CHAP. XXII.

Consequences of the Battle of Leipsig.-Narrative of the most remarkable Events which occurred in and near Leipsig, by an Eye-witness, and sent to this Country in order to raise a Fund for the distressed Germans.

IN the mean time, the mighty edifice which Bonaparte had erected out of the ruins of the indepen dence and liberties of the continent, and which had been cemented by the blood of hundreds of thou sands, was falling to pieces: the victory of Leipsig, by freeing the minds of the princes of Germany from all apprehensions of his power, proved how eager they were to resume their legitimate character and authority. Wurtemburg deserted him, and made her peace with the allies; and the confederation of the Rhine was dissolved; so that, to use his own words, no sovereigns remained attached to him except the king of Denmark and the king of Naples. The attachment of the former to him in the day of his abasement and disasters is very extraordinary; and by no act was it more decidedly marked than by the impolitic but impotent declaration of war against Austria, which the king of Denmark issued almost at the very moment when Bonaparte was in the extremest crisis of his fate. The attachment of Murat was of a more questionable character: after the battle of Leipsig, instead of remaining to assist Bonaparte in his retreat, he hurried as rapidly as possible back to his own territories, and, it is said, lost no time in attempting to negotiate with the

allies.

There is not a man in the British dominions who will not peruse this work with extraordinary interest. It contains the details of a battle, whose results are still in progress, and whose memorable achievements history will record to the latest posterity. These details are furnished chiefly by one who was an eye-witness of much that he describes: but its chief value is perhaps to be found in that picture which it presents of French rapacity and French barbarity, acting under the guidance of a despot, whose present conduct shews him to be as dastardly and pusillanimous, as he has hitherto been cruel and unrelenting. It has been computed that nearly half a million of men were engaged in this dreadful conflict, aided by the destructive power of nearly 2000 pieces of artillery. The havoc, the slaughter, the misery that accompanied the battle, are all vividly pourtrayed in the pages of this work, to which we are anxious to give every possible publicity, not only from its intrinsic value, but because the produce of its sale is to be applied by the benevolent publisher in aid of the miserable inhabitants of Leipsig, whose distresses may be easily conceived. With a view, therefore, rather to stimulate, than gratify curiosity, we propose to submit the following extracts to our readers.

The subsequent extract is from a private letter written to Mr Ackerman (the publisher), shortly after the battle of Leipsig (being dated Nov. 22.)

By this five days' conflict our city was transformed into one vast hospital, 56 edifices being devoted to that purpose alone. The number of sick and wounded amounted to 36,000. Of these a large proportion died, but their places were soon supplied by the many wounded who had been left in the ad jacent villages. Crowded to excess, what could be the consequence but contagious diseases? especially as there was such a scarcity of the necessaries of life,

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and unfortunately a most destructive nervous fever is at this moment making great ravages among us, so that from 150 to 180 persons commonly die in one week, in a city whose ordinary mortality was between 30 and 40. In the military hospitals there die at least 300 in a day, and frequently from 500 to 600. By this extraordinary mortality the numbers there have been reduced to from 14,000 to 16,000. Consider too the state of the circumjacent villages, to the distance of 10 miles round, all completely stripped; in scarcely any of them is there left a single horse, cow, sheep, hog, fowl, or corn of any kind, either hay or implements of agriculture. All the dwelling-houses have been either burned or demolished, and all the wood-work about them carried off for fuel by the troops in bivouac. The roofs have shared the same fate; the shells of the houses were converted into forts and loop-holes made in the walls, as every village individually was defended and stormed. Not a door or window is any where to be seen, as those might be removed with the greatest ease, and, together with the roofs, were all consumed. Winter is now at hand, and its rigours begin already to be felt. These poor creatures are thus prevented, not only by the season, from rebuilding their habitations, but also by the absolute want of means; they have no prospect before them but to die of hunger, for all Saxony, together with the adjacent countries, has suffered far too severely to be able to afford any relief to their miseries.

"Our commercial house, God be thanked! has not been plundered; but every thing in my private house, situated in the suburb of Grimma, was carried off or destroyed, as you may easily conceive, when I inform you that a body of French troops broke open the door on the 19th, and defended themselves in the house against the Prussians. Luckily I had a few days before removed my most valuable

effects to a place of safety. I had in the house one killed and two wounded; but, a few doors off, not fewer than 60 were left dead in one single house.Almost all the houses in the suburbs have been more or less damaged by the shower of balls on the 19th. "It is of itself a great misfortune for a country when, in time of war, the supply of the troops is left to themselves by the military authorities, and when that supply is calculated only from one day to another; but this calamity has no bounds when they are French troops who attack your stores. It is not enough for them to satisfy the calls of appetite; every article is an object of their rapacity: nothing whatever is left to the plundered victim. What they cannot cram into their knap-sacks and cartouchboxes is dashed in pieces and destroyed. Of the truth of this statement the environs of Leipsig might furnish a thousand proofs. The most fortunate of the inhabitants were those who in good time removed their stores and cattle to a place of safety, and left their houses to their fate. He who neglec-. ted this precaution, under the idea that the presence of the owner would be sufficient to restrain those locusts, of course lost his all. No sooner had he satisfied one party, than another arrived to renew the demand; and thus they proceeded as long as a morsel or a drop was left in the house. When such a person had nothing more to give, he was treated with the utmost brutality, till at length, stripped of all, he was reluctantly compelled to abandon his home. If you should chance to find a horse or a cow, here and there, in the country round our city, imagine not that the animal was spared by French generosity-no such thing! the owner must assuredly have concealed it in some hiding-place, where it escaped the prying eyes of the French soldiers. Nothing-absolutely nothing-was spared; the meanest bedstead of the meanest beggar was broken

up, as well as the most costly furniture from the apartments of the opulent. After they had slept upon the beds in the bivouacs, as they could not carry them away, they ripped them open, consigned the feathers to the winds, and sold the bed-clothes and ticking for a mere trifle. Neither the ox, nor the calf but two days old; neither the ewe, nor the lamb scarcely able to walk; neither the brood-hen, nor the tender chicken, was spared. All were carried off indiscriminately; whatever had life was slaughtered; and the fields were covered with calves, lambs, and poultry, which the troops were unable to consume. The cattle collected from far and near were driven along in immense herds with the baggage. Their cries for food in all the high roads were truly pitiable. Often did one of those wretches drive away several cows from the out-house of a little farmer, who in vain implored him upon his knees to spare his only means of subsistence, merely to sell them before his face for a most disproportionate price. Hay, oats, and every species of corn, were thrown unthreshed upon the ground, where they were consumed by the horses, or mostly trampled in the dirt; and if these animals had stood for some days in the stable, and been supplied with forage by the peasant, the rider had frequently the impudence to require his host to pay for the dung. Woe to the field of cabbages, turnips, or potatoes, that happened to lie near a bivouac! It was covered in a trice with men and cattle, and in twenty-four hours there was not a plant to be seen. Fruit-trees were cut down and used for fuel, or in the erection of sheds, which were left perhaps as soon as they were finished. Though Saxony is one of the richest and most fertile provinces of Germany, and the vicinity of Leipsig has been remarkable for abundance, yet it cannot appear surprising, that, with such wanton waste, famine, the most dangerous foe to an army,