the weather would permit. After the loss of Breslau, the following were the only places that remained to the King of Prussia: Schweidnitz, Neiss, Glatz, Kosel, Silberberg, and Brieg, in Silesia; Graudentz, Konigsberg, Elbing, Stargardt, Colberg, Memel, Dantzick, and the fortress of Weichselmunde, upon the Vistula and the Baltic. Brieg surrendered on the 11th of January, and Schweidnitz was soon invested in form. Swedish Pomerania was invaded by Marshal Mortier, and Stralsund invested. The Swedish troops were driven from every place at which they made a stand; but General Victor, whom the Emperor intended should cover the siege of Colberg, was made prisoner by a detachment of cavalry, but afterwards exchanged for General Blucher.

Napoleon well knew, that unless he established a line of defence upon the Vistula, the Russians might possibly surprise the rear of his army in Eastern Prussia and this part of Poland. This line extended to the Baltic sea, and was brought as near as possible to Koenigsberg. The labours upon this line were begun almost as soon as the Vistula was passed, and had been completed with equal care and dispatch. Six thousand men had been continually employed in forming the entrenched camp before Praga, near Warsaw. It was composed of three lines, capable of containing from fifty to sixty thousand men. The works before Zakroczyn were judiciously disposed. The different places on the Vistula, as Wyzogrod, Plock, Dobrzyn, Bobrownik, &c. down to Thorn, were equally fortified at all points which might facilitate the passage of that river. The right bank was lined with troops, and the advanced posts extended to the Bug, the Narew, and the little river d'Orzgc. In these works, and upon this line, the French army reposed almost the whole of the month of December. Towards the beginning of January 1807, movements on both sides seemed to indicate more serious operations.

It appeared the Rus

sians had adopted a vast plan of defence. Their generals seemed to have regained confidence, on seeing Napoleon stop in the midst of the advantages he had gained, and imputed that to fear, which in him arose from motives of prudence. They could not imagine what other reason he could possibly have for going into cantonments upon the Vistula.

But upon the very first movement made by the Russian army, Napoleon having partly anticipated their plan of attack, ordered Bernadotte to fall back, to encourage the enemy in the prosecution of his designs. This movement. had the desired effect; and on the 25th of January, Bernadotte had orders to proceed with the division of General Drouet to Mohringen, where he fell in with the Russians, attacking General Pacthod in his position. The action soon became general, and terminated gloriously, especially as a part of Bernadotte's troops had marched several leagues, to arrive at the field of battle. The loss of the Russians was considerable; that of the French was from two to three hundred killed and wounded. They thus arrested the enemy at the commencement of his march, astonished him by their unexpected success, and in some measure damped the hopes conceived by the general-in-chief, of taking the French by surprise. Bernadotte had orders to continue his retrogradé movement to Thorn, to draw the Russians nearer the Vistula; but the officer who carried these orders being taken by the Cossacks, the Russian general avoided the snare laid for him.

Bergfried being attacked by Marshal Soult on the 3d of February, the Russians retired to Liebstadt. The next day there was another affair near the village of Deppen; and on the 5th the whole of the French army was re-united there. Upon the heights of Watterdorf, beyond Deppen, the Grand Duke of Berg found eight or nine thousand cavalry; he ordered several charges, and compelled

the enemy to retreat. Marshal Ney overtook a Prussian column under General Lestocq, endeavouring to effect a passage through Doppen. This general was completely routed, abandoned all his cannon and baggage, and two thousand prisoners fell into the hands of the victors. In consequence of these movements, the Russians lost a part of their line of communication; their depôts at Liebstadt and Guttstadt, and their magazines upon the Aller.

