was claimed; and with equal injustice.  But the situation of the French Emperor was imminently hazardous:  he was separated from Davoust and his reserve; and had the enemy either attacked him in the islands, or passed the river higher up, and so overwhelmed Davoust and relieved Vienna, the results might have been fatal.  But the Archduke’s loss in these two days had been great; and, in place of risking any offensive movement, he contented himself with strengthening the position of Asperne and Essling, and awaiting quietly the moment when his enemy should choose to attempt once more the passage to the left bank, and the re-occupation of these hardly contested villages.

Napoleon availed himself of this pause with his usual skill.  That he had been checked was true, and that the news would be heard with enthusiasm through Germany he well knew.  It was necessary to revive the tarnished magic of his name by another decisive battle:  and he made every exertion to prepare for it.  Some weeks, however, elapsed ere he ventured to resume the offensive.  On the 4th of July he had at last re-established thoroughly his communication with the right bank, and arranged the means of passing to the left at a point where the Archduke had made hardly any preparation for receiving him.  The Austrians, having rashly calculated that Asperne and Essling must needs be the objects of the next contest as of the preceding, were taken almost unawares by his appearance in another quarter.  They changed their line on the instant; and occupied a position, the centre and key of which was the little town of Wagram.

Here, on the 6th of July, the final and decisive battle was fought.  The Archduke had extended his line over too wide a space; and this old error enabled Napoleon to ruin him by his old device of pouring the full shock of his strength on the centre.  The action was long and bloody:  at its close there remained 20,000 prisoners, besides all the artillery and baggage, in the hands of Napoleon.  The Archduke fled in great confusion as far as Znaim, in Moravia.  The Imperial Council perceived that further resistance was vain:  an armistice was agreed to at Znaim; and Napoleon, returning to Schoenbrunn, continued occupied with the negotiation until October.

In this fierce campaign none more distinguished himself than Lannes, Duke of Montebello.  At Ratisbonne he headed in person the storming party, exclaiming, “Soldiers, your general has not forgotten that he was once a grenadier.”  At the battle of Asperne his exertions were extraordinary.  He was struck, towards the close of the day, by a cannon-shot, which carried off both his legs.  The surgeons, on examining the wound, declared it mortal.  He answered them with angry imprecations, and called with frantic vehemence for the Emperor.  Napoleon came up, and witnessed the agonies of the dying marshal, who blasphemed heaven and earth that he should be denied to see the end of the campaign.  Thus fell Lannes, whom, for his romantic valour, the French soldiery delighted to call the Roland of the camp.