battalions: their number must have been between
15,000 and 20,000.

After he had retired from the eminence, several of the battalions
were observed to be drawn off to his left, and to be replaced by
others from the rear: the masses of his reserves appeared to
suffer scarcely any diminution.... Those troops which were to act
against our right continued their march: the others, opposite our
centre, planted themselves about midway on the slope, which
descended from the ridge towards our position; and, under the
protection of the guns that crowned the ridge, they appeared to
set our cavalry at defiance.... Yet there was no forward movement
in that part. To turn and overthrow our flanks, particularly the
right one, appeared now to be their main object."

This was the case. Napoleon was employing his usual tactics of
assailing the allies everywhere by artillery and musketry fire, so as
to keep them in their already very extended position until he could
deliver a decisive blow. This was dealt, though somewhat tardily, by
Ney with his huge corps at the allied right, where Barclay's 5,000
Russians were outmatched and driven back. The village of Preititz was
lost, and with it the allies' communications were laid bare. It was of
the utmost importance to recover the village; and Bluecher, at the
right centre, hard pressed though he was, sent down Kleist's brigade,
which helped to wrench the prize from that Marshal's grasp. But Ney
was too strong to be kept off, even by the streams of cannon-shot
poured upon his dense columns. With the help of Lauriston's corps, he
again slowly pressed on, began to envelop the allies' right, and
threatened to cut off their retreat. Bluecher was also furiously
assailed by Marmont and Bertrand. On the left, it is true, the
Russians had beaten back Oudinot with heavy loss; but, as Napoleon had
not yet seriously drawn on his reserves, the allied chiefs decided to
draw off their hard-pressed troops from this unequal contest, where
victory was impossible and delay might place everything in jeopardy.

The retirement began late in the afternoon. Covered by the fire of a
powerful artillery from successive crests, and by the charges of their
dauntless cavalry, the allies beat off every effort of the French to
turn the retreat into a rout. In vain did Napoleon press the pursuit.
As at Luetzen, he had cause to mourn the loss in the plains of Russia
of those liv