Part 36 (1/2)

Here could be seen a strange sequence of events It was the Comte de Merfeld who sixteen years previously had come to ask General Bonaparte, then the commander of the army in Italy, for the arht back to Vienna the peace treaty concluded between the Austrian government and the Directorate, represented by General Bonaparte It was he who had carried to the French e the Battle of Austerlitz, the proposal for an armistice made by the Austrian Eht General Merfeld once more into the Emperor's presence at a moment when he in his turn was in need of an arh hopes that this inters had gone too far for the allied sovereigns to treat with Napoleon, from whom such a plea denoted the weakness of his position So, although unable to conquer us on the 16th, they hoped to overcome us by a renewed effort with their superior numbers, and relied heavily on the defection of the German units which were still with us, and whose leaders, all e of the lull in hostilities of the 17th to agree on the ns The Comte de Merfeld'sof the 18th, the coalition began its attack The 2ndCavalry Corps, of which iment was a part, was placed as it had been on the 16th, between Liebert-Wolkwitz and the Kel, which broke out everywhere, was fiercest towards our centre, at the village of Probstheyda, which was attacked simultaneously by a Russian and a Prussian Corps ere driven off with treourously attacked Holzhausen, which Macdonald defended successfully

About eleven o'clock, a cannonade was heard fro, in the direction of Lindenau, and we learned that at this point our troops had broken through the ring within which the enemy believed they could contain the French ar towards Weissenfeld in the direction of the Rhine, without the ene able to stop him The Emperor then ordered to evacuation of the equip plateau, around Connewitz and Lossnig, was the scene of a ement; the earth shook with the noise of a thousand cannon, and the enee across the Pleisse They were driven back, although the Poles es made by our infantry Then the 1st French Cavalry Corps, seeing the Austrian and Prussian squadrons going to the aid of their allies, ee of Probstheyda and hurled themselves at the enemy, whom they overwhelmed and drove back to their reserves which were led by Prince Constantine of Russia Defeated again at this spot the allies built up an immense force in order to capture Probstheyda, but this formidable mass had such a hot reception from some divisions of our infantry and the infantry Chasseurs of the Old Guard that they promptly withdrew

We lost there Generals Vial and Rochambeau The latter had just been made a Marshal of France by the Emperor

Bernadotte had not yet attacked the French and seeed on or even threatened by the Prussian Marshal Blucher, he decided to cross the Partha above the village of Mockau, at the head of his troops and a Russian corps which had been placed under his coade of Saxon Hussars and Lancers which was positioned at this point saw the Cossacks who preceded Bernadotte approaching theyround suddenly and forgetting about their aged King, our ally as in the midst of Napoleon's troops, the infamous Saxons aimed their muskets and cannons at the French

This force led by Bernadotte, following the left bank of the Partha, headed for Sellerhausen which was defended by Reynier, whose corps was alents

Reynier having seen the desertion of the Saxon cavalry, distrusted their infantry, which he had placed next to the cavalry of Durette in order to restrain them; but Marshal Ney, with misplaced confidence, ordered hiie of Paunsdorf The Saxons had gone only a little distance frons in the fields of Paunsdorf they ran towards them at top speed, led by the shameless General Russel, their commander

Soht that the Saxons were going to attack the Prussians; so that General Gressot, Reynier's chief-of-staff rushed towards theht was an excess of zeal, only to find himself confronted by enehtening gap in the French centre, and had the additional effect of raising the alliedcavalry promptly followed the example of the Saxons

Not only did Bernadotte welcome the perfidious Saxons into his ranks, but he used their artillery to bolster up his ohich the former Marshal France now aimed at Frenchmen

The Saxons had scarcely entered the ene at us a hail of projectiles, i as Captain Bertain, an excellent officer who had his head taken off by a cannon-ball

So noas Bernadotte, a man for who to deliver to us the coup de grace

A presented an honourable exception, for as I have said, he had informed Napoleon that circumstances forced him to renounce his friendshi+p; but even after he had taken this final step, he ordered his troops not to attack the French without giving theh he was now an eneeneral and several officers who had handed over their troops to the Russians at the battle of Leipzig, and withdrew all their decorations froiments

Probstheyda, however, continued to be the theatre of a le The Old Guard, deployed behind the village, held itself in readiness to hasten to the aid of its defenders Bulow's Prussian corps having attempted to push forward, was heavily defeated; but we lost in the action General Delh principles who, having been involved with Napoleon since the creation of the Empire, had spent ten years in retirement, but asked to be returned to active service when he saw his country in danger

