second campaign, we must take a brief survey of the positions of the different armies who were engaged in it..

In the north-west of Germany the corps under the orders of the Prince of Eckmuhl, strongly reinforced, occupied Hamburgh, and was destined, in concert with Danish auxiliaries, to proceed through the territory of Mecklenburgh direct to Berlin. In the north of Saxony a powerful force was assembled to oppose the Swedes and a corps of Prussians, commanded by the Crown Prince of Sweden. The main body of the French army, commanded by Napoleon in person, was in the southern part of Silesia, opposed by a strong Prussian and Russian army, commanded by Blucher, D'York, and Kleist. The Austrian army was stationed in the upper part of Bohemia, not far from Dresden, where Napoleon deposited his principal magazines.,

From this survey, it appears that Napoleon fought in a semi-circle, and it will be seen that the main object of the allies was to break through it on different points, and surround the French army. We must likewise add, that the campaign commenced under very sinister auguries for the French army; as General Jommini, a staff-officer of distinction, deserted to the allies, and revealed the whole plan of Napoleon's campaign; and General Moreau had returned from America, and filled in the Austrian army the same functions, as were executed by the Prince of Neufchatel in that of the French.

The armistice having terminated on the 17th August, Napoleon attacked and defeated the Prussian and Russian corps opposed to him with considerable loss; but he was not suffered to pursue his career in that quarter. Taking advantage of his absence, the Austrian army, in immense force, crossed the mountains which divide Saxony from Bohemia, and advanced to Dresden, which they hoped to carry by coup de main.

Napoleon, apprised of this movement, left Silesia, and with the imperial guards, and some other divisions, probably amounting together to nearly 60,000 men, achieved a march of 120 English miles in 72 hours, through bad roads, filled

with water, and previously injured by the transport of immense bodies of troops and their artillery. This surprising march, one of the most splendid of his military achievements, and which, under all its circumstances, stands alone in modern history, was so well timed, that an hour later its object would have been defeated, for the Austrians were in possession of the suburbs. Without allowing his troops, composed almost entirely of very young men, to halt or refresh themselves, although, from extreme fatigue, they were seen reeling in the streets of Dresden, Napoleon led them forth against the enemy whilst the rain descended in torrents.

The action which ensued was vigorously contested; but the superiority of the French artillery compelled the allies to retire with considerable loss. This day was distinguished by the death of the brave Moreau, who was struck by a cannon-ball in the thigh.

The next and following days Napoleon pursued them to the distance of about 30 miles from Dresden; but here the first signal disaster of the campaign occurred. He had detached the corps of Vandamme in pursuit of the Austrians to Culm. This corps was unsupported; and having in the first attack gained some advantages, Vandamme descended the mountains, an error of which the Austrians quickly profited, by surrounding this corps, from whom it took 12,000 prisoners, with all their baggage and artillery. The Austrian army then offered battle to Napoleon, which he did not think proper to accept.

We must now return to Silesia. Blucher, like an able general, took advantage of the absence of Napoleon, and of the great diminution of the French army, to attack it with forces numerically superior, but still more superior in the quality of the troops. This engagement was fought on the banks of the Katzsback, a river in Silesia, and terminated in the complete discomfiture of the French, who lost an immense number of prisoners, with the greater part of their artillery and baggage. This battle decided the fate of Silesia.

On the north of Saxony the French arms were equally unfortunate. The Prince of the Moskwa attacked the army

under the Crown Prince of Sweden, at Donnevitz, and succeeded at first in making some impression upon it; but the skill of the Crown Prince, and the ardour of the troops, soon changed the fortune of the day. The French were defeated with great loss, and were disappointed, moreover, in the expected co-operation of the corps under the Prince of Eckmuhl, which, from some unknown cause, did not carry into effect the part originally assigned to it in the French plan of the campaign. From this moment, the situation of Napoleon, who remained in and near Dresden, became hourly more perilous, as the semi-circle, on the exterior line of which the allies were acting, became more and more contracted. It was in vain that, with his characteristic activity and energy, he endeavoured to oppose the movements of the allies on the points most threatened. If for a short time he compelled, or rather appeared to compel, the enemy to retire from those points, they advanced in another direction. His army was still numerous, but could boast of only a small number of veteran troops. The conquerors of Austerlitz, Friedland, and Wagram, covered with their bones the plains of Russia, or were prisoners of war in that country; and now the allies, forming three powerful armies under Prince Schwartzenburg, Blucher, and the Crown Prince, passed, in lateral lines, nearly and at equal distances, the city of Dresden, and proceeded, by converging marches, towards Leipsic and the banks of the Saale; thus cutting off his communication with France, and threatening to surround his whole army, whilst the King of Bavaria abandoned Napoleon, and united his troops to those of the allies. Roused to a sense of his danger, he now left Dresden, to which he had clung with a tenacity which excited the astonishment of tacticians, and collecting his whole disposable force, he proceeded towards Leipsic, gaining, on his march, some inconsiderable advantages.

