he gravity of the
circumstances in which we were placed. A merchant of this city named
Moldrecht was accused and convicted of having distributed among the
inhabitants, and even in the army, several thousand copies of a
proclamation in which the Prince Royal of Sweden invited the Saxons to
desert the cause of the Emperor. When arraigned before a tribunal of
war, M. Moldrecht could not exculpate himself; and, indeed, this was an
impossibility, since several packages of the fatal proclamation had been
found at his residence. He was condemned to death, and his family in
deep distress threw themselves at the feet of the King of Saxony; but,
the facts being so evident and of such a nature that no excuse was
possible, the faithful king did not dare to grant indulgence for a crime
committed even more against his ally than against himself. Only one
recourse remained for this unhappy family, which was to address the
Emperor; but as it was difficult to reach him, M. Leborgne D'Ideville,
interpreting secretary, was kind enough to undertake to place a note on
the Emperor's desk, who after reading it ordered a postponement which was
equivalent to a full pardon. Events followed in their course, and the
life of M. Moldrecht was saved.

Leipzig, at this period, was the center of a circle in which engagements
took place at numerous points and almost incessantly. Engagements lasted
during the days of the 16th, 17th, and 18th; and his Majesty, as a poor
return for his clemency towards M. Moldrecht, reaped the bitter fruits of
the proclamation which had been scattered in every direction through the
efforts of this merchant. On that day the Saxon army deserted our cause,
and reported to Bernadotte. This left the Emperor a force of only one
hundred and ten thousand men, with an opposing force of three hundred and
thirty thousand; so that if when hostilities were resumed we were only as
one to two, we were now only one to three. The day of the 18th was, as
is well known, the fatal day. In the evening the Emperor, seated on a
folding stool of red morocco in the midst of the bivouac fires, was
dictating to the Prince of Neuchatel his orders for the night, when two
commanders of artillery were presented to his Majesty, and gave him an
account of the exhausted condition of the ammunition chests. In five
days we had discharged more than two hundred thousand cannon-balls, and
the ammunition being consequently exhausted there was barely enough left
t