lion of men had been sacrificed in less than two years; and instead of being near the accomplishment of his wishes, he was now forced to tell France, that she might expect to be invaded, unless she consented to make unparalleled efforts. The empress endeavoured to raise a suspicion, that the allies meant to dismember France; but they had already declared, that "they had no designs against France; but that they were determined to be governed by their own princes and their own laws." For the agitations of a degraded throne, and a crown without glory," to which the empress alluded in her speech, Buonaparte had to blame him. self alone.

The increasing embarrassments of the French army no longer admitted of concealment. Sir Charles Stewart, an accurate observer, and a very able man, made some judicious reflections, in one of his dispatches written about this period. "His (Buonaparte's) plan seems to have been," said Sir Charles," to attack the allies, if he could do so with an evident advantage; if not, to impede their advance, and by menaces gain time either to extricate himself from the dangerous predicament in which he stands, or to manœuvre the allies out of their position. The latter he had not done, for after all his marches to and from the Bohemian frontier, the grand allied army remained on the spot to which it retired after the attack upon Dresden; and Buonaparte had entered the Bohemian passes one day, only to quit them the next. So that in this quarter his movements had been of no avail, while time had been given to the allied armies in other parts to press for ward and close upon him. Meanwhile his numerical strength was decreasing daily. The sword had done much, sickness had scarcely done less, and repeated defeats, with the accompanying privations, depressed the spirits

and hopes of the whole army."-Upwards of 5000 letters were seized upon a French courier." These," said Sir Charles," give the most doleful details of the French army and their defeats; the whole are in the most desponding style."

Great, however, as were the advantages of the allies, yet in the present relative position of the armies there was little prospect that they might immediately inflict any fatal blow by the superior forces which they had at their disposal. Buonaparte, from his central situation, could still command a temporary superiority at any point which was seriously threatened. The grand army had appeared before Dres den, but had again retreated. Blucher had repeatedly approached from the other side of the Elbe; but 100,000 men defended the passage of the river; and he beat in vain against that im pregnable barrier. The Crown Prince, however, was preparing to pass at Rosslau, and to advance. This operation led to a series of skirmishes.

Buonaparte had given orders that his generals should take Dessau, cost what it might. Information of this was received, by the Crown Prince, in sufficient time to give Major-General Schulzenheim notice to evacuate the place, and retire upon the works at the tete-du-pont. This service was performed without loss; and the enemy did not undertake any thing against Schulzenheim. The party covering the workmen at the tete-du-pont, however, advanced to reconnoitre nearly as far as Dessau; the posts of the enemy, having ventured out of the city, were driven into the streets, and the reconnoitering party retired behind the entrenchments. Bernadotte soon after obtained information that the enemy at Dessau had received rein. forcements, and was advancing against the tete-du-pont. Field-Marshal Čount Stedingk accordingly sent Col. Bjornes

tierna against him with 1000 infantry, some cavalry, and two pieces of artille. ry. The enemy hastily retired into the town, and shut the gates; a few young officers and soldiers, hurried on by too much bravery, threw themselves, in spite of the enemy's shower of bullets from the houses and walls, on a gate, and endeavoured to cut it open with axes; but nails and iron bands rendered this impossible. Colonel Bjornestierna ordered his troops to fall back to the tete-du-pont; but when he had retired about one hundred yards, the enemy opened the gate, and fired on him with three pieces of artillery. The colonel halted, returned the fire with his artillery, and marched on the enemy, who retired into the town, and fastened the gates after them. In the evening the enemy again left the town, and took a direction towards the bridge across the Mulda, which was entrusted to a battalion under the command of Colonel Aldercreutz. This officer crossed the bridge, attacked the enemy, and drove him briskly into the town, the gates of which were again closed.

The enemy once more shewed himself with a corps of 7 or 8000 men between the Mulda and the Elbe. As the allies had drawn their posts in, the enemy seemed disposed to march against the entrenchments, and to force them. Lieutenant-General Sandals put himself at the head of three battalions, and advanced from the lines upon the enemy. He overthrew him and drove him briskly back. As this general had received orders to return to the tete-du-pont, he executed them with such precision as could not have been excelled on the place of exercise. The French in this affair lost upwards of 600 men.-The Swedish army having thrown a bridge of boats over the Elbe, at Rosslau, passed the river, and again moved upon Dessau. Its advanced posts extended to Raguhn and

Janitz, and a junction with Blucher's army was thus accomplished. As the third Prussian corps d'armée, under the command of General Bulow, and the corps of General Tauentzein, had already crossed the Elbe, General Thumen remained before Wittenberg. This general was induced to continue the siege with vigour, since it was obvious that the possession of Wittenberg must render the allies masters of the Elbe, as this fortress would at once cover Berlin, and serve as a depot for the allied armies.

An expedition undertaken by General Tchernicheff against Cassel was attended with brilliant success. Never were boldness, talents, and valour, more eminently displayed than on this occa sion. The general marched on the 24th to Eksleben, the 25th to Rosslau, and, avoiding a Westphalian corps under the orders of General Bastinellar, posted at Heilligenstadt, he made a lateral movement, passed through Sonders. hausen, and arrived on the 26th, in the evening, at Muhlhausen. Thence he marched upon Cassel. Investing the city on every side, he ordered the cossacks and the hussars of Jzum to attack the enemy's battalions, stationed at Bettenhausen, with six pieces of cannon. By a brilliant charge the guns were taken, the enemy dispersed, and more than 400 prisoners made. The fugitives were pursued into the city; but, as the streets were barricadoed, the Russians at length fell back.

