was facing his company to make sure they were correctly aligned. He saw with astonishment dozens of faces registering horror. He turned round to see a knot of soldiers in flight. It was a frightening rout. Saxons, French and Hessians were running until they were out of breath, barging into each other. This wave was hurrying towards the Legrand Division. Lefine looked at this spectacle, unable to take it in, as if it were a vast optical illusion.

‘Well, we’re not ready to play “Victory Is Ours” he murmured. ‘Don’t panic! Close ranks!’ exclaimed Margont.

Everywhere, officers were giving similar orders. If the Legrand Division did not manage to stay in battle order, the Austrians would attack it in its turn.

Piquebois, who considered himself rather dashing playing the role of the wounded soldier bravely preparing to enter battle again, a role he supplemented with an entirely unnecessary cane, shouted: ‘Don’t worry, the 8th Hussars are in the vicinity! I was one of them; they’re a fiercesome bunch! I’ll break my cane over the head of the first man to run for it!’

Saber was even more vindictive.

‘We don’t need the Saxons! They’re traitors! I’m sure they did it on purpose because they’re hand in glove with the Austrians! We’ll have them shot after the victory.’

But the ranks broke up anyway, undulating and fusing together ...

the formation becoming more and more confused. The recruits were no longer listening to anything. Many had practically never fought. Up until now, they had imagined that battles took place in an orderly fashion; that Napoleon understood the situation in a single glance, clicked his fingers to make the soldiers advance and a great victory was immediately won. This debacle alarmed them. They had the impression that it was the entire Grande Armée that was fleeing and they certainly did not want to be the last to have stayed in place ...

Margont saw his company subsiding in on itself as if squeezed by gigantic invisible hands. It was like a child curling up into a ball. ‘Stay calm! Close up,’ he repeated, while the first fugitives ran past him.

Major Materre suddenly appeared at full gallop, and pulled on his reins. His horse pirouetted, finally stopped, and snorted. The superior officer was outraged.

‘Captain Margont, keep control of your company! You’re causing chaos!’

The major immediately departed again, which worried the infantry still further. The bulk of the fleeing soldiers was now almost upon them and as they could not go round the Legrand Division, they struck through the middle, barging through the ranks, knocking over the aligned infantry, who took advantage of the chaos to join them ... The fugitives were like a hailstorm carrying away fragments of the formation. Officers hit them with the flat of their sabres to frighten them and oblige them to stop. The entire division began to retreat in a gigantic mass, carried gradually away by the flood.

Saber hurried over to Margont. ‘Has someone given the order to retreat? Must we stay in position or should we pull back?’

‘What do I know?’

General Legrand’s seven thousand men were moving backwards at a growing pace. Loud detonations could be heard, coming more and more quickly until they turned into a continuous roar. Belle-garde’s Austrians had installed batteries in front of the village of Aderklaa and were bombarding the French at point-blank range.

The round shot decimated the lines of infantry, causing horrifying gaps. Now the Legrand Division resembled a gigantic creature from which the Austrian artillery was tearing lumps of flesh. A ball ricocheted past Margont and landed on his company, scything off a series of legs. Margont froze, petrified, and then mechanically followed his retreating men.

‘Close ranks!’ he shouted, his mind focused on one thing: if the division did not stay packed closely together, it would be exterminated.

The left flank and the left of the French centre were on the brink of collapse. Bellegarde’s I Corps and the élite Liechtenstein Corps would have been able to launch a massive attack on that weakened part of the French army. But Archduke Charles was a prudent strategist. He insisted that a corps should only advance after he was certain that it could stay linked to its neighbouring corps, so as to avoid leaving any breaches in their line. Bellegarde therefore waited for the arrival of Kolowrat’s III Corps on his right, before acting. But Kolowrat still had several miles to cover because he

was positioned too far west, the Archduke having thought that Napoleon would choose the same battlefield as he had used in May.

Napoleon profited from this relative respite. He went to the menaced zone and succeeded in rallying some of the fleeing soldiers. He immediately sent the remains of the Saxon regiments to the centre of his arrangement - the safest position - so that they could regain their confidence. The Legrand and Carra Saint-Cyr Divisions stopped retreating and began to re-establish themselves for battle. Nansouty’s cuirassiers, come to reinforce these divisions, offered protection. Napoleon was therefore present for an impressive spectacle. The enemy right wing finally began to act, after having been delayed by the slow working of the Austrian army mechanism. Kolowrat’s sixteen thousand men started to attack the north-east of the French left flank, while Klenau’s fourteen thousand soldiers of VI Corps marched against the south-west, defended only by Boudet’s division and the heavy artillery of the Isle of Lobau. The noise of the long, wide white columns advancing was deafening. They streaked the plain in perfectly ordered lines.

It was both good and catastrophic news for Napoleon. Good news because the Austrians were falling into his trap. Catastrophic because, with the poor state of the left flank and the left part of the centre, it could be considered that in fact it was the French who were falling into their own snare. A race against time began: Napoleon had to smash the Austrian centre before his adversaries could sweep away his left flank.

