of war and woe; but with characteristic vigor he prepared to meet it.
As he left Paris for the campaign, in a parting message to the senate
he said,

"In so just a war, which we have not provoked by any act, by any
pretense, the true cause of which it would be impossible to assign,
and where we only take arms to defend ourselves, we depend entirely
upon the support of the laws, and upon that of the people whom
circumstances call upon to give fresh proofs of their devotion and
courage."

In the battle of Jena, which took place on the 14th of October, the
Prussian army was nearly annihilated, leaving in a few hours more than
forty thousand men in killed, wounded and prisoners. In less than a
month the conquest of entire Prussia was achieved, and Napoleon was
pursuing Frederic William, who, with the wreck of the Prussian army
was hastening to take refuge in the bosom of the Russian hosts which
were approaching. December had now come with its icy blasts, and
Napoleon, leading his victorious troops to the banks of the Vistula,
more than a thousand miles from France, established them in winter
quarters, waiting until spring for the renewal of the campaign.

Alexander, terrified by the destruction of his Prussian allies, halted
his troops upon the other side of the Vistula, and from his vast
realms collected recruits. For a few weeks the storms of winter
secured a tacit armistice.

In February, 1807, Alexander assumed the offensive and endeavored to
surprise Napoleon in his encampment. But Napoleon was on the alert. A
series of terrific battles ensued, in which the French were invariably
the victors. The retreating Russians, hotly pursued, at last rallied
on the field of Eylau. Napoleon had already driven them two hundred
and forty miles from his encampment on the Vistula.

"It was the 7th of February, 1807. The night was dark and intensely
cold as the Russians, exhausted by the retreat of the day, took their
positions for the desperate battle of the morrow. There was a gentle
swell of land extending two or three miles, which skirted a vast,
bleak, unsheltered plain, over which the wintry gale drifted the snow.
Upon this ridge the Russians in double lines formed themselves in
battle array. Five hundred pieces of cannon were ranged in battery, to
hurl destruction into the bosoms of their foes. They then threw
themselves upon the icy ground for their frigid bivouac. A fierce
storm had already risen, which spread over the s