Jerome Buonaparte, the intrusive King of Westphalia, collected two battalions of guards, and a thousand horse, and fled from Cassel by the road leading to Frankfort. Colonel Benkendorff charged four squadrons of light horse, forming part of the escort, not one of whom escaped; he took 250 men and 10 officers.-Tchernicheff received information that General Bastinellar, with a French corps, was advancing to the relief of Cassel. He

marched during the night of the 28th upon Melzulgan, in order to meet the enemy with his entire force. The hos tile corps dispersed; only twenty cuirassiers and two guns were taken. The troops who followed the king dispersed in like manner; more than 300 of them joined General Tchernicheff, and marched with him on the 30th against Cassel. The Russian general made use of the artillery captured from the enemy, and cannonaded the town. The Leipzig gate, with the cannon planted there, was carried by Colonel Benkendorff. Tchernicheff then offered terms of capitulation to the general of division Alix, who obtained a free passage for the French and Westphalian troops with their arms and military baggage. The city was occupied on the evening of the 30th by the Russians; the joy of the inhabitants was enthusiastic. The greater part of the Westphalian troops ranged themselves under the banners of the allies; and a fatal blow was thus struck against the influence of the French in the kingdom of Westphalia.

This chapter may be concluded, by a recapitulation of the important events which had lately occurred. In the month of August, the French attempt ed to invade at once Mecklenburgh, Swedish Pomerania, the Middle Mark, Silesia, and Bohemia. In the month of September, after vain efforts, repelled on all sides, they were driven across the Elbe near Hamburgh, wedged into a corner of Lusatia, expelled from Bohemia, with considerable loss of men and cannon, and disturbed in their line of communication between Dresden, Altenburg, Leipzig, and Erfurt. Towards the end of the month, the combined armies passed the Elbe. Victory opened to the corps of General Walmoden, the Old Mark, Luneberg, and the route of Hanover and Bohemia; made the Crown Prince master of the duchies of Anholt, and

other provinces formerly Prussian, and secured to Blucher the passage of the Elbe at Elster, his march upon Leipzig by turning Wittenberg, and his communication with the army of the north of Germany.

The Russian and Prussian armies, immoveable in the position which they had chosen in Bohemia from Toplitz to the Elbe, waited the enemy in the fatal valley of Culm, received him with courage, drove him back as often as he dared to descend from the mountains, wasted him with famine, and demoralized his armies. Dresden, instead of being a point from which Buonaparte attacked, now became to him a point of retreat. Meanwhile, the Austrian army extended itself on one side as far as Freyberg, Chemnitz, and Altenburg; and on the other towards Thuringia and Bavaria; it pushed forward strong detachments, and covered powerful diversions, accomplished by partisans at once brave and fortunate. Where was Buonaparte during the whole of September? At Dresden and its vicinity; again at Dresden and its vicinity. He sent his sick and wounded to Leipzig and Erfurt; kept the King of Saxony and his whole family at Dresden, to give himself the semblance of security, and continued to exercise a despotic sway, which was now confined to the capital of a petty kingdom. From Dresden those bags of letters were dispatched, which being intercepted and published, communicated just ideas of the true situation of the French army, and of the disposition of the troops.

The treaty of alliance, concluded at Toplitz, between Austria, Russia, and Prussia-the negociations opened with Bavaria-the unequivocal movements of the grand combined army towards the Maine-the siege of Wittenburg resumed with vigour the junction of the army of Blucher with that of the Crown Prince, proved to Buo

naparte the difficulties of his situation more effectually than his minister and generals had hitherto been able to do. Russia, Austria, and Prussia, mutually guaranteed their states on the footing of 1805; they set out with the unchangeable principle of not permitting a single French bayonet to remain in Germany. Already the sceptre of the intrusive King of Westphalia was broken in pieces. The city of Cassel, by the exertions of General

Tchernicheff, had placed its keys in the hands of the Crown Prince. The old order of things succeeded to the most oppressive tyranny. The trenches were opened before Dantzig, Stettin, and Glogau. These garrisons were destitute of necessaries; they had many sick. Magdeburg also was ill provisioned; and Buonaparte was placing even the fortresses on the Rhine in a state of defence.

THE operations of the allied armies, although they had already been attended with important results, had not been of so decisive a character as to interrupt altogether the communications, or to break the strength of the grand French army at Dresden. Should Buonaparte be able to maintain his ground in that capital, until the immense levies now raising in France could arrive to his support, it became evident that the contest might be prolonged to an indefinite duration; the allies, therefore, perceived the necessity of more vigor. ous efforts. Their forces had been augmented by the arrival of General Beningsen, at the head of a Russian corps of 40,000 men. Platoff, the cos sack chief, who had been for some time absent from the scene of active operations, now re-appeared; his warriors formed part of Beningsen's corps which joined the grand army in Bohemia. So great and seasonable a reinforcement determined the leaders of the Bohemian army to make a grand movement on their left, and, ascending from Bohemia, to interpose between Dresden and the communication with

the Rhine. Platoff, with his cossacks, led the advance, and cut up a French corps, under Lefebvre, which had been sent by Buonaparte to clear the road. from Dresden. The Bohemian army proceeded in three divisions towards Chemnitz and Freiburgh,-the Rus sians by Commotau,-the Prussians by Brix, and the Austrians from Toplitz. The force of the Russians and Prus sians amounted to 90,000, that of the Austrians to 100,000 men.

General Blucher and the Crown Prince at the same time advanced, and formed a junction.-The march of Blucher was truly astonishing. He had with him about 60,000 men ;-he brought also all his cannon and baggage and a bridge equipage; and yet he effected this great movement with incredible velocity. The Crown Prince having forced the Elbe on the 3d of October, and carried the entrenched village of Wertemberg, passed over his whole army the next day at Acken and Rosslau. Ney immediately fell back from Dessau. Bernadotte established his head-quarters there on the 4th, and proceeded next day to Reguhn, on the