The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-07-23 00:00:00

LIVE EGGS.—The editor of the Boston Transcript an-
nounced the receipt of a salmon last week, as a present.
In his neat little paper of yesterday he notes another present,
being a box containing " three hens, three chickens, and se-
ven eggs—all alive. If he is a good catholic he certainly can-
not eat the eggs on Friday.
MASSENA AT ASPERN.—If, however, the assault was im-
petuous, the defence was not less heroic ; and never had the
experienced skill and invincible tenacity of Marshal Massena
been so conspicuously displayed. Stationed in the cemetery
of Aspern, under the boughs of the great trees which oversha-
dow the church, he calmly awaited the result, directing the
movements of his troops, and giving his orders to support
the points which most required it, with the coolness and pre-
cipitation of veteran courage ; while the crash of the boughs
above his head, and the incessant clatter of grape-shot on
the steeple, told how near the enemy's batteries had ap-
proached. Both parties were aware, that the fate of the day
mainly depended on the possession of this important point,
and incredible efforts were made on either si 1e to attain it.
For several hours the murderous conflict continued ; fresh
troops were brought up on both parts to supply the place of
those who had fallen, or were exhausted in the strife ; the
Austrian infantry, the Hungarian grenadiers, the volunteers
of Vienna, rivalled each other in courage and perseverance
in the assault ; while the different divisions of Massena's
corps nobly in succession sustained the defence. Every street,
every house, every garden of the village, became the theatre
of mortal combat. The shouts of transient success, the cri,s
of despair, were heard alternately from both parties ; an in-
cessant shower' of bombs and cannon-balls from the concen-
tric batteries of the Imperialists spread death on all sides,
alike among friend and foe ; while great part of the village
took fire, and the flames of the burning houses afforded, as
night approached, a ghastly light wherewith to continue the
work of destruction, and illuminated the whole field of battle.
A desperate conflict at the same time contined in the marshy
plain between Aspern and the river, where the wet ditches
leading to the Danube, athwart their front, and the thickets
of alder bushes, gave the French the advantages of a natural
fortification. For long the superior numbers of the Austri-
ans impeded each other, as the position of the French centre
prevented them from attacking the village on more sides than
one ; but at length, at eleven at night their line having gained
ground in that quarter, a combined attack was made by Hil-
lier, in front, and Vacquent, commanding part of Bellegardc's
corps, which had just repulsed a formidable charge of ca-
valry, in flank ; and in spite of the most heroic efforts on the
part of Massena, Molitor, and his officers, the village was
carried, amidst deafening shouts which were distinctly heard
above the roar of the artillery along the whole line. The
French marshal made a gallant effort to regain his ground,
and succeeded with Le Grand's division, which had succeeded
Molitor's in their tremendous strife, in wresting some of the
houses from the enemy ; but the churchyard and the greater
part of this blood-stained village remained through the night
in the hands of the Imperialists.—Aiison's History of Europe.