Part 12 (1/2)
The worst of the journey was over; so, in spite of the snow and bitter cold, I reached Basle and then Heningue, where the 7th Corps was stationed, on the 19th October The next day we began to cross the Rhine over a bridge of boats built for that purpose; for although there was, less than half a league away in the town of Basle, a stone bridge, the Eereau to respect the neutrality of Switzerland, a neutrality which they thee to the enemies of France in 1814
Here I was then, involved once more in a war It was now 1805, a year which forseries of battles which lasted continuously for ten years, for it did not end until ten years later at Waterloo However nuht be, nearly all French soldiers enjoyed one or even several years of respite, either because they were in a garrison in France, or they were stationed in Italy or Germany ere at ith Spain; but, as you will see, this did not happen to me; I was continually sent from north to south, and south to north, everywhere where there was fighting I did not spend a single one of these ten years without con country
I do not intend to give, here, a detailed account of the ca the principal events
The Russians, ereto the aid of Austria, were still far ahen Field-hty thousand men, advanced, unwisely, into Bavaria, where he was defeated by Napoleon, who forced him to retreat to the fortress of Ulreater part of his army, of which only two corps escaped the disaster
One of these, coed to reach Bohemia; the other, commanded by the elderly Field- near Lake Constance, where, flanked by neutral Switzerland, it guarded the narrow passes of the Black Forest It was these troops which Marshal Augereau was about to attack
After crossing the Rhine at Huningue, 7th Corps found itself in the country of Baden, whose sovereign, along with those of Bavaria and Wurte, had just concluded an alliance with Napoleon; so ere received as friends by the population of Brisgau Field-marshal Jellachich had not dared to oppose the French in such open country, but awaited us beyond Freiburg, at the entrance to the Black Forest, the passage through which he expected us to effect only at the cost of much bloodshed Above all, he hoped to stop us at the Val d'Enfer, a very long and narrow pass, dominated on both sides by sheer cliffs, and easy to defend But the men of 7th Corps had now heard of the successes achieved by their comrades at Ulm and in Bavaria, and anxious to eh the Black Forest with such elan that they crossed through it in three days, in spite of the natural obstacles, the ene food in this dreadful wilderness The army finally broke out into fertile country and en, a very pleasant tohere there is the nificent chateau of the ancient line of the princes of Furstenburg
The marshal and his aides-de-camp were billeted in the chateau, in the courtyard of which is the source of the Danube; this great river demonstrates its power at the moment of its birth, for at the spot where it issues froht-horses for the guns and the supply wagons had been greatly fatigued by the passage through the rough andof frost had ive the which period the Austrian cavalry came from time to tiues from the town; but this amounted to no ave us so, and allowed us to learn to recognise the various uniforms of the enemy
I saw, for the first tioons and Blankenstein's Hussars
The horses having recovered their strength, the army continued its een and Stockach
Although I was very much involved in these various actions, I had only one accident, which, however, round was covered by snow, particularly round Stockach, where the enemy defended their position fiercely The o and reconnoitre a spot to which he wanted to direct a coluround looked tohidden all the hollows, but suddenly ully, up to our necks in snoas trying to get out, when two enee and fired their muskets at me Fortunately, the snohichabout prevented the an accurate aim, and I came to no harm; but they were about to fire once ereau had sent to my aid, forced theet out of the ravine, but we had a great deal of difficulty in extricating h at the strange appearance I presented after ained control of the Vorarlberg, we captured Bregen,and drove Jellachich's Austrian corps to Lake Constance and the Tyrol The eneht the protection of the fortress of Feldkirch and its celebrated gorge, behind which they could defend theht a murderous battle to take this position when, to our astonishment, the Austrians offered to capitulate, an offer which Marshal Augereau was quick to accept
During thebetween the two marshals, the Austrian officers, humiliated by the reverse which their ar us some very bad nehich had been concealed up till this day, but which the Russians and Austrians had learned of frolish sources The Franco-Spanish fleet had been defeated by Lord Nelson on October 20th not far froar Villeneuve, our infelicitous admiral, who had failed to carry out the precise orders of Napoleon at a time when the appearance of a coe for the troops asse that he was about to be replaced by Admiral Rosily, passed suddenly from an excess of circued in a battle which, had it turned out in our favour, would have been virtually useless, since the French are of such a success to ehting in Gerle, the fleets of France and Spain had been defeated by that of England, whose adrave a reputation as the finest seaon, a very fine officer One of our vessels blew up; seventeen, as many French as Spanish, were captured A severe storht and the days following, and was on the verge of overwhellish, concerned for their own safety, were forced to abandon nearly all the shi+ps which they had captured from us; which were mostly taken back to Cadiz by the reh so this battle that my excellent friend France d'Houdetot received a wound to his thigh which has left him with a limp D'Houdetot, scarcely out of childhood was a naval cadet, and attached to the staff