X.

a treaty was concluded and signed at Töplitz on the 8th CHAP. September between Austria, Russia, Prussia, and Great Britain. By this treaty, which was the corner-stone of 1813. the Grand Alliance which afterwards effected the deliverance of Europe, it was provided that Austria should be reconstructed, as nearly as possible, on the footing on which she stood in 1805, the Confederation of the Rhine dissolved, and the independence of the intermediate States between the Rhine and the Inn established. Each of the Continental Powers contracting engaged to bring 150,000 men into the field, and they all engaged not to enter into any separate treaty with France. By the secret articles, the 32d military division of the French Empire, embracing Hamburg and the Hanse towns, was to be dissolved, and the princes of the family of Napoleon in Germany dispossessed. In consideration of the great exertions he had made to bring about this treaty, as well as his important military services during the campaign, the King of Prussia afterwards sent Sir Charles Stewart the orders of the Black and Red Eagles, accompanied by a letter, justly Plotho, ii. deemed one of the most honourable of the many honour- Bign. xii. able testimonials in the possession of the Londonderry 380.' family.1 *

1

206-208;

261; Lond.

vain march

Napoleon did not remain long inactive after his return 73. to Dresden, on the 21st. The very next morning he set Napoleon in out with a great part of the Guards and cuirassiers across es against the Elbe to join Macdonald and throw back Blucher, Blucher, and who during his absence in the Bohemian mountains had Dresden. Sept. 22. established himself at Bautzen and on the Spree, and pushed his advanced posts to within four English miles

"Le Roi, mon auguste souverain, sous les yeux duquel je me suis empressé de les mettre, m'ordonne de vous dire, M. le Général, que c'est pour vous donner une marque publique de son estime distinguée, et particulièrement de sa satisfaction de la valeur et des talents que vous avez déployé à côté de sa Majesté dans les differents combats auxquels vous avez assisté, et dans lesquels vous avez versé votre sang pour la cause commune, qu'il vous a décoré de les ordres de l'Aigle Noir et de l'Aigle Rouge.

"Veuillez agréer l'assurance réiterée de tout mon attachement et de ma haute considération. HARDENBERG.-4 Decembre 1813."-MS.

CHAP.

X.

Sept. 23.

of Dresden. He came up with the enemy in the wood of Hartau, and a skirmish of the advanced posts took 1813. place, in the course of which the village of Goldbach was burned. But Blucher, faithful to his instructions, fell back the moment he saw the uniforms of the Guards, and took up a strong position some miles in rear near Bischofswerda, where next day he stood fast. But the French Emperor, after hesitating long, did not deem himself in sufficient. strength to attack. He had only Macdonald's three weak corps in hand; for of the Guards, worn out with incessant marching and countermarching, only a small part had come up, and the greater portion, unable to keep pace with his movements, had fallen behind, and were straggling in search of provisions. The utmost discouragement pervaded the army-toils, hardships, want, and the sword of the enemy had fearfully thinned their ranks; the war seemed endless, and if it did terminate, likely to lead to nothing but disaster. The troops, dejected and exhausted, exhibited none of their old spirit, and murmurs deep, though as yet half heard, began in the ranks against the insatiable ambition of the Emperor, which, rejecting all terms of accommodation, was hurrying them on to inevitable destruction. Sensible of this state of matters, and feeling now the want of soldiers, from the dreadful losses he had recently sustained, the 10del.i.287- Emperor halted his troops, and next day returned to ii. 335, 336; Dresden, thus in effect abandoning the whole right bank of the Elbe. A dreadful thunder-storm came on as he was re-entering the Saxon capital, which, in the dejected state of the soldiers, was deemed a portentous omen.1

Sept. 24.

289; Fain.

Bout. 88; Cathcart, 265; Lond. 140.

74. Alarming

from the

rear and

Alarming intelligence was at the same time received from the rear and the Lower Elbe. The successful irrupintelligence tion of Thielman into Western Saxony, and the capture Lower Elbe. of Weissenfels, already mentioned, had indeed been amply avenged. Lefebvre Desnouettes, collecting 8000 horse, had attacked and defeated him with severe loss, and liberated the prisoners he had made. But Platoff, who

Sept. 24.

CHAP.

X.

1813.

