o Napoleon than for any martial genius; and the brilliant Marmont had
openly scoffed at his receiving the title of Marshal. But, under his
quiet exterior and plodding habits, there lay concealed a variety of
gifts which only needed a great occasion to shine forth and astonish
the world.[109] The time was now at hand. Frederick William and
Brunswick were marching from Auerstaedt to make good their retreat on
the Elbe, when their foremost horsemen, led by the gallant Bluecher,
saw a solid wall of French infantry loom through the morning fog. It
was part of Davoust's corps, strongly posted in and around the village
of Hassenhausen.

At once Bluecher charged, only to be driven back with severe loss.
Again he came on, this time supported by infantry and cannon: again he
was repulsed; for Davoust, aided by the fog, had seized the
neighbouring heights which commanded the high road, and held them with
firm grip. Determined to brush aside or crush this stubborn foe, the
Duke of Brunswick now led heavy masses along the narrow defile; but
the steady fire of the French laid him low, with most of the officers;
and as the Prussians fell back, Davoust swung forward his men to
threaten their flanks. The King was dismayed at these repeated checks,
and though the Prussian reserves under Kalckreuth could have been
called up to overwhelm the hard-pressed French by the weight of
numbers, yet he judged it better to draw off his men and fall back on
Hohenlohe for support.

But what a support! Instead of an army, it was a terrified mob flying
before Murat's sabres, that met them halfway between Auerstaedt and
Weimar. Threatened also by Bernadotte's corps on their left flank, the
two Prussian armies now melted away in one indistinguishable torrent,
that was stemmed only by the sheltering walls of Erfurt, Magdeburg,
and of fortresses yet more remote.

Of the twin battles of Jena and Auerstaedt, the latter was
unquestionably the more glorious for the French arms. That Napoleon
should have beaten an army of little more than half his numbers is in
no way remarkable. What is strange is that so consummate a leader
should have been entirely ignorant of the distribution of the enemy's
forces, and should have left Davoust with only 27,000 men exposed to
the attack of Brunswick with nearly 40,000.[110] In his bulletins, as
in the "Relation Officielle," the Emperor sought to gloze over his
error by magnifying Hohenlohe's corps into a great army and
at