Narrative of the most remarkable events which occurred in and near Leipzig, immedately before, during, and subsequent to, the sanguinary series of engagements between the allied armies and the French, from the 14th to the 19th October, 1813 ... / compiled and translated from the German by Frederic Shoberl.

  • Shoberl, Frederic, 1775-1853.
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Narrative of the most remarkable events which occurred in and near Leipzig, immedately before, during, and subsequent to, the sanguinary series of engagements between the allied armies and the French, from the 14th to the 19th October, 1813 ... / compiled and translated from the German by Frederic Shoberl. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    liim that the battle could not possibly be yet decided. The man, however, would not give up the point, but insisted that the intelligence was official. When I asked him if he had seen the captive prince and the 30,000 Austrians, as they must certainly have been brought into the city, he frankly replied that he had not. Several persons from the town had seen / no more of them than he, so that I.could give a shrewd guess what degree of credit was due to the story. In the afternoon of the 17th marshal Ney suddenly appeared at the door with a numerous retinue, and with- out ceremony took up his quarters in the house. I saw nothing of the emperor all that day, nor did any cir- cumstance worthy of notice occur. On the 18th, at three in the morning, Napoleon came quite unexpect- edly in a carriage. He went immediately to marshal Ney, with whom he remained in conversation about an hour. He then hastened away again, and was soon followed by the marshal, whose servants staid behind. His post must have been a very warm one; for before noon he sent for two fresh horses, and a third was fetched in the afternoon. The cannonade grew more violent, and gradually approached nearer. I became more aud more convinced that the pompous story of the victory the day before was a mere gasconade. So early as twelve o’clock things seemed to be taking a very disastrous turn for the French. About this time they began to fall back very fast upon the city. Shouts of Vive Vempereur / suddenly resounded from thousands of voices, and at this cry I saw the weary soldiers turn about and advance. Appearances nevertheless became still more alarming. The balls from the cau- non of the allies already fell very near us. One of them *