Alain Duroc stayed in Austria and the rest of his story is as told by Monsignor Schrattenbach. Wounded badly at Austerlitz, he should have died, but was rescued by corpsmen of Bernadotte's divisions when they retook the position later in the day. All the wounded were eventually evacuated to Brno, where those that could walk were taken with the army into Germany, and those that could not walk, were left behind. Duroc was left behind.
Wounded French soldiers were nursed by local Austrians if they could pay, or in charity wards if they could not. Alain Duroc was lucky, his head wound had bled enough to clear it of infection, and he found himself recovering that winter in a ward and then the home of a respectable Brno family. In the household was a recently widowed daughter who had moved back with her father and mother to help look after them. It was not long before the romantically wounded French soldier and the widow who was nursing him found themselves making longer term commitments.
Austria at that time was a multi-cultural society, dominated by German speakers, but also containing Czechs, Hungarians and French. Once he had recovered from his wounds, Alain Duroc found that Brno society was not totally hostile to the idea of him marrying the widow and setting himself up in the wine business. He did, however, take the precaution of changing his name to Anton Druer.
Among the few possessions he had when he began his convalescence and his new life, were the bones of Saint Hugh. It always bothered him that he could not return them to England, where they belonged, but, as his business began to grow, a son arrived, and the need to expand became necessary, he found it expeditious to lend the Saint to the church of St. Thomas. The donation brought him a certain notoriety in the upper levels of Brno society, and his circle of clients enlarged. The Druers, father and son, became respected citizens, and when his son eventually married a member of the Brno "Altgesellschaft", they had arrived.