d his possession
of "the full confidence of the Emperor." Eugene succeeded to the command
at the moment when it was obvious that Frederick William could no
longer, even if he would, repress the universal enthusiasm of his
people. On the 31st of January, the King made his escape to Breslau, in
which neighbourhood no French were garrisoned, erected his standard, and
called on the nation to rise in arms. Whereon Eugene retired to
Magdeburg, and shut himself up in that great fortress, with as many
troops as he could assemble to the west of the Elbe.

Six years had elapsed since the fatal day of Jena; and, in spite of all
the watchfulness of Napoleon's tyranny, the Prussian nation had
recovered in a great measure its energies. The people now answered the
call of their beloved prince, as with the heart and voice of one man.
Youths of all ranks, the highest and the lowest, flocked
indiscriminately to the standard: the students of the universities
formed themselves into battalions, at the head of which, in many
instances, their teachers marched. The women flung their trinkets into
the king's treasure--the gentlemen melted their plate--England poured in
her gold with a lavish hand. The rapidity with which discipline was
established among the great levies thus assembled, excited universal
astonishment. It spoke the intense and perfect zeal with which a people,
naturally warlike, had devoted themselves to the sacred cause of
independence. The Emperor of Russia was no sooner aware of this great
movement, than he resolved to advance into Silesia. Having masked
several French garrisons in Prussian Poland, and taken others, he pushed
on with his main army to support Frederick William. There was some risk
in leaving a considerable number of hostile fortresses behind him and
his own frontier; but this he encountered cheerfully, rather than permit
the Prussians to stand alone in the first onset of Napoleon, of whose
extensive preparations all Europe was well aware. The two sovereigns,
long attached to each other by the warmest feelings of personal
friendship, though of late compelled by the iron force of circumstances
to put on the disguise of hostility, met at Breslau on the 15th of
March. Tears rushed down the cheeks of Frederick William, as he fell
into the arms of Alexander--"Wipe them," said the Czar; "they are the
last that Napoleon shall ever cause you to shed."

The aged Kutusoff having died, the command of the Russian army was