Napoleon ordered the methodical Marshal Davout, commander of the right wing, who had just repulsed the assault by Rosenberg’s Austrians, to attack the enemy left flank. Davout was to take the village of Markgrafneusiedl, situated at the end of the plateau of Wagram. General Oudinot received the order to attack the enemy centre. Multitudes of blue troops surged forward while multicoloured cavalry charged. The French went at it furiously, as did the Austrians. Both front lines were constantly reinforced, devouring regiments at a pace impossible to grasp.

On the left, the danger was increasing. Boudet’s division, overcome and still retreating, nevertheless tried to stem as much as possible the flow of Austrians along the bank of the Danube. General Boudet had wanted to entrench in Aspern, but Wallmod-en’s hussars had just massacred his gunners and had taken his fourteen cannon. He had therefore been forced to evacuate the village using sabre blows as defence ... Instead of sending reinforcements to his left, Napoleon had chosen to save his reserve infantry to use later to exploit an eventual breach of the Austrian centre. So he improvised another solution: Massena’s IV Corps was going to form a marching column and descend to the southwest to stop Klenau’s VI Corps. The problem was that in manoeuvring in this way, Massena first had to turn his back on the Austrian I Corps under Bellegarde, and the élite Liechtenstein Corps. Then he would expose his flank to Kolowrat’s III Corps before finally arriving level with the villages of Aspern and Essling, near the Danube, to confront Klenau. This five-mile march down the French left flank was likely to be extremely dangerous. To try to protect this manoeuvre Napoleon decided to use the cavalry and the artillery instead of infantry, which was most unusual in this type of movement. Lasalle’s light cavalry, Nansouty’s heavy cavalry and the cavalry of the Guard charged the Austrians intent on immobilising them. General Lauriston, who commanded the artillery of the Guard, was commanded to form a giant battery. He assembled all the pieces of artillery he could find - those of the Guard, of Prince Eugene and of the Bavarians under General de Wrede - and began to place the hundred and twelve cannon in a mile-long line along the north-east of the left flank, replacing Massena’s troops, who were about to depart. Over and above that, Napoleon gave the order to retake the village of Aderklaa. Moli-tor’s division, part of Massena’s IV Corps, succeeded in taking it. But it was clear that they would not keep it because the Austrians would try everything to recapture it. Aderklaa must hold out as long as possible in order to occupy the efforts of the troops of Bellegarde and Liechtenstein. In fact that village would serve as a lightning conductor to protect the back of IV Corps.

The majority of Massena’s corps therefore formed into a column.

Then the superior officers ordered, ‘Column, head left.’ This enormous formation of twenty thousand men began to march south-westwards. The new recruits were worried.

Margont was at the head of his company, sword in hand.

‘Where are we going?’ wondered Saber aloud. ‘And if we leave, who will make up the north of the left wing?’

In the ranks, the infantry exchanged appalled looks or questioned the non-commissioned officers.

‘Are we retreating, Sergeant?’ a conscript asked Lefine.

‘Everything’s all right! Everything’s going to plan,’ Lefine assured him.

An Austrian battery thundered in the south, near the Danube. ‘We’re encircled!’ yelled a fusilier.

‘The little Corsican is defeated!’ another one yelled louder.

The order of the companies changed again. The infantry speeded up; entire lines collided ... Sergeants and captains hurried to restore cohesion. Massena’s giant column resembled a house of cards on the point of collapse.

Margont trampled the fields of golden corn, hiding his anxiety. There were Austrians massed at his back, all along his right and facing him, in the south-west. He could see enemy columns all around like giant white worms rampaging across the plain towards them to devour them. The Austrian right wing was vastly superior in number to them and they had practically not fought at all.

‘Slow down, Corporal Pelain!’ he exclaimed for the fifth time, for his company had a tendency to catch up the company in front.

In reply came overhead whistles, and explosions rang out on all sides. A shell exploded in the middle of his company, throwing broken bodies into the air. The round shot plundered the rows of soldiers, like black bowling balls knocking over a line of skittles ... The survivors, spattered with human debris, stepped over mutilated bodies as they battled through the palls of smoke. Incandescent flashes ignited fires and these infernos burnt alive the wounded, unable to move. In spite of the unbearable sights around them, the formation had to stay together at all costs to intimidate the Austrians and keep them at bay.

Margont, ashen-faced, shouted: ‘Close ranks! Keep in line! Realign yourselves!’

Hundreds of other voices repeated the same instructions all along the column, in an endless echo interrupted by explosions and by the cries of the wounded.

The giant battery was not yet ready to support Massena’s IV Corps. The gun carriages were hurrying to their positions where the artillery busied themselves like ants around their guns to ready them for action. There was one cannon every twenty paces, over a mile stretch. Nothing like it had ever been seen before.

Massena decided to launch his light cavalry against the enemy, to prevent them from attacking his flank and finishing off the troops decimated by the round shot. To charge an enemy army aligned in battle order was not what hussars and mounted chasseurs usually did. Normally they were used for reconnaissance, for harassing the enemy and pursuing them when they were in retreat. But Massena only had Lasalle and Marulaz’s light cavalry at his disposal. These two thousand combatants launched themselves at the sixteen thousand men of Kolowrat’s III Corps.