lve hundred other wounded men, escorted by
a regiment of Cuirassiers. I was weak and unable to walk. The fever of my
wound had reduced me to a skeleton; but I was consoled for every thing by
knowing that I was a captain on the Emperor's own staff, and decorated by
himself with the Cross of "the Legion." Nor were these my only
distinctions, for my name had been included among the lists of the
"Officiers d'Elite;" a new institution of the Emperor, enjoying
considerable privileges and increase of pay.

To this latter elevation, too, I owed my handsome quarters in the "Raab"
Palace at Vienna, and the sentry at my door, like that of a field officer.
Fortune, indeed, began to smile upon me, and never are her flatteries more
welcome than in the first hours of returning health, after a long
sickness. I was visited by the first men of the army; marshals and
generals figured among the names of my intimates, and invitations flowed
in upon me from all that were distinguished by rank and station.

Vienna, at that period, presented few features of a city occupied by an
enemy. The guards, it is true, on all arsenals and forts, were French, and
the gates were held by them; but there was no interruption to the course
of trade and commerce. The theatres were open every night, and balls and
receptions went on with only redoubled frequency. Unlike his policy toward
Russia, Napoleon abstained from all that might humiliate the Austrians.
Every possible concession was made to their national tastes and feelings,
and officers of all ranks in the French army were strictly enjoined to
observe a conduct of conciliation and civility on every occasion of
intercourse with the citizens. Few general orders could be more palatable
to Frenchmen, and they set about the task of cultivating the good esteem
of the Viennese with a most honest desire for success. Accident, too,
aided their efforts not a little; for it chanced that a short time before
the battle of Aspern, the city had been garrisoned by Croat and Wallachian
regiments, whose officers, scarcely half civilized, and with all the
brutal ferocity of barbarian tribes, were most favorably supplanted by
Frenchmen, in the best of possible tempers with themselves and the world.

It might be argued, that the Austrians would have shown more patriotism in
holding themselves aloof, and avoiding all interchange of civilities with
their conquerors. Perhaps, too, this line of conduct would have prevailed
to a