The amount of that force was estimated at 180,000 men, exclusive of garrisons. The strength of the allied armies probably did not fall far short of 300,000 men, reinforced as they were by patriotic Germans, who, forming themselves

into societies, rose en masse to achieve their own deliverance, and the salvation of Europe.

On the 15th October the French army was closely drawn up in the immediate neighbourhood of Leipsic, having in front the armies of the Crown Prince and Blucher, and in the rear, the grand Austrian army under Prince Schwartzenburg; this arrangement rendered it necessary for the French Emperor to divide his forces for the purpose of opposing a double front.

On the 16th October were fought two desperate battles, one with the Russians and Prussians, the other with the Austrians, in each of which Napoleon, during a portion of the day, commanded in person. The battle with the Austrians was fought with equal fortune, although with enormous loss on either side. At three o'clock the Austrian centre was pierced by a desperate charge of the French cavalry; and had not their reserves arrived at that critical juncture, the Austrian army would have been defeated. The opportune presence, however, of these reserves compelled the French cavalry to retire with great loss. Still victory was equally poised, and neither party could truly boast of an advantage; but on the other part of the field, where the French had to support an attack from the armies of the Crown Prince and Blucher, the result was very different; there, after the most desperate resistance, the French were obliged to yield the ground, and contract their lines; their loss was estimated at 12,000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, and 40 pieces of cannon.

If the circumstances of Napoleon were critical before these actions, they were now almost desperate. Anticipating the necessity of an immediate retreat to the Rhine, he had detached General Regnier, who commanded the Saxons, to secure the principal debouché of the Saale.

The day of the 17th was spent on each side, in making preparations for other and still more decisive conflicts. Napoleon alleges as a reason for his inactivity on this day, that he waited for a supply of ammunition, having expended, in the two preceding battles, almost his whole supply; but he was severely censured for not retreating immediately after the

action already described, and the results of which plainly showed that he was utterly unable to maintain himself in the position he then occupied. Whether this reproach be or be not well founded, it is certain that he had already suffered all the injurious consequences of a defeat.

On the 18th the battles were renewed in the same order as before. They raged for a long time with equal fury, and with nearly equal advantage; at the most important moment, the Saxon and Wirtemburg troops, with their artillery, went over to the allies, when the Saxons were immediately led on to the charge by the Crown Prince in person. This defection instantly decided the fate of the day; it disordered the French line, and disheartened the troops. Beaten in both battles with immense loss, it only now remained for Napoleon, who had narrowly escaped being taken prisoner in the battle of the 18th, with the shattered remnants of his hosts, to effect a retreat through Leipsic and across the Saale. This operation commenced very early in the morning of the 19th October, and presented a scene of confusion which cannot be described; cavalry, infantry, artillery, and baggage, all crowded together, and proceeding to the bridge over which the army was to defile, rendered it impossible to establish or maintain order, particularly as the allies pressed vigorously on the rear. When about two-thirds of the French army had passed over, the bridge was either from accident or design blown up. The miserable portion of the troops that remained on the Leipsic side, were abandoned to all the horrors of despair. The greater part of them were either killed, taken prisoners, or drowned in the stream, in a vain attempt to gain the opposite bank. Amongst this number was the gallant, and noble-minded Poniatowski.

At no period in the modern French annals had the Gallic armies sustained so signal and so dreadful a defeat. They lost, on the 18th and 19th, upwards of 80,000 men, including prisoners, 150 pieces of cannon, and an immense quantity of baggage. Leipsic immediately surrendered, and its example was speedily followed by the French fortresses in Germany.