If we may compare Austerlitz with Blenheim, Wagram may with equal fitness be matched with the vast slaughter of Malplaquet exactly a century before.

The French now felt the hardening of the national defence of Austria and the falling off in their own fighting powers.

Marmont tells how, at the close of the day, the approach of the Archduke John's scouts struck panic into the conquerors, so that for a time the plain on the east was covered with runaway conscripts and disconcerted plunderers.

The incident proved the deterioration of the Grand Army from the times of Ulm and Jena.
Raw conscripts raised before their time and hurriedly drafted into the line had impaired its steadiness, and men noted as another ominous fact that few unwounded prisoners were taken from the Austrians, and only nine guns and one colour.

In fact, the only reputation enhanced was that of Macdonald, who for his great services at the centre enjoyed the unique honour of receiving a Marshal's baton from Napoleon on the field of battle.
Had the Archduke Charles been made of the same stuff as Wellington, the campaign might still have been retrieved.