utting into
practice this heroic resolution he swam across the waters of the Pleisse
in spite of the wounds he had received in the stubborn combat he had
sustained since morning. Then finding no longer any refuge from
inevitable captivity, except in the waters of the Elster, the brave
prince had thrown himself into it without considering the impassable
steepness of the opposite bank, and in a few moments he with his horse
was ingulfed beneath the waves. His body was not found until five days
afterwards, and then drawn from the water by a fisherman. Such was the
end, both deplorable and glorious, of one of the most brilliant and
chivalrous of officers, who showed himself worthy to rank among the
foremost French generals. Meanwhile the lack of ammunition compelled the
Emperor to retire promptly, although in remarkably good order, to Erfurt,
a town well furnished with both provisions and forage, as well as
material for arming and equipping the army,--in fact with all the
materials of war. His Majesty arrived on the 23d, having engagements
each day, in order to protect his retreat against forces four or five
times as numerous as those remaining at his disposal. At Erfurt the
Emperor remained only two days, and left on the 25th after bidding adieu
to his brother-in-law the King of Naples, whom he was never to see again.
I witnessed a part of this last interview, and remarked a certain
constraint in the manner of the King of Naples, which, however, his
Majesty seemed not to perceive. It is true that the king did not
announce his immediate departure, and his Majesty was ignorant that this
prince had secretly received an Austrian general.

[This was Count Mier, charged to guarantee to Murat the possession
of his kingdom if he abandoned the cause of the Emperor. He
abandoned him. What did he gain?--NOTE BY THE EDITOR.]

His Majesty was not informed of this until afterwards, and manifested
little surprise. Moreover (I call attention to this because I so often
had occasion to remark it), so many severe blows repeated in such quick
succession had struck the Emperor for some time past, that he seemed to
have become almost insensible, and it might well have been said that he
felt himself perfectly intrenched in his ideas of fatality.
Nevertheless, his Majesty, though unmoved under his own misfortunes, gave
full vent to his indignation on learning that the allied sovereigns
considered the King of Saxony as their prisoner, an