tory. He
had charged Macdonald and Ney to march from Taucha to his support:
Marmont was to do the same; and, with these concentrated forces acting
against the far more extended array of Schwarzenberg, he counted on
overthrowing him on the morrow, and then crushing the disunited forces
of Bluecher and Bernadotte.[375]

[Illustration: BATTLE OF LEIPZIG]

The Emperor and Murat were riding along the ridge near
Liebertwolkwitz, when, at nine o'clock, three shots fired in quick
succession from the allies on the opposite heights, opened the series
of battles fitly termed the Battle of the Nations. For six hours a
furious cannonade shook the earth, and the conflict surged to and fro
with little decisive result; but when Macdonald's corps struck in from
the north-east, the allies began to give ground. Thereupon Napoleon
launched two cavalry corps, those of Latour-Maubourg and Pajol,
against the allied centre.

Then was seen one of the most superb sights of war. Rising quickly
from behind the ridge, 12,000 horsemen rode in two vast masses against
a weak point in the opposing lines. They were led by the King of
Naples with all his wonted dash. Panting up the muddy slopes opposite,
they sabred the gunners, enveloped the Russian squares, and the three
allied sovereigns themselves had to beat a hasty retreat to avoid
capture. But the horses were soon spent by the furious pace at which
Murat careered along; and a timely charge by Pahlen's Cossacks and the
Silesian cuirassiers, brought up from the allied reserves beyond the
Pleisse, drove the French brigades back in great disorder, with the
loss of their able corps leaders. The allies by a final effort
regained all the lost ground, and the day here ended in a drawn fight,
with the loss of about 20,000 men to either side.

Meanwhile, on the west side of Leipzig, Bertrand had beaten off the
attack of Giulay's Austrian corps on the village of Lindenau. But,
further north, Marmont sustained a serious reverse. In obedience to
Napoleon's order, he was falling back towards Leipzig, when he was
sharply attacked by Yorck's corps at Moeckern. Between that village and
Eutritzsch further east the French Marshal offered a most obstinate
resistance. Bluecher, hoping to capture his whole corps, begged Sir
Charles Stewart to ride back to Bernadotte and request his succour.
The British envoy found the Swedish Prince at Halle and conjured him
to make every exertion not to be the only leader left ou