No. 3
Almost an exact duplicate of this letter goes on to Paris to Cambacérès, as also of No. 4. The moment the Emperor had heard that the Archduke had left Budweiss and was going by the circuitous route viâ Krems to Vienna, he left Enns (May 7th) and reached Moelk the same evening. Seeing a camp of the enemy on the other side of the river he sends Marbot with a sergeant and six picked men to kidnap a few Austrians during the night. The foray is successful, and three are brought before Napoleon, one weeping bitterly. The Emperor asked the reason, and found it was because he had charge of his master’s girdle, and would be thought to have robbed him. The Emperor had him set free and ferried across the river, saying, “We must honour and aid virtue wherever it shows itself.” The next day he started for Saint-Polten (already evacuated by Hiller). On his way he saw the ruins of Dirnstein Castle, where Richard Cœur de Lion had been imprisoned. The Emperor’s comments were interesting, but are now hackneyed, and are in most histories and memoirs—the parent source being Pelet (vol. ii. 246).