r-some, abandoning positions when successful defence was
possible; others, obstinately holding their ground when destruction was
inevitable. Few prisoners were taken; indeed, I believe, quarter was
little thought of by either side. The terrible excitement had raised
men's passions to the pitch of madness, and each fought with all the
animosity of hate.

Massena was always in the front, and, as was his custom, comporting
himself with a calm steadiness that he rarely displayed in the common
occurrences of everyday life. Like the English Picton, the crash and
thunder of conflict seemed to soothe and assuage the asperities of an
irritable temper, and his mind appeared to find a congenial sphere in
the turmoil and din of battle. The awkward attempt of a French
squadron to gallop in a deep marsh, where men and horses were rolling
indiscriminately together, actually gave him a hearty fit of laughter,
and he issued his orders for their recall, as though the occurrence
were a good joke. It was while observing this incident, that an orderly
delivered into his hands some maps and papers that had just been
captured from the fourgon of a staff-officer. Turning them rapidly over,
Massena chanced upon the plan of a bridge, with marks indicative of
points of defence at either side of it, and the arrangements for mining
it if necessary. It was too long to represent the bridge of Moosburg,
and must probably mean that of Landshut; and so thinking, and deeming
that its possession might be important to the Emperor, he ordered me to
take a fresh horse, and hasten with it to the headquarters. The orders I
received were vague enough.

'You 'll come up with the advance guard some eight or nine miles to the
northward; you 'll chance upon some of the columns near Fleisheim.'

Such were the hurried directions I obtained, in the midst of the
smoke and din of a battle; but it was no time to ask for more precise
instructions, and away I went.

In less than twenty minutes' sharp riding I found myself in a little
valley, inclosed by low hills, and watered by a small tributary of the
Danube, along whose banks cottages were studded in the midst of what
seemed one great orchard, since for miles the white and pink blossoms of
fruit-trees were to be seen extending. The peasants were at work in
the fields, and oxen were toiling along with the heavy waggons, or the
scarcely less cumbersome plough, as peacefully as though bloodshed and
carnage were not wit