enemy, and cover Konigsberg; he therefore detached general Kaminskoy with 9000 men to join him, and ordered general Lestory to fall back with all expedition upon Konigsberg, and to maintain that city, as he was moving upon Wehlau with the army to support the line of the Pregel.

Fortunately general Lestocy had intercepted a courier with the order from Buonaparte to marshal Victor, which directed him to attack general Lestocy on every point and march direct to Konigsberg; whereupon the general with that decision and judgment which has rendered his name illustrious amidst the wreck of his country's fame, immediately determined to anticipate the enemy's object, and throwing himself between Victor, already at Muhlsack, and the city, gained it notwithstanding the enemy's movements and numerous attacks; general Kaminskoy by extraordinary exertion joined him during the march, and reached Konigsberg, but a brigade on Lestocy's right, consising of four squadrons of cavalry, two battalions of light infantry, and a half battery of horse artillery, which had been posted to watch Braunburg, was, while marching, intercepted by the rout of Frischaf, and after a most gallant attempt to force a passage, was obliged to surrender, when within two miles of Konigsberg.

At night the Russian army began to cross the Aller, cheered by the assurance that they were not retiring, but moving to fight the enemy in a new position, for coufident from their late victory, they still felt an abhorrence of retrograde operations, and recollected that Eylau had secured them a long and luxurious repose. Day broke and three divisions of infantry had still to pass the bridges, but the enemy, unaccountably supine, although the whole operation was under their view and within musket-shot, made no movement, and the cossacks did not retire until two hours afterwards, when they fell back upon the bridges. Here the attaman stood to permit the passage of wounded men, successively coming from the town until near seven o'clock, when some French yagers appear ing, he ordered the first bridge to be cut

away-waited to see the order executedand in the same manner superintended the destruction of the second and third; after which he retired unmolested, leaving the enemy but their mass of killed and wounded, and only those Russians who from loss of limbs were unable to move.

The army on the 12th occupied Bartenstein, and Buonaparte's head-quarters were directed on Eylau, but his army was not put in motion before mid-day. A division of dragoons, and two brigades of light cavalry had cautiously followed the Russians along the right bank of the Aller, acting rather as a corps of observation than of pursuit. On the 12th the Russian army moved on Shippenbeil, but some cavalry marched on the left bank of the Aller. As heavy rain had fallen, the roads were distressingly bad.

The French army on the 13th moved from Eylau. Murat was ordered to join marshal Victor with his cavalry, at Konigsberg, and marshal Davoust to support him. Marshal Soult marched upon Creutzburg, marshal Lasnes upon Domnau, the marshals Ney and Mortier upon Lampasch. When Buonaparte found that the Russians were marching upon Shippenbeil, he had directed Murat, with the marshals Soult and Davoust, to move upon Konigsberg; and with the corps of marshal Ney, Lasnes, Mortier, and Victor, Oudinot's division, and the imperial guard, he in person marched upon Friedland.

On the same day the Russian army reached Friedland in the evening. During the morning a body of French bussars had been in the town, (on the left bank of the Aller,) but had been driven out by a brigade of Russian cavalry. From the information of the prisoners, general Beningzen believed that Oudinot's corps so shattered at Heilsberg, was alone stationed at Posthenon, about three miles in front of Friedland, on the road to Konigsberg. Having occupied the town and thrown forward some cavalry to cover it from insult during the night, be determined at four o'clock in the morning to fall upon Oudinot with a division and complete his extinction ; accordingly he ordered a division to cross

the Aller and advance to the attack. The enemy at first shewed but a very small force, which encouraged perseverance in the enterprise, but, by degrees, resistance so increased, that another division was ordered to pass the Aller, and, in addition to the town bridge, the construction of three pontoon bridges was directed. A heavy cannonade soon commenced, the enemy's tirailleurs advanced,―columns presented themselves, cavalry formed on the Russian right flank, and general Beningzen, instead of a rencontre with a crippled division, found himself seriously engaged, not only with Oudinot, but the two supporting corps of Lasnes and Mortier, sustained by a division of dragoons under general Grauchy, and by the cuirassiers of general Nansouty, whilst his own feeble army was lodged in a position that was untenable; from which progress could not be made against an equal force; nor retreat be effected without great hazard; and when no military object could be at tained for the interests or reputation of the Russian army, whose courage had been sufficiently established, established, without tilting for fame, as adventurers who have nothing to lose, and every thing to win.

