‘You should have seen it!’ Murat continued. ‘The bastards were on the far side of the bridge, with guns covering it and a brigade of infantry formed in line across the end on the far bank.The Austrians had mined it as well, just to make sure. Any attempt to cross would have ended in a bloodbath. So, there’s Marshal Lannes and myself looking across the Danube and Lannes calls up the grenadiers and tells ’em to keep out of sight on our side of the river and wait for his signal.Then Lannes and I start walking across the bridge to the Austrian side. Just him and me. Alone.’ Murat paused, milking the suspense and relishing every moment of it, before he continued. ‘Well, soon as they see us the Austrians raise their muskets, and the gunners bring up their linstocks, and wait for the order to open fire.Then Lannes and I raise our arms and wave ’em, and start shouting “Armistice! Armistice!” for all we’re worth.’ Murat accompanied his words with great sweeps of his arm to dramatise the point.‘You should have seen their faces! The colonel in command of the defences just stood there as we walked up.’ Murat assumed an aristocratic falsetto. ‘ “Armistice?” he says. “What armistice? No one’s told me.” ’

This provoked another roar of laughter from his audience, and he held his hands up to quieten them down. ‘So I stroll right in and give the uppity bastard a bollocking for not having his superiors there to negotiate. Meanwhile Lannes has marched up to the fuses on the mine and ripped them out and thrown them in the river. And while I’m bawling at the colonel, Lannes tips his hat to the grenadiers and they come on at the double. Soon as the Austrian gunners see ’em they make ready to fire.“Not so bloody fast!” I shout at ’em.“What the hell do you think you’re doing? This is an armistice!” And I shove them away from the guns. By the time they’d recovered their wits the grenadiers were already across and disarming them.’ Murat puffed out his chest and concluded, ‘And that, my friends, is how just two men of the Grand Army took a bridge across the Danube from a whole brigade of Austrians.’

At once the officers burst into wild applause and Murat made a few stage bows to them in return. Napoleon stepped out of the shadows into the room and pushed his way through the rearmost officers. As soon as the crowd realised that the Emperor was present, a path opened for him as if by magic and he strode forward towards the beaming Marshal Murat.

‘Sire! I bring you great news. We have Vienna!’ Murat was taken aback by the frigid expression on the Emperor’s face, and continued in a blustering tone. ‘Vienna, I tell you. The enemy’s capital is ours. The Austrians declared it an open city and bolted away to join their Russian allies. Left the place undefended. As I was telling our friends here, we even captured a bridge over the Danube.’

‘So I heard,’ Napoleon replied flatly. ‘I would speak to you, Marshal Murat. In my office.’

‘Of course, sire. But first join us, and toast the capture of Vienna.’

Several officers cheered the suggestion, but others had become aware of Napoleon’s mood and stayed silent, watching warily. Napoleon shook his head. ‘Now, Murat, if you please.’

Murat stared at him, half smiling, and then glanced round the room looking for moral support, but all the other officers had fallen silent and lowered their glasses. Napoleon turned away and strode through the crowd to the back of the farmhouse where the kitchen now served as his office, its long table covered with maps and notebooks.As he entered the room Napoleon saw a clerk busy updating one of the notebooks filled with the strength returns of the Grand Army’s units.

‘Out.’

‘Yes, sire.’

The clerk lowered his pen at once and hurried from the room, squeezing to one side of the doorframe as Murat followed the Emperor inside.

‘Close the door.’

Once Murat had obeyed, Napoleon gestured to a simply constructed bench on one side of the table, and then seated himself on the room’s single chair at the head of the table.

‘You’ve come to make your report, I understand.’

‘Yes, sire.’

‘So, do tell me what you have achieved.’

Murat looked surprised and then puffed out his cheeks. ‘We have taken the enemy capital. So far my men have discovered over five hundred guns and perhaps as many as a hundred thousand muskets in the Austrian arsenals, besides huge stockpiles of supplies and equipment. Sire, we could replenish the entire Grand Army for some months from what we have seized. Enough to carry us through the rest of the campaign.’>

‘No doubt,’ Napoleon responded. ‘But if you had followed your orders there would be no reason why the campaign need continue for a matter of months.’

‘Sire?’

Napoleon slapped his hand down on the table. ‘You let the Russians get away! Now they will be licking their wounds, waiting for the Austrian forces to join them from Italy. All the good work of this campaign may be undone by your foolhardy drive towards Vienna. The entire point of my strategy was to divide our enemies. Now you have given them the chance to concentrate their strength and we must fight a much harder battle than I had hoped.Thanks to you.’

‘Sire, I - I had no thought of compromising you when I gave the order.’

‘You had no thought at all, as far as I can see.’

Napoleon glared at his subordinate. Murat wilted and looked down, crestfallen. ‘I had hoped to please you, sire.’

‘You had hoped to win the glory for yourself, you mean,’ Napoleon snapped.Then he drew a deep breath, and closed his eyes to control his rising temper. Murat had made a mistake. One that would cost Napoleon the lives of many of his soldiers and might indeed prolong the campaign by a matter of months, unless the situation was speedily resolved. Very well, then. Let Murat make amends by reverting to his original orders. His eyes flicked open.

‘I want you to return to your command at once.’

‘Sire, my staff and I have only just arrived at headquarters. We’ve been in the saddle for the best part of two days.’

‘At once.’ Napoleon ignored his protest. ‘You are to pursue the Russians immediately. When you make contact, stay on them. Give Kutusov no chance to stop and rest. Drive them back, away to the east and north, as far from any Austrian forces as you can.Then pray that you have acted in time. Do you understand?’

‘Yes, sire.’

‘Then go.’ Napoleon leaned his head forward on to his knuckles. ‘Now.’

Murat nodded, rose from his bench, and paused a moment, trying to think of some words of self-justification to say. Then he gave up and strode back towards the door, yanked it open and bellowed at his staff to get outside and mount up at once. There was a chorus of scraping chairs and the pounding of heavy boots as the cavalry officers hurriedly gathered their capes and hats and left the building, calling out to the grooms to fetch their horses from the stables.