of Adon, a friend of my father After the death of the adesiras,” in which he served, was captured after a bloody encounter, and the English placed on board a prize crew of sixty lish fleet, and the prize crew realised that it was very unlikely that they could reach England, so they agreed to allow the French seamen to take the shi+p into Cadiz, with the stipulation that they would not be held as prisoners of war The French flag was hoisted to identify the shi+p and the badly dareat difficulty The shi+p which bore Admiral Villeneuve was captured and the unlucky adland, where he re been released on exchange, he decided to go to Paris, but, detained at Rennes, he comed to capitulate before the 7th French ar since, even if defeated by us, he had the option of retiring into the Tyrol which was behind hireatly attached to the house of Austria The thick snohich covered the country no doubt made movement difficult, but the difficulties presented would have been reater for us, enemies of Austria, than for the troops of Jellachich, withdrawing through an Austrian province However, if the old and hide-bound Field-n in winter, in the high mountains, his attitude was not shared by the officers under his command; for many of theainst his authority The most ardent of his opponents was General the Prince de Rohan, a French officer in the service of Austria, a bold and coht take the advice offered by the Prince and retreat into the Tyrol where pursuit would be alrant him all the conditions which he requested
The terms of the capitulation were that the Austrian troops should lay down their ars, standards, cannons and horses, but should not themselves be taken to France, and could withdraw to Boheainst France for one year
When he announced the capitulation in one of his army bulletins, the Emperor seemed a little disappointed that the Austrian soldiers had not been ed his ereau had nothe the day when the Austrians were to lay down their arainst Field- to accept the capitulation, left with his infantry division, and joined by soiments from other divisions, he fled into the ours of the season: then by an audacious march, he bypassed the cantonments of Marshal Ney's troops, who occupied the towns of the Tyrol, and arriving between Verona and Venice, he fell on the rear of the French army of Italy, while this force, co on the tail of Prince Charles, as retiring towards Friuli The arrival of the Prince de Rohan in Venetian territory, when Massena was already in the far distance, could have had thefrom Naples, under the command of General Saint-Cyr, defeated the Prince and took him prisoner He had, at least, sub that if Jellachich had been there with all his troops, the Austrians ht have defeated Saint-Cyr and opened a route for themselves back into Austria
When a force capitulates, it is customary for the victor to send to each division a staff officer to take charge, as it were, and to conduct it on the day and at the hour appointed to the place where it is to lay down its arms Those of my comrades ere sent to the Prince de Rohan were left behind by him in the camp which he quitted, for he carried out his retreat from an area behind the fortress of Feldkirch, and in a direction away fro stopped; but the Austrian cavalry were not in a similar situation They were in bivouac on a sround in front of Feldkirch, and opposite and a short distance froo to the Austrian cavalry and lead theeneral, but was comarian, brave and crafty, whose nahly of hireeable trick
On my arrival at the camp, the colonel had offered reed to set off at daybreak, to reach the spot indicated on the shore of Lake Constance, between the town of Bregenz and Lindau, at a distance of about three leagues I was ht, I heard the officerstheir horses I hurried out of the hut and saw that the squadrons were formed up and ready to move I asked the reason for this hasty departure, and the old colonel replied, with cool deceit, that Field- directed at the Austrian soldiers by the French, whose camp one would have to pass if one took the shortest route to the beach at Lindau,between the troops of the two nations
Jellachich, in consultation with Marshal Augereau, had ordered the Austrian troops to ht so that they would avoid our caanz, and would not come into contact with our soldiers He added that as the route was very long and the road bad, the two commanders had advanced the time of departure by some hours; he was surprised that I had not been inforested that the written instructions had been held up at the advance posts, owing to so; he carried this deception so far as to send an officer to look for this despatch, wherever it iven by the colonel of the Blankensteins sounded so convincing that I did not say anything, although ular; but, alone in the midst of three thousand enemy cavalry, what could I do? It was better to appear confident than to seeade As I was unaware of the flight of the Prince de Rohan's division, it did not enter my head that the commander of the cavalry intended to evade the capitulation I rode alongside hiements for the avoidance of the French camps--whose fires could be seen--so well that we did not pass near any of them But what the old colonel had not anticipated, and was unable to avoid, was an encounter with a flying patrol, which the French cavalry usually sent out into the countryside at night, some distance froe, and we found ourselves in the presence of a large coluht The Hungarian colonel, without see the least worried, said to me ”This is work for you, as an aide-de-camp; kindly come with me and explain the situation to the coave the pass-word, and found myself in the presence of the 7ththat the Austrian troops were expected for the laying down of arereau's aides, ade which I was conducting The French commander, whose troops had their sabres drawn, even took the trouble to have the between the two columns, which went on their way for some distance, side by side I closely questioned the officer in charge of the Chasseurs about the change in the ti at all about it, so which did not raise any suspicion in my mind, for I knew that an order of this kind would not be distributed by the staff down to regimental level So I continued to ride with the colonel for the rest of the night, finding, however that the detour erevery bad
