his _point
d'appui_ in the rear. This opinion, however, seemed to lose much of its
probability, as other French corps, under Ney, Regnier, Bertrand, and
Marmont, kept arriving here, and were afterwards joined by that of
Augereau. We had received authentic information that prince
Schwarzenberg had already advanced to Altenburg with the grand combined
army of Austria, Russia, and Prussia; and also that the crown-prince of
Sweden had his head-quarters at Zoerbig. Upon the whole, however, our
intelligence was unsatisfactory. For several days (that is to say, from
the 10th) it was reported that the emperor of the French would certainly
remove his head-quarters hither; that he had taken the road to Wurzen,
and was coming by way of Duben. This account was confirmed by several
detachments of the French guard. It is universally known that this
general preferably chooses those days on which he founds his claim to
glory, in order to distinguish them by new achievements. His proximity
to us, and the approaching 14th of October[2], strengthened the
anticipation of some important event in our neighbourhood. The light
troops of the allies, whom we took for the advanced guard of the
crown-prince of Sweden, were distinctly to be seen from the steeples of
the city, on the north side of it, towards Breitenfeld and Lindenthal.
Daily skirmishes ensued, and wounded French were hourly brought in. The
bustle in the city increased; the king of Naples had arrived, and fixed
his head-quarters at Konnewitz. Innumerable generals and staff-officers
filled all the houses. Not a moment's rest was to be had; all were in
bivouac. They seemed wholly ignorant of the motions of the allies; for
the same troops who went out at one gate often returned before night at
another; so that there was an incessant marching in and out at all the
four principal avenues of the city. These movements of cavalry,
infantry, and carriages, ceased not a moment even during the night It
was very rarely that a troop of cavalry, sent out upon patrol or picket
duty, returned without having lost several men and horses, who were
invariably, according to their report, kidnapped by the Cossacks. Upon
the whole, all the troops with whom the French had any rencounters were
called by them _Cossacks_--a name which I have heard them repeat
millions of times, and to which they never failed to add, that "the
fellows had again set up a devilish hurrah."

The Cossacks are indisputably the tro