Davoust, who commanded the French garrison of Dresden, withdrew accordingly, after blowing up an arch of the beautiful bridge across the Elbe, and retired to Leipsic. The allies entered the town the next day, March 26th, to the great joy of the inhabitants; who, notwithstanding the adhesion of their sovereign to Napoleon, detested the French alliance and French domination as heartily as any people in Germany.

Eugene made a last stand at Mockern, a little way in front of Magdebourg, on the 4th of April; but Wittgenstein attacked him so impetuously, that the intervention of night alone saved him from a total rout. Wittgenstein the next day pursued him to Magdebourg, where Bulow's corps established a blockade, while Kleist with another Prussian division took post at Dessau; and in the meantime, Winzingerode, passing through Dresden, occupied Halle. Thus, the line of the Elbe was effectually broken at its two extremities, Hamburg and Dresden, although Eugene maintained the centre resting on Magdebourg.

Napoleon, before setting out to join the army, caused the office and dignity of Regent of the Empire to be conferred on the Empress, Marie Louise, with the seat of President of the Council of State. He took his departure immediately afterward, and reached Mayence at midnight on the 16th of April, where for eight days he devoted his whole time to the improvement of the fortifications of that town, and the organization and discipline of the conscripts. He left Mayence on the 24th, and on the following day reached Erfurth. The army which he had assembled at this latter place, though deficient in cavalry and artillery, was formidable in point of numbers, amounting to nearly a hundred and forty thousand men; besides which, at least forty thousand were arrayed at Magdebourg under Eugene.

The allies were not a little disconcerted when they learned the strength of Napoleon's forces; but, great as might be the risk of a general action, they conceived the evils of a retreat at the commencement of the campaign to be still greater; and they accordingly resolved to move forward and give battle in the plains of Lutzen. On the first of May, the Prussians were concentrated at Roethe; Wittgenstein, with the main body of the Russians occupied Zwenkau; and Winzingerode and Milaradowitch, more in advance, observed the enemy on the roads of Naumberg and Chemnitz. While crossing the defile of Grunebach, the head of the French column first encountered the allies, whose vanguard, with six guns, was posted on the heights of Poserna. A partial action took place, at the close of which the allies withdrew; but this trifling advantage on the part of the French was far more than counterbalanced by the death of Marshal Bessières, who was killed by a cannon shot at the first discharge of the Russian guns.

On the morning of the 2nd of May, Napoleon, aware that the allies were not far distant, but ignorant of their intentions to fight, was pressing on toward Leipsic, when he was suddenly aroused by the discharge of cannon on his extreme left. He immediately halted his suite, and surveyed the distant combat with his telescope; after remaining nearly half an hour in deep meditation, he directed the troops to continue their march in as close order as possible. Presently, a much louder cannonade opened on his right, toward Great and Little Görschen; and it became obvious that the principal attack was to be made in that quarter, although Napoleon could discover no enemy beyond the roofs of the villages.

In truth, matters had there assumed a serious aspect from the first. The French infantry occupied the villages of Gross Görschen, Klein Görschen, Rahno and Kaia, which lie near each other, somewhat in the form of an irregular square, between Lutzen and Pegau. The plain is traversed by the deep channel of a rivulet, called the Flossgraben; and the allied army had crossed this stream in small compact columns, which emerging from behind the heights, concentrated themselves in four masses, without being seen by the French troops. As soon as their formation was complete they advanced upon the plain, and opened a heavy concentric fire of artillery on Gross Görschen; and General Ziethen, with two Prussian brigades, followed up this attack so vigorously that the French infantry were speedily driven out of the village, and pursued some distance beyond it. The allies, thus encouraged, pressed forward to Klein Görschen and Rahno, which they carried at the point of the bayonet; both villages were soon wrapped in flames, and aid-de-camp after aid-de-camp was dispatched to Napoleon for reënforcements. The emergency admitted of no delay, and the Emperor immediately sent orders to Macdonald, Eugene, Marmont and Bertrand to hasten with their respective corps toward the point of danger, while he pushed on in the same direction with the main body of his army.

In the meantime Ney had rallied the broken divisions, and, by a des perate charge, retook the villages; but it was impossible for him to maintain them against the impetuosity of the Prussian levies, who returned to the assault with the coolness of veteran soldiers, and drove the French back on the plain; and as this success was promptly followed up by the allied cavalry, Ney's columns were disordered and several regiments of conscripts disbanded and fled. Wittgenstein now brought forward his reserves to complete the victory, forced the French from Kaia, the key of Napoleon's right, and compelled the whole line to give ground. It was now six o'clock; all the French troops who had as yet come into action were in full retreat, and the battle seemed to be won by the allies. At this crisis, Napoleon advanced with the central corps, checked the flight of Ney's defeated columns, and, throwing himself into the midst of the fugitives, rallied them in a moment. He then pressed on to Kaia, where the allies were strengthening themselves, and retook that village after a desperate struggle. Blucher, in turn, now interposed with the Prussian reserve, the two parties met in the plain between Kaia and Klein Görs chen, and both maintained their ground at half musket-shot distance, exchanging incessant volleys without yielding one step, until the shades of evening began to overspread the field.

