down to sleep.

It was a night of terrible storm. The rain came down in such torrents
as to reduce the whole plain to the consistency of a morass, and the
rivers rose to a degree such as had hardly occurred before within so
limited a space of time. Yet was Napoleon busy till long past midnight,
in giving directions for the morrow. He saw by their line of fires that
the Allies had resumed the wide semicircle which they occupied previous
to the attack, and he fixed his plans accordingly. The whole of the
cavalry, with the exception of that of the Guard, which had previously
acted on the level from the Pilnitz gate, was drawn through the city,
and placed in position under Murat, in the suburb of Frederick-stadt.
It was to push, at early dawn, along the Freiberg road, and cut off the
retreat of the Allies in that direction. Meanwhile Victor, with his
infantry corps, was to debouch from the Freiberg barriers, and attack
in front the Austrian line, which Murat was directed to turn. In the
centre, between the gates of Dippoldiswald and Dohna, Marmont was to
occupy the attention of the force which had fallen back upon the
heights of Recknitz. St. Cyr, in prolongation of the line, was to
operate from the Grosse Garten; while Ney and the Duke of Treviso, with
four divisions of the Young Guard, were from the Pirna road to engage
the enemy's right, and to give time to General Nansouty, with his
cavalry corps, to effect the same manoeuvre on this flank which Murat
had received instructions to accomplish on the other. Thus was it
calculated that the Allies driven in, column upon column, and shut out
from two of their four lines of retreat, would suffer terrible loss,
and an opportunity be afforded to Vandamme of completing their
destruction.

The morning of the 27th came in with a continuance of rain, almost as
heavy as that which had fallen during the night; yet the battle was not
deferred. Murat, on the one side, and Nansouty on the other, began
their respective marches at peep of dawn; and being well masked, and
supported by the attacks of the infantry, they made rapid progress.
This is the more to be wondered at, on the part of the former officer,
that a _corps d'armee_ under General Klenau, which had failed to reach
its ground in time, was now in full advance, and its leading divisions
showed themselves at Gorbitz as early as seven in the morning. Had the
Allies held their own ground, leaving it to him to close up or fall
back