Facing a terrible cannonade, and continual attacks, the French line remained steadfastly in position Towards our left, Marshal Macdonald and General Sebastiani were holding the ground between Probstheyda and Stotteritz, in spite of numerous attacks by Klenau's Austrians and the Russians of Doctoroff, when they were assailed by a charge of more than 20,000 Cossacks and Baskirs, the efforts of the latter being directed , these barbarians rapidly surrounded our squadrons, against which they launched thousands of arrohich did very little daulars, do not kno to foro about in a mob like a flock of sheep, with the result that the riders cannot shoot horizontally without wounding or killing their comrades who are in front of them, but shoot their arrows into the air to describe an arc which will allow them to descend on the enemy This system does not permit any accurate aiet Those that do arrive have used up in their ascent the iiven to theht, which is very small, so that they do not as a rule inflict any serious injuries In fact the Baskirs, having no other arerous troops

However, since they attacked us in swarms, and the more one killed of these wasps, the e nued into the air of necessity caused a few dangerous wounds Thus, one of my finest NCOs by the name of Meslin had his body pierced by an arrohich entered his chest and e two hands, broke the arrow and pulled out the re part, but this did not save him, for he died a few moments later This is the only exa caused by a Baskir arrow, but I had several men and horses hit, and was myself wounded by this ridiculous weapon

I hadorders to an officer, when, on raising o, I felt e resistance and are of a slight pain in h, in which was embedded for about an inch, a four foot arrohich in the heat of battle I had not felt I had it extracted by DrParot and put in one of the boxes in the regi to keep it as a ot lost

You will understand that for such a iment, particularly at such a critical tiht by Bernadotte and Blucher were detere of Schonfeld, not far froe and Friederichs ere defending this important point, repelled seven assaults and seven times drove the allies out of houses they had captured General Friederichs was killed during this action; he was a fine officer who a his other qualities, was the most handsome man in the French arht take Schonfeld until Marshal Ney went to the aid of the village, which remained in French hands Marshal Ney received a blow on his shoulder which forced hihtfall the troops of both sides were, in most parts of the line, in the sa of the battle In the evening my troopers and those of all the divisions of Sebastiani's cavalry tethered their horses to the sa days, and almost all the battalions occupied the same bivouacs So this battle which our enereat success, was in fact indecisive, since being greatly inferior in nuainst us and harbouring a crowd of traitors in our ranks, we had not yielded an inch of ground The English general, Sir Robert Wilson, as in Leipzig in the role of British representative and whose testimony cannot be suspected of partiality, said of this battle:-

”In spite of the defection of the Saxon are and perseverance of the allied troops, it proved ies which they regarded as essential to their position Night ended the fighting, leaving the French, and in particular the defenders of Probstheyda, in the well-earned position of having inspired in their eneenerous inning to grow dark, I was ordered to put a stop, at the front of oes on after a serious engageeach other, the oing on, anduse of it to fall unexpectedly on our advance-posts, one cannot use drums or trumpets to instruct the infantryiiven to platoon commanders, in quiet tones, and they then send sous-officiers to look silently for the s the sarew less and soon stopped entirely

To otten and that this little withdrawal to bivouac was carried out in good order, it was my custom to have it supervised by an officer The one as on duty on this evening was a Captain Joly, a brave and well-trained officer, but inclined to be obstinate He had given evidence of this trait soiven the job of distributing some officer's remounts which had been presented, on the Emperor's instructions, to those who had taken part in the Russian ca my advice and that of his friends, had selected for hirey, which neither I norcolour, and which I had at first reserved for the tru, while M Joly, in carrying out his duty, was riding at a walk behind the lines of infantry, his horse stood out so clearly, in spite of the failing light, that it was picked out by the enemy and both horse and rider were seriously wounded The captain had a ht in a house in the suburb of Halle, to where, on the previous evening, I had sent Major Pozac

Although the latter's wound was not dangerous, he was grieved to think that the French army would probably leave and he would become a prisoner of the enemy, ould deprive him of the sabre of honour which he had been awarded by the First Consul after the battle of Marengo when he was still only a sous-officier; but I cale of the precious sabre which was given into the care of one of the regieons, and handed back to Pozac when he returned to France

Chap 30

The cal the terrible battles which they had just witnessed, the leaders of both sides could examine their positions