straining every nerve in Germany,
France, and Italy, Napoleon asserts that there will be an armistice
for the conclusion of a general peace.[297] But the allies were not to
be duped into a peace that was no peace. They had good grounds for
expecting the eventual aid of Austria; and when Caulaincourt craved an
interview, the Czar refused his request, thus bringing affairs once
more to the arbitrament of the sword. The only effect of
Caulaincourt's mission, and of Napoleon's bitter words to Bubna, was
to alarm Austria.

On their side, the allies desired to risk no further check; and they
had therefore taken up a strong position near Bautzen, where they
could receive reinforcements and effectually cover Silesia. Their
extreme left rested on the spurs of the Lusatian mountains, while
their long front of some four miles in extent stretched northwards
along a ridge that rose between the River Spree and an affluent, and
bent a convex threatening brow against that river and town. There they
were joined by Barclay, whose arrival brought their total strength to
82,000 men. But again Napoleon had the advantage in numbers. Suddenly
calling in Ney's and Lauriston's force of 60,000 men, which had been
sent north so as to threaten Berlin, he confronted the allies with at
least 130,000 men.[298]

On the first day of fighting (May 20th) the French seized the town of
Bautzen, but failed to drive the allies from the hilly, wooded ground
on the south. The fighting on the next day was far more serious. At
dawn of a beautiful spring morning, in a country radiant with verdure
and diversified by trim villages, the thunder of cannon and the
sputter of skirmishers' lines presaged a stubborn conflict. The allied
sovereigns from the commanding ridge at their centre could survey all
the enemy's movements on the hills opposite; and our commissary,
Colonel (afterwards Sir Hudson) Lowe, has thus described his view of
Napoleon, who was near the French centre:

"He was about fifty paces in front of the others, accompanied by
one of his marshals, with whom he walked backwards and forwards
for nearly an hour. He was dressed in a plain uniform coat and a
star [_sic_], with a plain hat, different from that of his
marshals and generals, which was feathered. In the rear, and to
the left of the ridge on which he stood, were his reserves. They
were formed in lines of squadrons and battalions, appearing like a
large column of