23 and leading them in one dark mass down the heights, moved midway into the low grounds to charge the advancing French. Vaudame brought forward his division to meet the shock. While he was thus engaged with this immense and picked body of soldiers, the Grand Duke put himself at the head of two thousand heavy-armed cuirassiers of the Guards, and burst in resistless strength on the flank of Vandame's division. The French column was rent asunder before it, and three battalions trampled under foot. Napoleon, who was advancing to reinforce Soult with the infantry of his Guard, saw from a height this overthrow, and exclaimed to Rapp, who was by his side, "They are in disorder yonder-that must be set to rights." The latter putting himself at the head of the Mamelukes and chasseurs of the Guard, cried out, "Soldiers, you see what has happened below there, they are sabreing our comrades; let us fly to their rescue.' Four pieces of horse artillery set off on a gallop in advance. The next moment those fiery horsemen were sweeping with headlong speed upon the Imperial Cavalry. A discharge of grape-shot swept through them thinning them sadly, but not for a moment arresting the charge. The shock was irresistible. Horse and horsemen rolled together on the plain. The white heron plumes of the Mamelukes and the shakos of the chasseurs swept like a vision through the overthrown ranks, and they were still pressing on even beyond the wreck of their own battalions which had just fallen, when the fresh horse guard of Alexander fell upon them. With their horses blown from the severe conflict they had been enduring, this new attack proved too much for them. The brave Morland, Colonel of the Chasseurs, was killed on the spot, and the two corps forced back. Napoleon, who had watched with the deepest anxiety this terrific meeting of the Imperial Guards, no sooner saw the check of Rapp and the overwhelming force bearing down upon him from the re-formed cuirassiers, than he ordered Bessieres, with the horse grenadiers, to charge. Not a moment was to be lost, the bugles rang forth the charge, and like a single man that living mass of disciplined valour went pouring CAVALRY CHARGE. forward to the strife. The steady gallop of their heavy horses shook the plain, and so accurate and regular was their swift movement, that they appeared like a dark and ponderous wave rolling onward. But the crest it bore was composed of glittering steel. Right gallantly was that tremendous onset received, and those vast bodies of cavalry, the elite of both armies, became mixed in a hand to hand fight. The firing of the infantry ceased, for the shot told on friend and foe alike. The soldiers rested on their arms and gazed with astonishment on that rearing, plunging mass from which was heard nought but fierce shouts and ringing steel as blade crossed blade in the fierce collision. The emperors of Russia and Germany on one height, and Napoleon on another, watched with indescribable anxiety this strange encounter between the flower of their troops. At length the Imperial Guard of the enemy gave way. The bugles of the Old Guard then rang cheerily out, and Vandame charging anew, infantry and cavalry were driven in disorder almost to the walls of Austerlitz. Their artillery and standards fell into the hands of the victors. Napoleon's joy was extreme on beholding this triumph of his Guard over that of the Russian emperor. 35 The two sovereigns had tried their last and heaviest blow, and had failed; and the battle, though unended, was already won. Napoleon had not merely defeated, he had routed and nearly annihilated, the combined armies, and the two emperors were fugitives on the field. This wonderful mind had thus in a few months ended the war. Never did his genius shine out in greater brilliancy. "The secrecy and rapidity of the march of so vast a body of troops across France; the semicircular process by which they interposed between Mack and the hereditary states and compelled the surrender of that unhappy chief with half his army; the precision with which nearly two hundred thousand men, converging from the shores of the channel the coasts of Brest, the marshes of Holland, and the banks of the Elbe, were made to arrive each at the hour appointed around the ramparts of Ulm, the swift advance on Vienna; the subsequent fan-like dispersion of the army to overawe the hereditary states; their sudden concentration for the decisive fight at Austerlitz; the skill displayed in that contest itself, and the admirable account to which he turned the fatal cross march of the allied sovereigns, are so many proofs of military ability never exceeded even in the annals of his previous triumphs." It is not to be supposed that in this great battle the action of the Imperiol Guard was confined to a cavalry charge. Napoleon found himself so inferior in numerical force, that he did not husband his Guard, as he afterwards did in Russia. He divided it up among different corps of the army, where they furnished an example during all that bloody day to the other troops, which made them irresistible. Pressing side by side with those bear-skin caps, they knew no repulse. In the previous battles the Guard had taken little part, and murmured grievously at their idleness; but at Austerlitz they were led into the thickest of the fight. Soult had under him ten battalions of the Guard; Oudinot and Davoust had ten battalions of the grenadiers; and wild work did they make under those chieftains, with the stubborn ranks of the enemy. Their artillery was served throughout the battle with terrible rapidity and precision. Forty guns were at the disposal of the Guard, and wherever immediate help was wanted, thither they were hurried, sending desolation through the hostile ranks. At the commencement of the battle, Napoleon retained near him only the cavalry of the Guard, the mounted chasseurs, the grenadiers, and Mamelukes. These were for a reserve, and were massed together, ranged in two lines, and by squadrons, and under the command of Bessieres and Rapp. Its light artillery, however, did fearful execution. It was everywhere belching forth fire. It was one of its batteries that played upon the frozen lake over which a column was endeavouring to pass, and breaking the ice with its shot, sunk two thousand in the water. It deployed with such rapidity, that its movements ap |