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"At length!" exclaimed the Archduke John, joyously, holding up the letter which a courier of the generalissimo had just brought him from the headquarters of Wagram. "At length a decisive blow is to be struck. Count Nugent, General Frimont, come in here! A courier from the generalissimo!" So saying, the archduke had opened the door of his cabinet, and called the gentlemen who were in the anteroom.
Large drops of sweat stood on the archduke's forehead while he was listening to this report; his eyes filled with tears of indignation and anger; his lips quivered, and he lifted his eyes reproachfully to heaven. Then he turned slowly to General Frimont, who was halting by his side, and behind whom were to be seen the gloomy, mournful faces of the other officers.
We will, therefore, form a pontoon-bridge to-day, and make a sortie from the TETE-DE-PONT. You, General Frimont, will order up the batteries from Comorn. You, General Nugent, will inform the Archduke Palatine of the generalissimo's orders. Write him also that it is positive that the enemy is moving all his troops to Vienna, and that all his columns are already on the march thither.
"And our troops do not try to prevent this by all means!" cried General Frimont, vehemently. "They allow the enemy to build bridges? They look on quietly while the enemy is preparing to leave the island, and do not prevent him from so doing?"
A fresh Austrian army under Frimont advanced from Italy as far as Lyons. On the 17th of July, Napoleon surrendered himself in the bay of Rochefort to the English, whose ships prevented his escape; he moreover preferred falling into their hands than into those of the Prussians. The whole of France submitted to the triumphant allies, and Louis XVIII. was reinstated on his throne.
He demanded that the Archduke John should set out at once, leave only troops enough to hold the TET-DE-PONT, and hasten up with the remainder of his forces to the scene of action. When the archduke real this order, a bitter smile played round his lips. "See," he said, mournfully, to General Frimont, "now I am needed all at once, and it seems as if the battle cannot be gained without us.
This example was shortly afterward followed by the Neapolitans, who were also dissatisfied with the conduct of their sovereign. Prince Metternich instantly brought about a congress at Troppau. The new congress held at Laibach, in 1821, was followed by the entrance of the Austrians under Frimont into Italy.
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