‘You are to leave this battlefield at once. You are to leave the Grand Army before the day is out and return to France. I will decide your fate in due course. Now leave my presence.’

‘You cannot do this!’ Bernadotte blustered. ‘I am a Marshal of France!’

‘Not any longer. You are disgraced. I will say it once more. Leave my presence, before I have you arrested and taken to the rear in chains.’

Bernadotte straightened to his full height in his saddle and opened his mouth to speak, but Napoleon turned away and trotted back through his escort to re-join his staff officers. ‘Do not permit that man to approach me,’ he ordered loudly with a nod back towards Bernadotte. For a moment Bernadotte stared helplessly after Napoleon, then looked to Berthier questioningly. The latter shook his head faintly. With a tap of his heels Bernadotte turned his horse towards the pontoon bridge nearest Essling and walked his mount away, urging it into a trot after a little distance, and then a gallop - so stung by the shame of his treatment at Napoleon’s hands that he was compelled to leave the field as swiftly as possible.

Napoleon spared him a brief glance and muttered, ‘Good riddance.’

Berthier cleared his throat. ‘Is that wise, sire? In the middle of a battle?’

Napoleon nodded. ‘I could hardly afford to have Bernadotte fouling things up any more at such a critical moment, wouldn’t you agree?’ He turned to his chief of staff with a penetrating glare.

‘Yes, sire. Of course.’

‘Good. Then we shall have to try to struggle on without the tactical brilliance of Bernadotte to help us. Now then, send an order to Masséna. He is to retake Aderklaa immediately. Masséna at least will not fail me.’

‘Yes, sire.’

‘And let us hope that there will be no further surprises this morning.’

Within the hour, just after the church clock in Aderklaa chimed nine, the tricolour was flying from the church tower. Napoleon had just sent an orderly forward to express his congratulations and gratitude to Masséna when a messenger arrived from General Boudet, commander of the division guarding the army’s left flank.

‘What is it now?’ Napoleon asked wearily.

‘General Boudet begs to report that he has been forced back into the Mühlau bridgehead, sire.’

‘Forced back?’ Napoleon frowned. ‘What has happened? Speak up, man!’

‘Sire, we are under attack from two army corps. We are a single division. We were driven back.’

Napoleon was about to give vent to his anger at this new frustration when the full significance of the report suddenly hit him. This was part of Archduke Charles’s plan. The enemy commander must have intended to envelop both flanks of the Grand Army, but, for whatever reason, the attack on Napoleon’s left flank had been delayed until some hours after the attack on his right. It was bad timing for the French, Napoleon reflected bitterly. With Masséna’s attention directed towards the recapture of Aderklaa, a gap had opened between the Danube and the left flank of the Grand Army. Now, Archduke Charles was attempting to seize or destroy the bridges that crossed to Lobau island. If he succeeded, then he would sever the supply lines that fed the Grand Army.