f his approach, on the 23d of August, the
commander-in-chief at Riga made all his troops march out of the place in
three columns. The two weakest were to make two false attacks; the first
by proceeding along the coast of the Baltic sea, and the second directly
on Mittau; the third, which was the strongest, and commanded by Lewis,
was at the same time to retake Eckau, drive back the Prussians as far as
the Aa, cross that river, and either capture or destroy the park of
artillery.

The plan succeeded as far as beyond the Aa, when Grawert, supported
latterly by Kleist, repulsed Lewis, and following the Russians closely
as far as Eckau, defeated them there entirely, Lewis fled in disorder as
far as the Duena, which he recrossed by fording it, leaving behind a
great number of prisoners.

Thus far Macdonald was satisfied. It is even said, that at Smolensk,
Napoleon thought of elevating Yorck to the dignity of a marshal of the
empire, at the same time that at Vienna he caused Schwartzenberg to be
named field-marshal. The claims of these two commanders to the honour
were by no means equal.

In both wings, disagreeable symptoms were manifested; with the
Austrians, it was among the officers that they were fermenting; their
general kept them firm in their alliance with us; he even apprised us of
their bad disposition, and pointed out the means of preventing the
contagion from spreading among the other allied troops which were mixed
with his.

The case was quite the contrary with our left wing; the Prussian army
marched without the least after-thought, at the very time that its
general was conspiring against us. On the right wing, therefore, during
the time of combat, it was the leader who drew his troops after him in
spite of themselves, while, on the left wing, the troops pushed forward
their commander, almost in spite of himself.

Among the latter, the officers, the soldiers, and Grawert himself, a
loyal old warrior, who had no political feelings, entered frankly into
the war. They fought like lions on all occasions when their commander
left them at liberty to do so; they expressed themselves anxious to wash
out, in the eyes of the French, the shame of their defeat in 1806, to
reconquer our esteem, to vanquish in the presence of their conquerors,
to prove that their defeat was only attributable to their government,
and that they were worthy of a better fate.

Yorck had higher views. He belonged to the society of the _Frie