Previous to the battle of Friedland, a proposition was made either by Russia in concert with her allies, to the ruler of France, or by the ruler of France to Russia and her allies, for a congress of all the belligerent powers to be held for the purpose of a general pacification. The Russian governments keeping a steady eye on Constantinople, objected to the admission of the Turks into the congress. Buonaparte insisted on the admission of the grand signior, as the friend and ally of France, in return for which, Russia would be permitted to make common cause with England in the congress. The basis of negotiation proposed by Buonaparte, between what he called the two belligerent masses, was equality and reciprocity, and a system of compensations. Though the negotiation had been interrupted by a series

of hot actions, and the king of Prussia and the Russian generalissimo had declined to enter into any treaty for an armistice or peace, as above noticed, after the battle of Eylau, Buonaparte, on the fall of Dantzic, made a direct proposal for renewing the negotiation to the emperor Alexander, accompanied by a declaration that he was desirous of peace above all things, and ready to listen to any reasonable overture to that end. That the French chief was sincere in this declaration, there is little reason to doubt. The progress of his arms from the Elbe to the Oder, and from the Oder to the Passarge, beyond the Vistula, and the commanding position of his army, might euable him to treat with advantage, and to return to Paris with glory. On the other hand, the battle of Eylau, as well as that of Pultusk, and other engagements, proclaimed the uncertain uncertain issue of a decisive action with such an enemy; and in whose favor a powerful diversion might be occasioned by a combined Swedish and English army, landing in Pomerania, in his rear, and commanding the course of the Oder from Stralsund to Frankfort. The necessity too, which would be involved by a prolongation of the war, of drawing levy after levy, of unfortunate young men and boys, from their wretched families, could not be any other than a cause of most serious alarm and apprehension. Since the commencement of the war against Prussia, that is, in the course of six or seven months, three several levies of conscripts had been raised. The last of these, by which the couscripts of September 1808, were called for in March, 1807, created a melancholly bordering on despair. Although all correspondence relative to the position of the armies was rigorously interdicted, and no letters suffered to pass without scrutiny, it was impossible wholly to conceal the mortality and the hardships inseparable from the various movements of the troops, and the unaccustomed rigors of a northern winter. A third conscription was generally considered

as an undertaking too bold for the internal administration, especially at a moment when a belief was current among all ranks, that the emperor would not be able to extricate himself from the embarrassments, in which, after the battle of Eylau, he was supposed to be involved. The government, apprehensive of the danger, endeavored to prepare the public mind for the event, by employing emissaries to announce their intention in whispers through the circles, and 3000 coffeehouses of the capital. But, an impression of terror was visible, even to a cursory observer, on the countenances of those who were either exposed to the danger, or shuddered at the prospect of new revolutionary horrors; of suspicion and joy, but half disguised in the lowering brows of the most resolute of the disaffected, constantly on the alert to improve the concurrence of opportunity, and who hailed this desperate expedient as a confirmation of their hopes. The orator of the government, Renaud St. Jean D'Angely, shed tears whether of sorrow or joy, as he stated the necessity of the measure; and the senate received it contrary to their usual practice; in silent acquiescence, and with every symptom of reluctance and dismay. In order to assuage the general grief, it was found advisable to qualify the new call for 80,000 men, with a clause enacting that they were then to be merely organized, and retained within the limits of the empire as a national guard. Circumstances enabled them to adhere to this condition, which most certainly would have been violated if the armies had sustained a defeat. In the midst of disquietude and fear, public festivals were multiplied, in order to give the administration at home an air of confidence; and an unusual degree of splendor brightened the court of the empress, who remained in Paris, and took a principal share in these mummeries of despotism.