Sept. 26.

had just descended with his Cossack cavalry from Bohemia, surprised and defeated him on the 26th, and having effected a junction with the remains of Thielman's detachment, expelled the French general from the open Sept. 28. country, with the loss of 5 guns and 1500 prisoners, comprising some of the best cavalry in the French service. By this success the direct French communications with the Rhine were entirely cut off. The news from the north was still more alarming. Slowly advancing after the battle of Dennewitz, Bernadotte had at length reached the banks of the Elbe, and caused Bulow's corps to invest, on the right of the river, Wittenberg, the suburbs of which were carried on the 24th, while a bom- Sept. 24. bardment was shortly after commenced; while Ney, whose army, grievously dejected, had sunk down to less than 40,000 men, was in no condition to interrupt the siege. Chernicheff, one of the boldest and most successful of the Russian partisans, had met with still more decisive success in Westphalia. Boldly crossing the Elbe Sept. 30. at Dessau, at the head of 3000 horse, he advanced swiftly into Westphalia, pushed on to Cassel, from which he drove Jerome Buonaparte, proclaimed the dissolution of the kingdom, and stirred the flame of insurrection, far and wide, throughout its whole extent. Being destitute of infantry and artillery, however, he was unable to maintain the advanced position he had won; but he regained the Elbe in safety, his Cossacks laden with booty, having electrified all Germany by the decisive proof afforded of the ease with which a Napoleonic dynasty could be destroyed, and the slender hold it had of the affections of the people. A severe check, too, had recently before been experienced in the neighbourhood of Hamburg, where Sept. 16. General Pecheux, who was leading his division, 6000 Vaud. i. strong, from that fortress to Magdeburg, was surprised Bout. 85-87; and defeated near Dannenberg by Walmoden, with the 321; Varnloss of 1200 killed and wounded, 1800 prisoners, and Ense, 41. his whole artillery and caissons.1

VOL. II.

F

1

186, 187;

Plotho, ii.

hagen von

CHAP.

X.

1813.

75.

operations.

It was now evident that the defensive position and system of warfare which Napoleon had adopted on the Elbe could no longer be maintained. Chosen with judgNapoleon's ment, and defended resolutely, though rashly, it had ennew plan of abled him for six weeks to maintain his ground, in the face of great strategical disadvantages, in the heart of Germany, with forces little at first superior, latterly much inferior, to the enemy; to hold the Confederation of the Rhine, when ready to dissolve, to his standards; and to prevent a general insurrection from bursting forth in the whole western half of Germany. But the magnitude of his losses had been such, and the reinforcements which the Allies had received, or were soon to receive, by the arrival of Benningsen's reserve at their headquarters, and the universal arming of Prussia, were so considerable, that not only was the position no longer tenable, but the advantages already experienced from holding it could no longer be looked for. The misery of the troops, confined in a few fortresses, and crowded together in unhealthy streets or open bivouacs, had become great in the extreme. Often dozens of men and women were shut up in a single room not affording real accommodation for more than two or three inmates-sometimes a hundred were buried alive in a small house. The sick and the healthy, the wounded and the unhurt, were huddled together without covering or bed, often scarcely with food. To such a length did this frightful accumulation of human beings go, that it appears, from official documents, that the numbers who at different times were quartered on Dresden and its suburbs between the 15th June and the 15th November of this year, amounted to the enormous 1 Odel. Tem. amount of 5,062,871! As a necessary consequence of this unparalleled crowding of men, many of them sick, wounded, or labouring under contagious disorders, in the fortresses on the Elbe, diseases of the most dangerous kind speedily appeared among them, and typhus fever proved more fatal than the sword of the enemy. From

Ocul. 237.

X.

1813.

the returns given by Sir George Cathcart, it appears that CHAP. of the French force on the Elbe, composing the three armies under the Emperor's immediate orders, which in the beginning of the campaign numbered 356,000 men, present with the eagles, there only remained in the beginning of October 208,000 fit for duty; showing a loss in six weeks of no less than 148,000 men.* While Thiers, who speaks on the authority of Napoleon's private states, declares that his whole force had sunk down from 387,000 at the outset of the contest to under 250,000 now; in other words, had decreased by 137,000 in the aggregate, in spite of all supplies from the rear.

situation of

On the other hand, the losses of the Allies, though large, 76. had not been more than half of those sustained by the Forces and French; and they were about to be nearly compensated by the Allies. the Russian reserve, under Benningsen, 50,000 strong, of whom 45,000 were effective, who were expected to join in

Statement of the forces of Napoleon at the opening of the campaign of Leipsic, compared with their former strength at the opening of the campaign of Dresden :

Corps.

Old Guard, .

In July 1813.

In October 1813.