, and resting on the
fortresses of Wittenberg and Magdeburg, the corps of Oudinot,
Bertrand, and Reynier threatened Berlin and Bernadotte's army of the
north cantonned in its neighbourhood; while Davoust at Hamburg faced
Bernadotte's northern detachments and menaced his communications with
Stralsund. Davoust certainly was far away, and the loss of this ablest
of Napoleon's lieutenants was severely to be felt in the subsequent
complicated moves; with this exception, however, Napoleon's troops
were well in hand and had the advantage of the central position, while
the allies were, as yet, spread out on an extended arc.

But Napoleon once more made the mistake of underrating both the
numbers and the abilities of his foes. By great exertions they now had
close on half a million of men under arms, near the banks of the Oder
and the Elbe, or advancing from Poland and Hungary. True, many of
these were reserves or raw recruits, and Colonel Cathcart doubted
whether the Austrian reserves were then in existence.[344] But the
best authorities place the total at 496,000 men and 1,443 cannon.
Moreover, as was agreed on at Trachenberg, 77,000 Russians and 49,000
Prussians now marched from Glatz and Schweidnitz into Bohemia, and
speedily came into touch with the 110,000 Austrians now ranged behind
the River Eger. The formation of this allied Grand Army was a masterly
step. Napoleon did not hear of it before August 16th, and it was not
until a week later that he realized how vast were the forces that
would threaten his rear. For the present his plan was to hold the
Bohemian passes south of Bautzen and Pirna, so as to hinder any
invasion of Saxony, while he threw himself in great force on the Army
of Silesia, now 95,000 strong, though he believed it to number only
50,000.[345] While he was crushing Bluecher, his lieutenants, Oudinot,
Reynier, and Bertrand, were charged to drive Bernadotte's scattered
corps from Berlin; whereupon Davoust was to cut him off from the sea
and relieve the French garrisons at Stettin and Kuestrin. Thus Napoleon
proposed to act on the offensive in the open country towards Berlin
and in Silesia, remaining at first on the defensive at Dresden and in
the Lusatian mountains. This was against the advice of Marmont, who
urged him to strike first at Prague, and not to intrust his
lieutenants with great undertakings far away from Dresden. The advice
proved to be sound; but it seems certain that Napoleon intended to
ope