It was not to be wondered at, therefore, if all things considered, Buonaparte should be desirous of a pacification. There was There was no reception, no return for him to Paris,

but in the character of a conqueror. Though after the fall of Dantzic, the main army was increased by a disposable force of more than 30,000; and, though there was neither truce nor armistice, he did not take any measures for immediately opening the campaign, and surprising the enemy according to his usual system, by the promptitude and the celerity of his movements, but manifested every symptom of a sincere and even somewhat earnest desire, that hostilities might be for the present terminated by negotiation. Till this negotiation should be brought to some issue, he seemed determined to remain on the defensive. The ambassadors attending his court at Finkenstein, were witnesses of the proud eminence on which he now stood, and abundant care was taken that they should fully understand the importance of his recent conquest, the great bulwark of the Vistula. When the ambassador of the port, (Seid Mahomed Vahid,) was presented, on the 28th of May, by the prince of Benevento, prince of Benevento, Maurice Talleyrand, to Buonaparte, he said to the ambassador, that he and the sultan Selim would be for ever would be for ever after as inseparably connected as as the right hand and the left.

The offices and administration of the government were now transferred from Warsaw to Dantzic, which seemed at this time to be intended for the capital of the French dominions in those parts. This city was visited on the 30th of May, by Buonaparte, attended by the greater part of his staff, his minister for foreign affairs, and, in short, all his court. He reviewed his troops, and gave orders for the reparation of the works demolished in the course of the siege. General Rapp, a great favorite, was appointed governor, and governor, and Le Febvre created duke of Dantzic. Each soldier engaged in the siege received a gratuity of ten francs. From his imperial camp at Finkenstein, May 28th, Buonaparte wrote to the conservative senate, that he had instituted duchies, as rewards for eminent services done him, whether military or civil, and

that in pursuance of this system of encouragement, he had created, by letters patent, the marshal Le Febvre hereditary duke of Dantzic, in consideration of his former attachment and late achievements. It was incumbent on him, he

VOL. I.

of

observed, to establish the fortunes such families as devoted themselves to his service, and sacrificed to a sense of loyalty and public duty, their own particular interests in life.

5 D

F

RIEDLAND is a considerable town situated on the left bank of the Aller; a long wooden bridge connects the town with the right bank-west of the town is a capacious lake-the country for a mile in the direction of Heilsberg forms a semicircle of apparent plain, but is cut by a deep and narrow ravine full of water, scarcely fordable, which runs from Domnau into the lakes. Near the town on the left of the plain, the ground abruptly descends, and woods border the Aller; a deep wood fringed the plain from the Aller to the village of Heinricksdorf, where there was a little interruption; but woods again closed round to the Aller, the banks of which were very steep, the fords subsequently used were unknown, and, when discovered fate in the evening, scarcely pervious. In the open space of the semicircle between the Aller and the rivulet, and about half a mile in front of Friedland, general Beningzen at first formed his troops in column, the cavalry being to the right of the Heinricksdorf road, and, as the succeeding division passed the Aller, the right and part of the centre of his infantry, were posted between that

road and the rivulet, and that part of the centre was covered by a branch of the rivulet which terminated in a broad piece of water his army was thus entirely exposed to fire, and every movement distinctly seen; whilst the enemy were sheltered from aim, and their force and operations were concealed till they chose to expose them. Upon the right of the enemy's position, he had the advantage of some rising ground, which commanded both banks of the Aller as far as the town.

After a heavy cannonade and much musketry, which the French maintained with their troops dispersed en tirailleur, the French cavalry and a body of their infantry, attempted to turn the Russian right, by the occupation of Heinricksdorf. Thirty French squadrons bore down upon the twelve Russian squadrons stationed to the right of the village, advanced rapidly, charged, and obliged the Russians to break; but the Russian cannon, and some columns of infantry moving forward, checked their progress, and compelled the cavalry to retreat in confusion and with some loss; during the attack the enemy's chasseurs, with several pieces of cannon, had lodged