At last, at daybreak, the old colonel, seeing a patch of level ground, said to h he would soon be obliged to hand over the horses of the three regiments to the French, he wished to care for the poor aniood condition; In consequence he had ordered that they should be given a feed of oats The brigade halted, formed up and dismounted; and when the horses had been tethered, the colonel, who alone reathered in a circle around hiing voice which made the old warrior seem quite superb, he announced that the Prince de Rohan's division, preferring honour to a sharaceful capitulation whereby Field-marshal Jellachich had pros and the arms of the Austrian troops, and had fled into the Tyrol; where he too would have led the brigade were it not for the fact that he feared that in that barren h fodder for so many horses But now they had open country in front of theained a lead of six leagues over the French troops, he invited all those who had truly Austrian hearts to follow him across Gerust sovereign, Francis II Blankenstein's Hussars responded to this speech by their colonel with a resounding cheer of approval; but Rosenberg's Dragoons and the Uhlans of Prince Charles h I did not yet know enough German to follow the colonel's words exactly, what I did understand, together with the tone of the orator and the position in which he found hiuess as afoot, and I can proh unwittingly, furthered the plans of this diabolical Hungarian
A fearful tumult now arose in the immense circle by which I was surrounded, and I was able to appreciate the inconvenience steamation of different peoples which makes up the Austrian Empire, and in consequence, the Austrian ararian; the Blankensteins therefore approved the proposal oons were Gerarian could make no nationalistic appeal to them, who, in this difficult situation listened only to their own officers; these officers declared that they thought themselves bound by the capitulation which Field-ned and did not wish, by their departure, to worsen his position or that of their comrades ere already the hands of the French, ould be within their rights to send them all back to France as prisoners of war, if a part of the Austrian forces violated the agreement To this the colonel replied that when the Commander-in-Chief of an army looses his head, fails in his duty and delivers his troops to the ene but their courage and their devotion to their country Then the colonel, brandishi+ng his sabre in one hand, while with the other he seized the regioons! Go!
Go! Yield to the French your dishonoured standards, and the arave us for his defence As for us, the bold Hussars, we are off to rejoin our sovereign, to e can once more shoith honour our unstained colours, and the swords of fearless soldiers!” Then, drawing close to oons, he added, ”I a Frenchman found himself in our position and had to choose between your conduct and eous course; for the French love honour and reputation as arian sheathed his sabre, dug in his spurs, and leading his regiallop, he careered into the distance, where he soon disappeared There was souarian seemed the more valid because it was in conformity with the interests of his country; I then secretly approved of his behaviour, but I could not, of course advise the Dragoons and Uhlans to follow his example; that would have been to step out of my role and fail in my duty I maintained a strict neutrality in this discussion, and when the Hussars had left, I asked the colonels of the other two regiments to follow me, and we took the road for Lindau
On the beach beside the lake, we found Marshals Augereau and Jellachich, as well as the French forces and the Austrian infantry regi fronise the capitulation, were heading for Moravia both ereau because he feared that these Hussars ht cause havoc in the rear of the French army, since the route which they would folloould take theh areas where the Emperor, in the course of hisstations full of wounded; artillery parks, etc But the Hungarian colonel did not think it was part of his duty to advertise his presence by any surprise attack, as he was only too anxious to get out of a country bristling with French ar always onrapidly at night, he ed to reach the frontier of Moravia without trouble, and joined an Austrian army corps which occupied the area
As for the troops who re laid down their ars and standards and handed over their horses, they became prisoners on parole for one year, and made off in dismal silence for the interior of Germany, to make their way sadly to Bohemia I remembered, when I saw them, the valiant words of the old colonel, and I think I saw on the faces of ret that they had not followed the old warrior, and an unhappiness when they compared the heroic position of the Blankensteins with their own hu the trophies which Jellachich's corps was forced to hand over were seventeen flags and two standards, which Marshal Augereau, as was usual, hastened to send to the Emperor, in the care of two aides-de-camp Major Massy and I were detailed for this task, and we left the saon containing the flags and standards, in the charge of an NCO
We headed for Vienna via Keues before this last town, following the banks of the Danube, we admired the superb Abbey of Molk, one of the richest in the world It was here, four years later that I ran the greatest danger, and earned the praise of the E performed before his eyes the finest feat of arms of my n of 1809