and, 18 miles further, the Saale: both these rivers, in the higher part of their course, flow nearly parallel with the Elbe; and Leipsic stands between them, being distant from the Saale 18 miles, from the Mulda 18, and from the Elbe 35. As therefore the united army of the crown prince and Blucher occupied a line along the left bank of the Saale, from its mouth nearly to opposite Leipsic, they cut off all communication between the force collected round Leipsic and the country westward of that line. At the same time, the communications of the enemy, on the same line further to the south, were cut off by the army which was marching from the neighbourhood of Dresden. On the 11th of October the advanced posts of these two armies were in communication, and they greatly outnumbered the army of Bonaparte.

Under these circumstances, the object of the allies was to force Bonaparte to a battle ;-his object, to weaken them by drawing off part of their troops. This he attempted to accomplish: the Prussian capital had been left exposed by the march of the crown prince to join the grand army of the allies; and Bonaparte, taking advantage of this, pushed a corps across the Elbe at Wittemberg: but the allies, aware of this movement, had ordered general Tauenstein with 12,000 men to fall back and cover Berlin; so that the French force, having failed in their object, were recalled.

Hitherto the allies of Bonaparte had remained more faithful to him than might have been expected; but about this period the king of Bavaria deserted him, and concluded a treaty of alliance and concert with Austria, by which general Wrede with 35,000 Bavarian troops was immediately to co-operate with those of Austria, 25,000 of which were to be placed under his command. But though the sovereigns in alliance with Bonaparte remained in

general faithful to him, yet their subjects were animated with a better spirit: the same means were employed to keep it alive, and to spread it, to which we have already adverted; and before we proceed to narrate the decisive battle of Leipsic, we shall extract one of the printed statements which were thrown into the towns in Germany in the possession of French garrisons, by means of the Baschir arrows employed in the army of the crown prince, as it contains an animated and impartial sketch of military events during the month of September.

"In the month of August the French armies attempted 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 Lusace, driven up to the right bank of the Elbe, expelled from Bohemia with considerable loss of men and cannon, and not only disturbed in their lines of communication between Dresden, Altenburg, Leipsic, and Erfurt, but those lines more than once broken and intercepted.

tory

"Towards the end of the month the combined. armies had passed the Elbe at all points. The vicof Gorde (the 16th of September) opened to the corps of general Walmoden the Old Mark, Luneburgh, and the route of Hanover and Bohemia; the victory of Dennewitz (the 6th of September) made the prince royal master of the duchies of Anhalt, and other provinces formerly Prussian, Hessian, and of Brunswick; opened to him the gates of Dessau, Halberstadt, Halle, Merseburg, Brunswick, Cassel; and, in fine, the victory of general Blucher at Bischofswerda (22d of Sept.) secured to him the passage of the Elbe at Elster, his march upon Leipsic, by turning Wittemberg, 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, awaited the enemy in the fatal valley of Culm, received him with courage, drove him back with intrepidity as often as he dared to descend from the mountains, wasted him with famine, demoralized him, and incessantly drove him back upon Dresden; which, from being a point whence he attacked, now became to him a point of retreat. In the mean while the Austrian army extended itself, on one side, as far as Freyberg, Chemnitz, and Altenburg; and, on the other, towards Thuringia and Bavaria; pushed forward strong detachments, and covered powerful diversions, operated by partisans as brave as fortunate: Colomb at Frankfort, Thielman at Naumburg, Platoff at Altenburg, and Mensdorf at the gates of Leipsic.

"Where was Bonaparte during the whole of September? At Dresden and its vicinity; again at Dresden and its vicinity; perpetually at Dresden and its vicinity. He sent his sick and wounded to Leipsic and Erfurt; burnt (by accident as was pretended, but designedly as we know) his magazines at Dresden; kept the king of Saxony and his family at Dresden, to give himself the semblance of security; and made of Dresden his Paris, his Germany, his Europe. It was from Dresden that those bags of letters were dispatched, which, being intercepted and published, have communicated just ideas of the true situation of the French army, and of the dispositions of the troops.

"Besides, from the 23d of September, the retreat of that army was begun; on the 28th, the emperor, the king of Saxony, the royal family, escorted by the guards, quitted Dresden, taking the only route which remained to them-that of Leipsic.

"The treaty of alliance concluded at Toplitz, between Austria, Russia, and Prussia-the negotia

tions opened with Bavaria-the unequivocal movements of the grand combined army towards the Maine the siege of Wittemberg resumed with vigour, in which were used the formidable Congreve rockets-the junction of the army of Blucher with the prince royal's-have proved to Napoleon the necessity of retreat more effectually than his ministers and generals had hitherto been able to do. The feeble attempt near Dessau necessarily failed. The prince royal and general Blucher passed the Elbe at the same time, in the early part of October, and are in line before Leipsic, ready to give battle and attack the enemy.

"Russia, Austria, and Prussia, have mutually guarantied their states on the footing of 1805; furnishing each other 60,000 auxiliary troops, and setting out with the unchangeable principle, of not permitting a single French bayonet to remain in Germany. Already the sceptre of the king of Westphalia is broken in pieces; the city of Cassel, through the instrumentality of general Tchernitcheff, has placed its keys in the hands of the prince royal. The old order of things succeeds to the most oppressive anarchy.

"The trenches are opened before Dantzic, Stettin, and Glogau. Their garrisons are destitute of necessaries; they have many sick. Magdeburg itself is ill provisioned. Napoleon is even placing the for

tresses on the Rhine in a state of defence."

2 Q

CHAP. XX.

Bonaparte's Embarrassment.-Movements of the Allies.Merseburg surrendered.-Frieburg taken by the Aus trians.-Pagau taken-General Vandamme sent Prisoner to Russia.-Cassel taken.-Bremen taken by the Russians.-Defection of the Allies of Bonaparte.-Lord Wellington's Army enters France.-Neutrality of the Cantons.-French Conscription of 280,000 Men.-Several Extracts from the London Gazettes from Sir C. W. Stewart, detailing the Advantages of the Allies.

EVERY arrival from Germany at this eventful period brings matter of importance, and affords us fresh cause of congratulation. The most formida ble armies of the allied powers are now in imme diate connection with each other; and the French are completely circumvented, and cut off from any direct communication with their own country. Bo naparte is evidently embarrassed in the extreme. During the whole month he has had no victory to announce: on the other hand, so eminently successful have been the exertions of the allies, that two or three extraordinary gazettes have been published in London almost weekly: every thing that they attempt seems to prosper.

It is utterly impossible, within the limits of our publication, to give even an abstract of such a vast mass of intelligence as has filled the newspapers during the past month.

During Bonaparte's stay at Dresden, the allies harassed his soldiers by incessant advances and retreats from all sides. At length, on the 7th inst. he quitted that city, and proceeded, not, as heretofore, to the right bank of the Elbe, but to the side of Leipsic, where the theatre of war seems now to be