At nine I called on Count Goltz and was not particularly pleased with his manner or conversation. He seems to be so out of humour, and discontented with his present situation-which is that of a mere go-between for the common routine of business-that he either cannot, or will not, open his mouth. He told me, however, that Jacobi was still at Stralsund on his way to Stockholm for the purpose of taking with him the result of the negotiation between that Court and the Cabinet of Berlin. It is thought that Sweden is disposed to adjourn her pretensions to Norway until a more favourable moment. If so, things may go on well.

But the crisis is fast approaching; the French are advancing; Ney is at Eisenach; Souham at Coburg. On the other hand. Blücher and Kutusow effect a junction this day between Altenburg and Dresden. And Yorck, by way of keeping the Viceroy in check, has made a movement on Coswig. The battle will therefore, ere long, be fought probably on nearly the old ground. God grant it may be with a very different result.

I afterwards called on the younger Alopeus, who is named minister here-his brother was with the Emperor-also on Kircheisen, who with his wife received me with all the friendly and affectionate feeling my brother gave them credit for. Kircheisen's account of the King's sentiments and language is very satisfactory. He says, he is all activity, and is well aware that, however promising the face of affairs may be at this moment, it is necessary to be

unceasingly energetic, et ne pas se laisser endormir, as he has still no easy task to perform. They are expecting Kreusemarck from Paris from one moment to another.

I have paid a second visit to Count Goltz to introduce Sir Charles. The official account had just arrived of the surrender of Thorn. Spandau is nearly destroyed, but the French hold out. They proposed to capitulate on terms which were forwarded to Wittgenstein and rejected by him. Still they resist, and it is intended to make a general assault on the place. It is unlucky that the Allies have been repulsed at Stettin.

We have all dined together at the Hôtel de Russie, and I am now waiting for Rumbold to go with me to a party at Madame Renferne's.

24th. On our return, the carriage was at the door to take us to Dresden, and we were soon installed in it; made up comfortably for the night. We stopped at Baireuth, where I met Pozzo de Borgo, going on a mission to Sweden from the Emperor of Russia.

We have just fallen in with a party of deserters from the French army, mostly Germans. They told us, the conscripts waited only a favourable opportunity to come over to the Allies.

25th. This morning at eight we drove into Dresden and put up at the Hôtel de Pologne. I went almost directly to Lord Cathcart. His lordship was particularly civil, yet apparently not over and above pleased with Sir Charles Stewart's mission. After an abominably bad breakfast, I went to take

possession of the quarters allotted me in the house of the Saxon minister of police. This gentleman is suspected of partiality to the enemy, but I found him very obliging, and attentive to my wishes. We dined at the Hotel; Sir Charles arrived to supper in very good spirits. The Emperor and the King came yesterday. The former is in the town, on the south of the Elbe-the latter in the suburbs north of it.

The whole of the infantry have passed through, also the greater part of the cavalry, on their way to join Blücher, whose head quarters are still at Altenburg. The number of the French forces is very much beyond what they stated it at at Hamburg-at the lowest estimate one hundred and fifty thousand men. In this respect, the Allies are inferior to them, but in the composition of their army they are greatly superior, and particularly so in point of cavalry.

Bonaparte left Paris on the 9th and is arrived at Erfurt, if not at Weimar; so that we may look out for a battle very shortly.

Austria shows no disposition to come forward; but they say Stadion is daily expected here. The line of the Allies extends from about Magdeburg to Altenburg, all along the Saale. The enemy débouchent by the Forest of Thuringia and occupy all that part as far as Weimar.

26th.-Engaged all the morning with Sir Charles, reading and discussing the Swedish treaty. We afterwards dined at the inn and in the evening I went by appointment to introduce him to the Chancellor Hardenberg. His Excellency was much

pleased to see him, and to me he gave the warm affectionate greeting of an old friend, enquiring with much interest after my brother and his wife. He is looking remarkably well, and in the course of a long conversation we had with him-of which I made a minute on my return-he showed that his morale had remained no less sound and good than his physique. He entered fully into the situation of the Allies at this moment, and evinced the most cordial inclination, on the part of Prussia, to renew those relations with us "qui n'auraient dûs être interrompues," and which had been so, only from the force of circumstances. He said he would be ready to meet any proposal from England with all possible loyauté et franchise. That on being agreed upon the basis, that in which all nations were equally interested-the deliverance of Europe from the common enemy-there would be little difficulty in adjusting the rest. That in 1807, perhaps, the arrangement might not have been so simple, but now, the only thing to be accomplished, was to make as soon as possible one vigorous and united effort.

Of Vienna, he said, "les choses vont s'améliorant de jour en jour;" and on the subject of Denmark and Sweden, that he regretted that the question of Norway should have arisen as "une pomme de discorde" to prevent those two powers from uniting in the common cause. The King of Prussia, he said, had written a very friendly letter to the King of Saxony inviting him to join the Allies, to which he had returned an evasive answer, that might be considered a pretty plain refusal to do so. But

Accounts of the battle of the 2nd are arrived, expect further intelligence hourly. Bessières, they affirm, is killed. Sir Francis d'Ivernois and Mr. Perceval dined with me.

5th.-Roused up in the night by the return of Sir Charles, who had arrived at head-quarters the day after the fight. This has made him more inveterate against Cathcart than ever.

After some very smart affairs in the course of the preceding week while the armies were concentrating, Wintzingerode's corps was attacked on the 1st, at Lutzen, by very superior numbers, but fell back in good order to Zwickau. This brought him in contact with Blücher, who was stationed with the main body of the Prussians at Pegau. The next morning, after waiting their advance, as we are told, till eleven o'clock, it was determined to attack the enemy, whose first line was very strongly posted in and about a small village called Gross Görchen. In front of this village they had ranged heavy lines of artillery in the form of a half sexagon, thus:

On one of their flanks, but a little in their rear, were Klein Görchen, Starsiedel, and one or two other small villages.

The battle began by an attempt to cut off some of the small corps the enemy had pushed out from their right, but which failed from a want of combination. After an obstinate and bloody conflict, however, they were driven from the village of Gross Görchen to the other villages before named, which having been