ng since
disappeared. Planks, hedges, and mud walls, were scarcely calculated to
resist the butt-end of a musket. This deficiency it was every where
necessary to supply by living walls, and that was in fact done in such a
way as filled us all with consternation.

At day-break on the 19th the allies put the finishing hand to the great
work. A considerable part of the French army, with an immense quantity
of artillery, had already passed through and into the city with great
precipitation. The troops that covered the retreat were furiously
attacked, and driven on all sides into the city. Napoleon attempted to
arrest the progress of victory by an expedient which had so often before
produced an extraordinary effect, that is, by negotiation. A proposal
was made to evacuate the city voluntarily, and to declare the Saxon
troops there as neutral, on condition that the retreating army should
have sufficient time allowed to withdraw from it with its artillery and
waggon-train, and to reach a certain specified point. The allies too
clearly perceived what an important advantage would in this case be
gained by the French army, which was less anxious for the fate of the
city than to effect its own escape. These terms were rejected, and
several hundred pieces of artillery began to play upon Leipzig. Our fate
would have been decided had the allied sovereigns cherished sentiments
less generous and humane than they did. It behoved them to gain
possession of Leipzig at any rate; and this object they might have
accomplished in the shortest way, and with inconsiderable loss to
themselves, if they had bombarded it for one single hour with shells,
red-hot balls, and Congreve rockets, with which an English battery that
accompanied them was provided. Their philanthropic spirits, on the
contrary, revolted at the idea of involving the innocent population of a
_German_ city in the fate of Moscow and Saragossa. They resolved to
storm the town, and to support the troops employed in this duty with
artillery no farther than was necessary to silence the enemy, and to
force their way through the palisaded avenues and gates. Meanwhile the
discharges of artillery, quite close to us, were so tremendous, that
each seemed sufficient to annihilate the city. The king of Saxony
himself sent flags of truce, entreating that it might be spared. The
allies replied that this should be done in as far as the defence of the
enemy might render it practicable: they promis