Wolf Hunt

CHAPTER 32

ON 7 July Napoleon decided to let his army rest for the day. Detachments of hussars and mounted chasseurs harried the retreating Austrian army but came up against the Archduke’s cavalry. The Emperor wanted to pursue the enemy army, to break it up and encircle the isolated units one by one ... the pursuit had to be decisive in order to convert victory on the battlefield into total victory. The next day Napoleon would set all his troops to this task. The Grande Armée was in great confusion. Everywhere, soldiers were wandering about, isolated or in little groups, looking for their battalions. It would take hours to reorganise everyone, especially as it was hard to transmit orders. Numerous officers had been killed, interrupting the chain of command. This dysfunction generated misunderstandings and rumours. It was said that Massena’s IV Corps - which had lost twenty-five per cent of its soldiers - was going to be allowed to rest in Vienna. A few minutes later an aide-de-camp announced that it was to prepare for the pursuit.

Margont was in the village of Leopoldau to the south-west of the battlefield, taking stock of the state of his company. He had sent most of his able-bodied soldiers to collect the thousands of wounded who had not yet been tended to. Lefine was in an apathetic state, amazed still to be alive. He was sitting on a heap of rubble and, at his feet, dozens of infantrymen were asleep right there on the ground - they could have been dead. Behind him the village’s ruined houses threatened to collapse, so that Lefine looked like a petty king who had not yet realised that his kingdom was no more. Piquebois was supervising the distribution of cartridges. Gunners were gathered round an ammunitions wagon and were filling their cartridge pouches. The company needed an endless supply of bullets.

Saber was absolutely furious.

‘Unbelievable! Unbelievable! I’m still a lieutenant - not even promoted to captain! Not even that! The Austrians were obliterating our rear, our army was lost! Who was it who retook Essling? It was thanks to me! I led my company—’ ‘My company!’ corrected Margont.

‘I led our company in the charge that saved us all and will become legendary. I broke into Essling, and Klenau’s corps crumpled like an over-extended rope when someone lets go of one end. And how am I rewarded?’

‘More than thirty companies poured into Essling and its retrenchments ...’

Saber held up a finger to correct what he considered to be an important misrepresentation.

‘Ours was the first to get all the way through the village, all the others did was follow me in.’

Margont started to lose his temper. ‘You couldn’t see anything in all that smoke, so how can you say that?’

‘Only those following behind were blinded by the smoke. It was the smoke from our company firing at the front! Since our colonel refuses to make me a major, I’ll have to apply to his superior. To the general of the division. No, he would never go against the recommendations of one of his colonels. Has the Emperor been informed of my feat of arms? I demand to see the Emperor!’

After each confrontation, it was important to replace all the officers seriously wounded or killed in action as quickly as possible, so that the army could continue to function. It was traditional that heroics on the battlefield were rewarded by promotion, sometimes allowing soldiers to skip several ranks in one go. Saber would become more and more wound up as it became known that such and such had skipped captain, and so and so had skipped major

Margont caught sight of Relmyer, who was trotting over to feed his horse. He waved to the hussar, who bowed in his direction. Relmyer wore a strange expression. Pagin had died right in front of him, as had his colonel, Laborde, and many other hussars of the 8th. General Lasalle had also been killed. Relmyer could not yet admit to himself that all these men were no longer there. He was riding about, a broken man, surrounded by ghosts.

'I'm delighted to see you have survived,’ he told Margont and Le-fine. ‘Let’s go immediately and see Luise to put her mind at rest. We can see how far she’s got with her researches.'

He was already becoming obsessed again with the investigation ... ‘Fernand and I can only get away for the day.' replied Margont. ‘Tomorrow our regiment will definitely be taking part in the pursuit.'

Relmyer nodded silently. Margont left his company in Piquebois’s hands. As for Saber, he was engaged in writing his letter, failing to get past the first line, because it was rather daunting to be writing to the Emperor ... Without him fully realising it, his letter was acting as a screen, preventing him from seeing the broken flesh all around him.

Relmyer, Margont and Lefine went off, passing lost Saxons, streams of wagons heaped up with the wounded, white lines of prisoners and repentant deserters discreetly trying to rejoin their battalions ... All around lay corpses and the remains of horses, picked over by crows.