‘Maybe,’ Napoleon replied softly, then fixed his attention on the head of the Austrian column.There was no glitter of bayonets there, and then he understood. The enemy were holding their muskets upside down. Quickly he scanned the banners at the front of the column and saw that most were furled. The rest were plain white. He lowered the telescope and smiled.

‘They’re surrendering.’ He turned to Lannes and offered him the telescope. ‘See for yourself.’

‘What?’ Lannes looked astonished and then hurriedly trained the telescope on the enemy. ‘You’re right, sire. Surrendering, by God. Five days before the end of the armistice. But why?’

‘They must have heard news of the Russian army’s location,’ Napoleon mused.‘General Mack has realised that he could not be saved in time.That has to be it.’

‘What about the other column, sire?’ Lannes lowered the telescope and gestured to the distant cavalry charging through the French lines to the north.

‘A break-out force. I imagine Mack is hoping that he can at least save his horsemen. Well, we’ll see about that. Berthier, send word to Murat at once. Tell him what is happening and order him to pursue the enemy’s cavalry. They are not to escape. We cannot afford to let them join the other Austrian armies, or Kutusov.’

‘Yes, sire.’ Berthier saluted and swung himself on to his horse to gallop back towards headquarters.

As they watched, the Austrian column began to deploy into line facing the hurriedly forming Grand Army.Then, regiment by regiment, the enemy lowered their weapons to the ground and stood to attention before the astonished eyes of the French soldiers. A large party of officers detached themselves from the Austrian lines and rode slowly towards the French pickets. They were quickly passed through and directed towards the headquarters of the Grand Army.

‘Come on!’ Napoleon ordered. Leading Marshal Lannes, he hurried back to his horse and climbed into the saddle and spurred his mount into a gallop. By the time they reached headquarters Berthier had issued orders for the formation of a guard of honour and the grenadiers of the Old Guard were hurriedly assembling either side of the gravel drive that led up to the country house. In their dress uniforms and towering bearskins the tough veterans looked as formidable as any men in Europe and Napoleon regarded them with pride as he joined the officers gathering in front of the entrance to receive the Austrians.