·

1

the place, had burned the bridge. The whole bank of the Elbe was then freed from the enemy. The Emperor arrived at Dresden at one o'clock in the afternoon, and made a circuit of the city, visited the stores for building, at the gate of Pirna, and thence repaired to the village of Prinlenitz, issuing orders for a bridge to be thrown over the river. At seven o'clock in the evening, Napoleon returned to the palace where he was lodged, while the old guard entered the city at eight o'clock the same evening.*

On the 10th, the Emperor marched the division Charpentier into the new town, by the bridge of Dresden; and, towards night, the new bridge being finished, the whole army passed over to the right bank of the river, while the enemy appeared to be retreating to the Oder.

On the 12th, the imperial guards were drawn up in battalion and reviewed by the Emperor; during which the King of Saxony, who had slept the night before at Sedlitz, arrived at mid-day. The two sovereigns alighted from their horses, embraced each other, and then entered Dresden, at the head of the guards, amidst the acclamations of an immense population.

Napoleon left Dresden on the 18th, and slept at Harla, and, on the 19th, at ten in the morning, arrived before Bautzen, when he employed the whole of that day in reconnoitring the enemy's positions. He then learned that the Russian corps of Barclay de Tolly, Langeron, and Sass, together with Kleist's Prussian corps, had rejoined the combined army, its force being estimated at from 150 to 160,000 men.

On the 19th, in the evening, the enemy's position was as follows:-His left was supported by perpendicular mountains, covered with woods, along the course of the Sprie, nearly a league from Bautzen, which latter place

Mademoiselle Mars was so enamoured of Napoleon that she sought every means in her power to captivate him. While the Emperor remained at Dresden, that famous actress proceeded thither, with other theatrical performers, having provided all her best dresses; but, unfortunately, the carriage broke down upon the road, and she received a contusion which somewhat disfigured one of her eyes. That circumstance compelled the lady to keep her room for a few days; after which she performed two or three times before Napoleon, but had no opportunity of being admitted to a personal interview. The Emperor, being afterwards given to understand the state of the actress's mind, very jocosely said, "I am extremely sorry that her desires were not gratified, as it would have been such a trifle to me, and would, to all appearance, have conferred upon her so much felicity."

constituted his centre, the town having been intrenched and covered by redoubts. The right of the enemy leaned upon fortified rising points, which defended the debouches from the Sprie; such being only his first position.

The French distinctly perceived, at three thousand toises distance in the rear, the ground newly dug up, and works which marked the second position of the allies. The left was still supported by the same mountains at two thousand toises in the rear of those of the first position, and considerably in advance of the village of Hochkush. The centre leaned upon three intrenched villages, before which so many works were erected that they might have been considered as strong places. A marshy and difficult ground covered three-quarters of the centre; and, lastly, the enemy's right leaned in rear of the first position, on villages and a rising ground, equally intrenched. The headquarters of the two sovereigns were in the village of Natchen.

On the 19th, the position of the French army was as follows:-Upon the right was the Duke of Reggio leaning upon the mountains to the left of the Sprie, and separated from the left of the enemy by the valley. The Duke of Tarentum was to the left of Bautzen, opposite the village of Niemenschutz, while General Bertrand occupied the left of the Duke of Ragusa, leaning upon a windmill and a wood, as if intending to debouch from Jaselers upon the enemy's right.

The Prince of Moskwa, General Lauriston, and General Regnier were at Hoyerswerda, out of the line, and in rear of the left of the army.

The enemy, having ascertained that a considerable corps was to arrive by the road of Hoyerswerda, was doubtful whether it was not Napoleon's intention to turn his position by the right, change the field of battle, and cause all his intrenchments to fall, which had been erected with so much pains. As the enemy had not been informed of General Lauriston's arrival, he did not suppose that the column of the latter could consist of more than 16 or 20,000 men. On the 19th, therefore, the allies detached against them, at four o'clock in the morning, General York with 12,000 Prussians, and General Barclay de Tolly with 18,000 Russians, when the latter posted himself at the village of Klix, and the former at that of Weissig.

Count Bertrand had, in the mean time, sent General Perin, with the Italian division, to Koënigswerda, in order to keep up a communication with the detached corps; but, on arriving, General Perin made bad dispositions, since by not causing the neighbouring forest to be properly reconnoitred, and, having stationed his posts badly, he was, at four o'clock, assailed by a hourra! which threw some battalions into disorder. The result was the loss of 600 men, with two cannons and three caissons; but the division flying to arms, kept itself near the wood, and faced the enemy.

Count De Valmy, having come up with the cavalry, put himself at the head of the Italian division, and retook the village of Koënigswerda, at which moment the troops under Count Lauriston arrived on Weissig. The battle then commenced, and the corps of General York must have been totally destroyed, had it not been that the troops were compelled to pass a defile, by which means they could only come up in succession. After a battle of three hours the village of Weissig was carried, and York's corps being overthrown, was driven to the other bank of the Sprie, an event, in itself, of very great importance.