This obstinate conflict, however, though it gave no immediate advan tage to either side, was of great importance to Napoleon, as it gained for him what alone was requisite to save the day-time, namely, to bring forward his reserves. Bertrand, Marmont, and the Imperial Guard soon arrived, and presented an array seventy thousand strong, against which the allies could muster at the decisive point but forty thousand men. Nevertheless, Wittgenstein maintained his ground against this overwhelming force until darkness separated the combatants, and his troops bivouacked in and around Gross Görschen. During the night, the allied sovereigns held a council of war, and decided to commence a retreat the next morning, which they accordingly did, without the sacrifice of pris oners, standards or artillery. Their loss in the battle of Lutzen amounted

to fifteen thousand men, killed and wounded; while that of the French exceeded eighteen thousand, of whom nine hundred were prisoners.

The allies retired slowly and in admirable order toward Dresden. The main body reached that city on the 7th of May, and proceeded thence by the road of Silesia to a strongly intrenched position at Bautzen; while Milaradowitch, with the rear-guard, after cutting the arches of the bridge of Dresden, established himself among the houses on the right bank of the river.

When the French approached Dresden, the magistrates of the city came out of the gates and presented themselves before Napoleon. "Who are you?" said he in a quick and rude tone. "Members of the municipality," replied the trembling burgomasters. "Have you bread for my soldiers?" "Our resources have been quite exhausted by the requisitions of the Russians and Prussians." "Ha! it is impossible, is it? I know no such word. Furnish me bread, and meat, and wine. I know all you have done: you deserve to be treated as a conquered people, but I spare you from my regard to your king: he is the saviour of your country. With these words, he turned aside from the city and proceeded to the suburbs of Pirna, where he dismounted and reconnoitered the banks of the river, with a view of forcing a passage to the opposite side. He was not, however, seriously opposed by the allies in this project, and by the 11th of May, he had succeeded in transferring to the right bank a considerable portion of his army. The next day, the King of Saxony returned to Dresden, and placed himself and all his resources at the disposal of the French Emperor: a proceeding in the highest degree gratify. ing to Napoleon, as it proved the adherence of a valuable ally, secured the protection of a line of fortresses, and restored him to the rank he most coveted-the arbiter of the destinies and protector of the thrones of European sovereigns.

But if the adhesion of the King of Saxony was thus a source of satisfaction, the position now assumed by Austria gave the highest degree of disquietude to Napoleon. He became convinced, from various developments, that the Cabinet of Vienna, which of late had pursued a temporizing policy in its diplomatic communications with France, was likely to throw its influence and power into the hands of his enemies: he therefore resolved to intimidate, if possible, the Austrian government, and prevent a step so fatal to his ambition. He at the same time opened a secret negotiation with the Emperor Alexander, and endeavored by great concessions to detach him from the league; but both attempts proved equally fruitless.

Meanwhile, the allied sovereigns had retired to their fortified position, around the heights of Bautzen, where they assembled a disposable force of ninety thousand men while Napoleon, after incorporating into his army fourteen thousand Saxon troops, had under his immediate command fully a hundred and fifty thousand. The allies, therefore, were greatly overmatched; and, however strong their position might be in front, it was liable to be turned by an enemy so superior in numbers.

Napoleon approached Bautzen on the 19th of May, and ordered a partial attack on the allied right, which ended in a loss of nearly two thousand men on each side, without any material advantage having been gained by either party. In the afternoon of that day, both armies made their dispositions for a general action; the allies occupying a sort of

semi-circle, convex in front, about two and a half leagues in length, with their left against the chain of mountains on the Bohemian frontier; and Napoleon, while proposing an attack along their whole line, resolved to direct his greatest effort against their right.

The outposts of the main armies first came in contact with each other at eleven o'clock, on the morning of the 20th, when the French commenced the passage of the river Spree, which flowed between the hostile camps. The stream was not seriously defended by the allies, and the entire French force crossed it by five o'clock in the afternoon. The combat was then begun by the French right and centre; in which the former was defeated, and the latter was but partially successful; but both met with severe loss, and night separated the combatants before any decisive result could be attained.

