of that solemn
hour would have been partaken by the inhabitants, but for the fate of
their own sovereign, personally esteemed and beloved, who now vainly
entreated to be admitted to the presence of the conquerors, and was sent
forthwith as a prisoner of war to Berlin.

Napoleon, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, lost at Leipsig at least
50,000 men.

The retreat of the French through Saxony was accompanied with every
disaster which a hostile peasantry, narrowness of supplies, and the
persevering pursuit of the Cossacks and other light troops could inflict
on a disordered and disheartened mass of men. The soldiers moved on,
while under the eye of Napoleon, in gloomy silence: wherever he was not
present, they set every rule of discipline at nought, and were guilty of
the most frightful excesses. The Emperor conducted himself as became a
great mind amidst great misfortunes. He appeared at all times calm and
self-possessed; receiving, every day that he advanced, new tidings of
evil.

He halted for two days at Erfurt, where extensive magazines had been
established, employing all his energies in the restoration of
discipline: and would have remained longer, had he not learned that the
victors of Leipsig were making progress on either flank of his march,
while the Bavarians (so recently his allies), reinforced by some
Austrian divisions, were moving rapidly to take post between him and the
Rhine. He resumed his march, therefore, on the 25th. It was here that
Murat quitted the army. Notwithstanding the unpleasant circumstances
under which he had retired to Naples in January, Joachim had reappeared
when the Emperor fixed his headquarters at Dresden in the summer, and
served with his usual gallantry throughout the rest of the campaign. The
state of Italy now demanded his presence; and the two brothers-in-law,
after all their differences, embraced each other warmly and repeatedly
at parting--as if under a mutual presentiment that they were parting to
meet no more.

The Austro-Bavarians had taken up a position amidst the woods near Hanau
before the Emperor approached the Mayne. He came up with them in the
morning of the 30th, and his troops charged on the instant with the fury
of desperation. Buonaparte cut his way through ere nightfall; and
Marmont, with the rear, had equal success on the 31st. In these actions
there fell 6000 of the French; but the enemy had 10,000 killed or
wounded, and lost 4000 prisoners, and these losse