We shall finish these illustrations with a notice of the events which preceded and were simultaneous with the passage of the Danube before the battle of Wagram. The measures taken to bring to a specified point of the island of Lobau the corps of the Viceroy of Italy from Hungary, that of Marmont from Styria, that of Bernadotte from Linz, are less wonderful than the famous imperial decree of thirty-one articles which regulated the details of the passage and the formation of the troops in the plains of Enzersdorf, in presence of one hundred and forty thousand Austrians and five hundred cannon, as if the operation had been a military fête. These masses were all assembled upon the island on the evening of the 4th of July; three bridges were immediately thrown over an arm of the Danube one hundred and fifty yards wide, on a very dark night and amidst torrents of rain; one hundred and fifty thousand men passed over the bridges, in presence of a formidable enemy, and were drawn up before mid-day in the plain, three miles in advance of the bridges which they covered by a change of front; the whole being accomplished in less time than might have been supposed necessary had it been a simple maneuver for instruction and after being several times repeated. The enemy had, it is true, determined to offer no serious opposition to the passage; but Napoleon did not know that fact, and the merit of his dispositions is not at all diminished by it.
Singularly enough, however, the chief of staff, although he made ten copies of the famous decree, did not observe that by mistake the bridge of the center had been assigned to Davoust, who had the right wing, whilst the bridge on the right was assigned to Oudinot, who was in the center. These two corps passed each other in the night, and, had it not been for the good sense of the men and their officers, a dreadful scene of confusion might have been the result. Thanks to the supineness of the enemy, the army escaped all disorder, except that arising from a few detachments following corps to which they did not belong. The most remarkable feature of the whole transaction is found in the fact that after such a blunder Berthier should have received the title of Prince of Wagram.