The Danube flows wide and deep at Reisenburg, and there was no other means of getting over. Ney had explicit orders from Napoleon to cross over and occupy Günsburg, and to hold the river passage. As the 59th, who led the attack, got to the bridge, a long and narrow wooden structure, the Austrian sappers were hard at work destroying it; covered by a rearguard brigade of infantry and artillery. The planking had been ripped away, but most of the bridge framework and supporting beams still stood. The 59th came up and opened fire, compelling the sappers to withdraw. Then a hasty effort was made by the pioneers of the regiment under fire to repair part of the bridge. They made a way across with planks wide enough for a few men to scramble over together. “In places only one man could get across at a time.” At once the 59th rushed forward cheering, but the concentrated Austrian fire from the other side was too hot to face. They were beaten back three times, the dead and wounded falling into the rushing stream below. But were they not the 59th? No other of the regiments following them in rear should have the honour of being the first to make the passage! The Eagle-bearer of the 59th, weaving the Eagle aloft, headed a fourth attack; with Colonel Gerard Lacuée, the colonel of the regiment, a distinguished officer and an Honorary A.D.C. to the Emperor, beside him. The two led out in front, regardless of the storm of bullets round them. Colonel Lacuée fell mortally wounded. An officer ran forward and carried the Colonel back to die on the river-bank, but the Eagle-bearer went on. “Soldiers,” the brave fellow stopped for an instant to turn round and shout back to his comrades, “your Eagle goes forward! I shall carry it across alone!” The men of the 59th, thrown into a frenzy at the sight of their Eagle’s peril, rallied instantly to follow. The four leading companies held on bravely and got across. Then they charged the Austrians at the point of the bayonet and drove them back into the village. That, though, was not all. Fresh Austrians had turned back to help their rearguard troops. Firing from the river-bank on either side of the village, for a time they stopped the other French regiments from crossing the bridge after the 59th. Austrian dragoons and infantry at the same time charged the gallant regiment, entirely isolated now on that side of the river. But they could not break the 59th. Forming square, the two battalions, with their Eagles held on high as rallying-centres, kept a host of foes at bay. Three fierce Austrian charges did they beat off--and then help arrived. A second regiment, the 50th, had by then managed to get across the bridge. The two regiments maintained themselves there all the afternoon until nightfall and then bivouacked on the ground they had won until morning, “passing an anxious time, under arms, unable to light a fire. Fortunately, in the dark the Austrians did not realise our small numbers.