d, and where, accordingly, the effect even of a small park
proved more decisive than that of a much larger one might have been
under other circumstances. Buonaparte spent all the night among the men,
offering large sums of gold for every piece that should be dragged to
the position, and continually reminding his followers that the Prussians
were about to fight not for honour, but for safety,--that they were
already isolated as completely as Mack's army had been at Ulm, and on
stern resistance must needs submit to the fate of the Austrians. Lannes
commanded the centre; Augereau the right; Soult the left; and Murat the
reserve and cavalry.

Soult had to sustain the first assault of the Prussians, which was
violent--and sudden; for the mist lay so thick on the field that the
armies were within half gunshot of each other ere the sun and wind rose
and discovered them; and on that instant Mollendorf charged. The battle
was contested well for some time on this point; but at length Ney
appeared in the rear of the Emperor with a fresh division; and then the
French centre advanced to a general charge, before which the Prussians
were forced to retire. They moved for some space in good order; but
Murat now poured his masses of cavalry on them, storm after storm, with
such rapidity and vehemence that their rout became inevitable. It ended
in the complete breaking up of the army--horse and foot all flying
together, in the confusion of panic, upon the road to Weimar. At that
point the fugitives met and mingled with their brethren flying, as
confusedly as themselves, from Auerstadt. In the course of this
disastrous day 20,000 Prussians were killed or taken; 300 guns, twenty
generals, and sixty standards. The Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of
Brunswick, being wounded in the face with a grape-shot, was carried
early off the field, never to recover. The loss of superior officers on
the Prussian side was so great, that of an army which, on the evening of
the 13th of October, mustered not less than 150,000, but a few regiments
were ever able to act in concert for some time after the 14th. The
various routed divisions roamed about the country, seeking separately
the means of escape: they were in consequence destined to fall an easy
prey. Mollendorf and the Prince of Orange-Fulda laid down their arms at
Erfurt. General Kalkreuth's corps was overtaken and surrounded among the
Hartz Mountains: Prince Eugene of Wirtemberg, and 16,000 men,
surrende