The Emperor Napoleon ordered his troops to bivouac in squares on the ground they had won in the centre; yet the loss he had sustained proved the desperate nature of the conflict in which he was engaged, and inspired him with melancholy forebodings as to the issue of the battle on the morrow. The Prussian soldiers, though chiefly young recruits and brought under fire that day for the first time, had evinced the most heroic bravery. Not an inch of ground had been wrested from them but by the force of overwhelming numbers, and more than ten thousand French and Italians lay weltering in their blood around the heights, from which the Prussians had drawn off every cannon and every wounded man. withstanding his losses, however, Napoleon had gained his principal object; namely, to compel the allies to bring their chief strength to the support of their centre, and thus weaken their right, where his main blow was to be delivered.

Not

At five o'clock, on the morning of the 21st, the battle was renewed by a French attack on the left of the allied position; but the Emperor Alexander had, during the night, sent to that point such reënforcements under Milaradowitch, that not only was the first assault repulsed, but Oudinot, who came up to support the retreating columns, was also driven back with great loss, and pursued, until Macdonald's advance checked the victorious Russians. Napoleon was much disconcerted at this reverse, but he nevertheless pressed his movements against the enemy's centre and right, listening anxiously, in the meantime, for the sound of Ney's cannon; he having dispatched that marshal by a circuitous route to turn the position of the allies on its extreme right, and he now waited only until the success of that manœuvre should be declared, in order to terminate the battle at a blow. His directions were, that Ney should reach the designated point by eleven o'clock; but at a few minutes past ten, the roar of the brave marshal's artillery announced that he had anticipated even Napoleon's calculations and was already in action. The Emperor immediately sent a courier to Paris with a note written in pencil to Marie Louise, proclaiming that he had gained the victory, and then set off at a gallop with his staff to his own left, to take advantage of Ney's

success.

In the meantime, the allies, who were unprepared for Ney's attack, made every effort to resist it and secure a retreat. Blucher was commanded to check the French marshal's advance at all hazards, and he performed this duty so intrepidly, that Ney was compelled to halt for reënforcements until one o'clock in the afternoon. The manœuvres of the allies

to protect their right, having now had the desired effect of weakening their centre, Napoleon ordered a grand attack of no less than eighty thousand men upon this point, and the result was an almost instantaneous movement of retreat along the whole allied line. The army fell back in two massy columns; the Russians by the road of Hochkirch and Lobau, the Prussians by Wurschen and Weissenberg.

Then were seen the admirable result of modern discipline, and the high spirit that animated both armies. Seated on an eminence whence he could survey a great part of the field, Napoleon directed the movements of more than a hundred thousand men, spread over a surface of but three leagues in extent, and moving majestically forward like a mighty wave, crested as with sparkling foam by the blaze and smoke of a hundred and twenty pieces of artillery. The greater part of this vast inundation poured into the valley of Neider Kayna, and the declining sun glanced with indescribable brilliancy on bayonets, helmets, sabres and cuirasses, which crowded the level space between the mountains; while the allies were discerned retiring in dark masses under the shade of the towering heights in the distance. It was in vain, however, that the French strove by the most desperate charges of eight thousand cuirassiers to disorder the firm array of the allied infantry: they moved along with a steady pace and in unbroken order, until night drew her veil over the field of carnage and of glory; and at daybreak on the following morning, the Russians were still in possession of the heights of Weissenberg, within cannon shot of the French army.

The loss of the allies in the battle of Bautzen was fifteen thousand men killed and wounded, and fifteen hundred prisoners; that of the French amounted to twenty-five thousand.

Early on the 22nd, Napoleon renewed the pursuit and continued it with unabated vigor during the whole day; but he could gain no trophy of victory from his admirably disciplined foes: every baggage-wagon and cannon was safely conveyed away, and the Emperor vented his spleen, as at Wagram, on his generals, censuring them in the severest terms for allowing standards, prisoners and artillery to escape from such overwhelming numbers. Duroc was killed by a cannon-ball during this day's pursuit, and his death spread a gloom not only over the Emperor's mind, but through the whole army: even the marshals of France were free to express their disapprobation of a campaign which, with such a prodigious expense of life, was likely to yield so little permanent advantage. The advance of the French and the retreat of the allies were, nevertheless, continued for several days, and were marked by various alternations of success and disaster, which, on the whole, redounded to the benefit of the allies. At length, both parties began to wish for a suspension of hostilities: the allied sovereigns desired to gain time for bringing forward their reënforcements, which were already on the march in great strength: and Napoleon felt it necessary to ascertain the precise policy and intentions of Austria, before he trusted himself farther from his resources, and exposed the flank of a longer line of communication to the powerful armies of that Empire.

With this common disposition to treat, the negotiations were not long protracted. A convention, termed the armistice of Pleswitz, was there. fore signed on the 4th of June, which declared a suspension of arms for six weeks, and designated, as the line of demarcation between the two