On the 6th of February the rear-guard of the Russian army was attacked near Hoff, and the village carried. The Russians continued their retreat; but on the 7th, at day-break, the French advanced-guard overtook them about a quarter of a league from Prussian Eylau, when a sanguinary engagement took place, especially with the Russians who had been stationed in the church and church-yard of this place. At ten at night both these positions were carried, the town of Eylau taken, and the streets covered with dead bodies. The Emperor then caused the division of Legrand to advance beyond the town, and that under St. Hilaire to move to the right: Augereau's corps was placed in the rear of Eylau, upon the left; and the Emperor fixed his head-quarters upon the plain behind Eylau, in the midst of the infantry of the guard; and in these positions the army passed the night between the 7th and 8th.

At break of day, on the 8th, the Russian army, eighty thousand strong, appeared in columns within half cannon-shot of Eylau, with a formidable artillery in its front, which soon commenced a warm cannonade upon the division of St. Hilaire, and upon the town. To answer this terrible fire, the Emperor repaired to the position near the church, and besides the artillery of the two corps under Soult and Augereau, ordered all that of his guard, consisting of sixty pieces, to advance. Augereau's

corps was drawn up in two lines towards the left of St. Hilaire's division, and between that and the church-yard, so obstinately defended on the preceding night. The Emperor arrived near the church at the moment when a line of the enemy's tiralleurs were advancing to get possession of this post, but the dispositions he ordered paralized their attack.

The violent and well-directed fire of the French artillery caused great ravages in the enemy's masses: to withdraw from this, they made a movement to their right, to carry the position at a wind-mill, at the extremity of the left of Leval's division, formed to the left of Legrand's corps, and some of the first houses in the town. In this critical situation, Napoleon ordered St. Hilaire's division to move upon the extremity of the enemy's left, whilst Augereau's divisions, formed in columns, debouched upon the centre of the same line, to repulse the Russian tiralleurs who had advanced to the foot of the little hill upon which the church and church-yard of Eylau are situated. These troops, and some other divisions, were intended to form an oblique line, which, by distracting the enemy's attention, was to prevent him from advancing against Marshal Davoust, who had arrived on the right, upon the left flank of the Russians. Scarcely had this movement disengaged the French left, when the atmosphere was suddenly obscured by a thick fall of snow, which covered both armies. During this obscurity, which lasted half an hour, the head of Marshal Augereau's column lost its way, and went too far to the left. When the sky cleared up, the Emperor, to remedy this false step, ordered the Grand Duke of Berg to place himself at the head of the divisions of Milhaud, Klein, Grouchy, and d'Hautpoult, and sustained by Marshal Bessieres at the head of the cavalry of the guard, to turn the division of St. Hilaire, in order to fall upon the enemy's right flank,

This manœuvre was executed with equal precision and intrepidity. The Russian infantry impetuously charged, was overthrown, and lost the artillery in their front.

Affairs then took a new direction: the enemy, supported by the woods near the village of Klein Sausgarten, was obliged to deploy, and extend upon their right. During the darkness before mentioned, a Russian column of five or six thousand men losing their way, presented themselves before the cemetery, when the advance of a battalion of the grenadiers of the Emperor's guard suddenly arrested the march of this column. At the same time another squadron near the Emperor, fell upon this terrified body with the rapidity of lightning. They had begun to give way, when General Bruyeres, at the head of a brigade of chasseurs, charging them in their rear, completed their route. Few were saved out of the six thousand that composed this unfortunate column. During this time, Marshal Davoust arrived upon the height of Klein Sausgarten, driving before him some of the enemy's tiralleurs; he soon found himself on the right of St. Hilaire's division, who had driven the left of the Russians from the plain before the village, the height of which the French ascended, and whence the enemy endeavoured to dislodge them three times successively, without effect. The French army was then placed obliquely with respect to Eylau, which supported its left, having its right on the plain, and near the woods that the enemy had occupied during the day, and was thus master of the field of battle, and the enemy in full retreat.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, the Prussian division under General Lestocq was seen to arrive on the extreme left of the French army, near the village of Altdorf, closely pursued by Marshal Ney. The head of this corps, consisting of grenadiers, seeing the Russian columns retreating towards Koenigsberg, quickened their pace to come to their assistance. The enemy's rear