ck was terrible; but the pent-up fury of the
French carried all before it, and the grenadiers were wellnigh
destroyed. The battle might still have ended in a French victory; for
Davoust was obstinately holding the village which he had seized in the
morning, and even threatened the rear of Bennigsen's centre. But when
both sides were wellnigh exhausted, the Prussian General Lestocq with
8,000 men, urged on by the counsels of Scharnhorst, hurried up from
the side of Koenigsberg, marched straight on Davoust, and checked his
forward movements. Ney followed Lestocq, but at so great a distance
that his arrival at nightfall served only to secure the French left.

Thus darkness closed over some 100,000 men, who wearily clung to their
posts, and over snowy wastes where half that number lay dead, dying,
or disabled. Well might Ney exclaim: "What a massacre, and without any
issue!" Each side claimed the victory, and, as is usual in such cases,
began industriously to minimize its own and to magnify the enemy's
losses. The truth seems to be that both sides had about 25,000 men
_hors de combat_; but, as Bennigsen lacked tents, supplies, and above
all, the dauntless courage of Napoleon, he speedily fell back, and
this enabled the Emperor to claim a decisive victory.[124]

Exhausted by this terrific strife, the combatants now relaxed their
efforts for a brief space; but while Napoleon used the time of respite
in hurrying up troops from all parts of his vast dominions, the allies
did little to improve their advantage. This inertness is all the more
strange as Prussia and Russia came to closer accord in the Treaty of
Bartenstein (April 26th, 1807).[125]

The two monarchs now recur to the generous scheme of a European peace,
for which the Czar and William Pitt had vainly struggled two years
before. The present war is to be fought out to the end, not so as to
humble France and interfere in her internal concerns, but in order to
assure to Europe the blessings of a solid peace based on the claims of
justice and of national independence. France must be satisfied with
reasonable boundaries, and Prussia be restored to the limits of 1805
or their equivalent. Germany is to be freed from the dictation of the
French, and become a "constitutional federation," with a boundary
"parallel to the Rhine." Austria is to be asked to join the present
league, regaining Tyrol and the Mincio frontier. England and Sweden
must be rallied to the common cause. Th