repulsed and fell back upon Lobau, between
which and the Vienna side of the Danube the bridge of boats had been
swept away by a rise of the river and by balks of timber floated down by
the Austrians. In this dangerous position he remained shut up for
several weeks. He finally succeeded in throwing across a light bridge by
which his army regained the left bank on the night of July 4. Finding
their position turned the Austrians took up their stand on the tableland
of Wagram. On July 6 another pitched battle was fought, which, in the
number of combatants engaged and in the losses inflicted on both sides,
must rank with the later conflicts of Borodino and Leipzig. A hard won
victory rested with the French, but it was not such a victory as that of
Austerlitz or Jena, though it secured the neutrality, at least, of
Austria for the next four years. Her army retreated into Bohemia, and on
July 12 an armistice was signed at Znaim in Moravia, which formed the
basis of a peace concluded at Vienna on October 14.

Nothing remained for Great Britain but to abandon the auxiliary
enterprise so long planned, but so often delayed, or to carry it through
independently, with little hope of a decisive issue. The latter
alternative was adopted. The very day on which the news of the armistice
arrived witnessed the departure of the greatest single armament ever
sent out fully equipped from the shores of Great Britain. The deplorable
failure of the Walcheren expedition has obscured both its magnitude and
its probable importance had it only proved successful. The command of
the fleet was given to Sir Richard Strachan, a competent admiral; that
of the army to Chatham, who sat in the cabinet as master-general of the
ordnance, an incompetent general, who owed his nomination to royal
favour. This was the first blunder; the second was the utter neglect of
medical and sanitary precautions against the notoriously unhealthy
climate of Walcheren in the autumn months. The armament sailed from the
Downs on July 28, in the finest weather and with a display of intense
national enthusiasm. It consisted of thirty-five ships of the line, with
a swarm of smaller war-vessels and transports, carrying nearly 40,000
troops, two battering-trains, and a complete apparatus of military
stores. Its destination, though more than suspected by the enemy, had
been officially kept secret at home. Castlereagh must be held largely
responsible for the delays and for the unwise ch