ed with
victory--but beaten, harassed, and retreating!

The last few days of that retreat presented a scene of disaster such
as I can never forget. To avoid the furious charges of the Austrian
cavalry, against which our own could no longer make resistance, we
had fallen back upon a line of country cut up into rocky cliffs and
precipices, and covered by a dense pine forest. Here, necessarily broken
up into small parties, we were assailed by the light troops of the
enemy, led on through the various passes by the peasantry, whose
animosity our own severity had excited. It was, therefore, a continual
hand-to-hand struggle, in which, opposed as we were to overpowering
numbers acquainted with every advantage of the ground, our loss was
terrific. It is said that nigh seven thousand men fell---an immense
number, when no general action had occurred. Whatever the actual loss,
such were the circumstances of our army, that Moreau hastened to propose
an armistice, on the condition of the Rhine being the boundary between
the two armies, while Kehl was still to be held by the French.

The proposal was rejected by the Austrians, who at once commenced
preparations for a siege of the fortress with forty thousand troops,
under Latour's command. The earlier months of winter now passed in the
labours of the siege, and on the morning of New-year's Day the first
attack was made; the second line was carried a few days after, and,
after a glorious defence by Desaix, the garrison capitulated, and
evacuated the fortress on the 9th of the month. Thus, in the space of
six short months, had we advanced with a conquering army into the very
heart of the Empire, and now we were back again within our own frontier,
not one single trophy of all our victories remaining, two-thirds of our
army dead or wounded--more than all, the prestige of our superiority
fatally injured, and that of the enemy's valour and prowess as signally
elevated.

The short annals of a successful soldier are often comprised in the few
words which state how he was made lieutenant at such a date, promoted to
his company here, obtained his majority there, succeeded to the command
of his regiment at such a place, and so on. Now my exploits may even be
more briefly written as regards this campaign--for, whether at Kehl,
at Nauendorf, on the Elz, or at Huningen, I ended as I began--a
simple soldier of the ranks. A few slight wounds, a few still more
insignificant words of praise, were a