that he would "only
make a show" (_piaffer_). It is true that the position of the Swedish
Prince, with Davoust threatening his rear, was far from safe; but he
earned the dislike of the Prussians by playing the _grand
seigneur_.[351] Meanwhile most of the defence was carried out by the
Prussians, who flooded the flat marshy land, thus delaying Oudinot's
advance and compelling him to divide his corps. Nevertheless, it
seemed that Bernadotte was about to evacuate Berlin.

At this there was general indignation, which found vent in the retort
of the Prussian General, von Buelow: "Our bones shall bleach in front
of Berlin, not behind it." Seeing an opportune moment while Oudinot's
other corps were as yet far off, Buelow sharply attacked Reynier's
corps of Saxons at Grossbeeren, and gained a brilliant success, taking
1,700 prisoners with 26 guns, and thus compelling Oudinot's scattered
array to fall back in confusion on Wittenberg (August 23rd).[352]
Thither the Crown Prince cautiously followed him. Four days later, a
Prussian column of Landwehr fought a desperate fight at Hagelberg with
Girard's conscripts, finally rushing on them with wolf-like fury,
stabbing and clubbing them, till the foss and the lanes of the town
were piled high with dead and wounded. Scarce 1,700 out of Girard's
9,000 made good their flight to Magdeburg. The failures at Grossbeeren
and Hagelberg reacted unfavourably on Davoust. That leader, advancing
into Mecklenburg, had skirmished with Walmoden's corps of Hanoverians,
British, and Hanseatics; but, hearing of the failure of the other
attempts on Berlin, he fell back and confined himself mainly to a
defensive which had never entered into the Emperor's designs on that
side, or indeed on any side.

Even when Napoleon left Macdonald facing Bluecher in Silesia, his
orders were, not merely to keep the allies in check: if possible
Macdonald was to attack him and drive him beyond the town of
Jauer.[353] This was what the French Marshal attempted to do on the
26th of August. The conditions seemed favourable to a surprise.
Bluecher's army was stationed amidst hilly country deeply furrowed by
the valleys of the Katzbach and the "raging Neisse."[354] Less than
half of the allied army of 95,000 men was composed of Prussians: the
Russians naturally obeyed his orders with some reluctance, and even
his own countryman, Yorck, grudgingly followed the behests of the
"hussar general."

Macdonald also hoped to catch th