On the 19th, Count Lauriston remained in that position, the Prince of Moskwa being at Markersdorff, and Count Regnier at the distance of a league in the rear. On the 20th, at eight o'clock in the morning, the Emperor repaired to the heights in rear of Bautzen, when he issued the following orders:-that the Duke of Reggio should pass the Sprie, and attack the mountains which supported the enemy's left; the Duke of Tarentum was instructed to throw a bridge over the Sprie, between Bautzen and the mountains; the Duke of Ragusa to plant a second bridge across that stream, in the turn which the Sprie takes to the left, half a league from Bautzen; the Duke of Dalmatia, to whom his Majesty had confided the command in chief of the centre, was to pass the Sprie, and annoy the enemy's right; and, finally, the Prince of Moskwa, under whose orders was the third corps, with Generals Lauriston and Regnier, had orders to push forward on Klix, pass the Sprie, turn the enemy's right, and carry his head-quarters from Wurtschen to Weissenburg.

At noon the cannonade commenced. The Duke of Tarentum had no occasion to throw his bridge over the river, as he found one of stone before him, over which he forced a passage. The Duke of Ragusa planted his

bridge, and the whole of his corps passed to the other bank of the stream. After six hours' brisk cannonade, and several charges from the enemy, unattended by success, General Compans caused Bautzen to be occupied; General Bonnet captured the village of Nudkaya, and, by a running charge, took a plain, which rendered him master of the whole centre of the enemy's position. The Duke of Reggio also obtained possession of the heights, so that, by seven o'clock in the evening, the enemy was driven back on his second position. General Bertrand equally passed one of the arms of the Sprie, but the enemy kept the heights which supported his right, and, by that means, maintained himself between the Prince of Moskwa's corps and the French army..

At eight o'clock in the evening the Emperor entered Bautzen, when he was most graciously received by the inhabitants and constituted authorities. This affair, which might be called the battle of Bautzen, was merely the prelude to the battle of Wurtschen; however, the enemy began to comprehend the possibility of being forced in his position; his hopes, therefore, were no longer the same; and he, no doubt, from that moment had the presage of a defeat. All his dispositions were, in consequence, changed; the fate of the battle was no longer to be decided behind his intrenchments; so that his immense works and three hundred redoubts became of no utility. The right of his position, which was opposed to the four corps, became his centre, and he was thus obliged to offer his right, which formed a considerable portion of his army, to oppose the Prince of Moskwa, in a place he had not studied, and which he had imagined was beyond his position.

On the 21st, at five in the morning, the Emperor marched towards the heights, three quarters of a league in advance of Bautzen.

The Duke of Reggio sustained a lively fire of musketry from the heights which defended the enemy's left, and the Russians, who felt the importance of that position, had placed a strong body of their army, in order that their left should not be turned. Napoleon ordered the Dukes of Reggio and Tarentum to sustain the combat, for the purpose of preventing the enemy's left from disengaging itself, and conceal from him the real attack, the result of which could not be felt before noon or one o'clock. At eleven o'clock, therefore, the Duke of Ragusa advanced 1000 toises from his position, and engaged the allies amidst a

dreadful cannonade, which was kept up from all the enemy's redoubts and intrenchments.

The guard and the reserve of the army, concealed by rising ground, had easy debouches to advance by the left or right, according as the vicissitudes of the day might require, and the enemy was thus held in uncertainty respecting the real point of attack.

During that period, the Prince of Moskwa overthrew the enemy, at the village of Klix, passed the Sprie, and advanced, fighting, to the village of Prulitz. At ten o'clock he carried that place, but the enemy's reserve having advanced to cover his head-quarters, the Prince of Moskwa was driven back, and lost the village. The Duke of Dalmatia began to debouch an hour after noon, when the enemy, fully aware of the danger with which he was threatened, by the direction the battle had taken, knew that the only means of advantageously supporting himself against the Prince of Moskwa, was to prevent the French from debouching; and he, therefore, endeavoured to oppose the Duke of Dalmatia's attack. The moment for deciding the battle at length arrived, and the Emperor, by a movement to the left, in twenty minutes, marched with the guards, and a long train of artillery, upon the right flank of the enemy's position, which had become the centre of the Russian army, when Morand's and the Wittemberg division carried the rising ground which the enemy had made his point d'appui.

General Devaux established a battery, the fire from which he directed upon the masses attempting to take the position, while Generals Dulaulay and Drouet, with sixty pieces of reserve, advanced. Lastly, the Duke of Treviso, with the divisions Dumoutier, and Barrois, of the young guard, took the road to the Inn of Klein-Baschwitz, that crosses the road from Wurtschen to Bautzen.

The enemy was then obliged to uncover his right, and prepare for the new attack, of which the Prince of Moskwa took advantage, by advancing in front, when he got possession of the village of Prelsig, and, having come up with the enemy's army, marched on to Wurtschen.

It was at three o'clock in the afternoon, while the army was in the greatest incertitude as to the result of the struggle, that a heavy firing was heard along a line of three leagues, which announced to Napoleon that the battle

was won..