een previously
palisaded, and provided with _chevaux de frise_; but the greater part of
them were completely closed up. Loop-holes were formed in every wall,
and _tirailleurs_ posted behind them. In every garden and at every hedge
you stumbled upon pickets. As the inner town is better secured by its
strong walls against a first onset, they contented themselves there with
sawing holes in the great wooden gates, for the purpose of firing
through them. Every thing denoted the determination not to spare the
city in the least, however unfit in itself for a point of defence. The
only circumstance calculated to tranquillize the timid was the presence
of our king, for whom, at any rate, Napoleon could not but have some
respect.

As there was no appearance of gleaning much information abroad, I now
sought a wider prospect upon a steeple.--So much I had ascertained from
all accounts, that it was principally the Austrians who had been
engaged the preceding day. Some hundreds of prisoners had been brought
in; the church-yard had been allotted to these poor fellows for their
abode, probably that they might study the inscriptions on the
grave-stones, and thus be reminded of their mortality. Nothing was given
them to eat, lest they should be disturbed in these meditations. So far
as the telescope would command were to be seen double and triple lines,
the end of which the eye sought in vain. The French army stretched in a
vast semicircle from Paunsdorf to Probstheide, and was lost in the woods
of Konnewitz. It occupied therefore a space of more than one German mile
(five English miles). Behind all these lines appeared reserves, who were
posted nearer to the city. On this side the main force seemed to be
assembled. Towards the north and west the ranks were more broken and
detached. Of the armies of the allies, only some divisions could yet be
discerned. The Cossacks were plainly distinguished at a distance of two
leagues. They had the boldness to venture within musket-shot of the
French lines, alight, thrust their pikes into the ground, and let their
horses run about. The king of Saxony himself witnessed their audacity
whilst in the midst of the French army, about half a league from
Leipzig. A number of these men came unawares upon him; and a Saxon
officer, with eighty horse, was obliged to face about against them, till
the king had reached a place of safety. This was the principal reason
why he made his entry into the city on horseback