unparalleled in regard to the
commanders, great part of whom knew nothing of defeat but from the
discomfiture of their opponents, and among whom were three emperors, a
king, and the heir-apparent to a throne;--it is unparalleled in regard
to the form, for it was fought in a circle which embraced more than
fifteen miles;--it is unparalleled in regard to the prodigious armies
engaged, for almost half a million of warriors out of every region of
Europe and Asia, from the mouth of the Tajo to the Caucasus, with near
two thousand pieces of cannon, were arrayed against one another;--it is
unparalleled in regard to its duration, for it lasted almost one hundred
hours;--it is unparalleled in regard to the plan so profoundly combined
and so maturely digested by the allies, and characterized by an unity,
which, in a gigantic mass, composed of such, multifarious parts, would
have been previously deemed impossible;--it is unparalleled also in
regard to its consequences, the full extent of which time alone can
develop, and the first of which, the dissolution of the confederation of
the Rhine, the overthrow of the Continental system, and the deliverance
of Germany, are already before our eyes:--finally, it is unparalleled in
regard to single extraordinary events, the most remarkable of which is,
that the majority of the allies of the grand army, who had fought under
the banners of France in so many engagements with exemplary valour and
obstinacy, in the midst of this conflict, as if wakened by an electric
shock, went over in large bodies, with their drums beating and with all
their artillery, to the hostile legions, and immediately turned their
arms against their former associates. The annals of modern warfare
exhibit no examples of such a phenomenon, except upon the most
contracted scale. You may possibly object, that in all this there is
some exaggeration; and that, if I rate the battle of Leipzig so highly,
it is only because I happened to be an eye-witness of it myself; that
the French army is by no means annihilated; that in the uncommon talents
of its leader it possesses a sure pledge that it will regain from its
enemies those laurels which on various occasions they have ravished from
it for a moment. You may employ other arguments of a similar kind; but
to these I boldly reply, that neither do I consider the French army as
annihilated; that such a calamity could scarcely befall a force which in
the month of May, after ten engag