ld,
when he heard that the French had crossed the Neisse near its
confluence with the Katzbach, and were struggling up the streaming
gullies that led to Eichholz.

Driving rain-storms hid the movements on both sides, and as Souham,
who led the French right, had neglected to throw out flanking scouts,
the Prussian staff-officer, Muffling, was able to ride within a short
distance of the enemy's columns and report to his chief that they
could be assailed before their masses were fully deployed on the
plateau. While Souham's force was still toiling up, Sacken's artillery
began to ply it with shot, and had Yorck charged quickly with his
corps of Prussians, the day might have been won forthwith. But that
opinionated general insisted on leisurely deploying his men. Souham
was therefore able to gain a foothold on the plateau: Sebastiani's men
dragged up twenty-four light cannon: and at times the devoted bravery
of the French endangered the defence. But the defects in their
position slowly but surely told against them, and the vigour of their
attack spent itself. Their cavalry was exhausted by the mud: their
muskets were rendered wellnigh useless by the ceaseless rain; and when
Bluecher late in the afternoon headed a dashing charge of Prussian and
Russian horsemen, the wearied conscripts gave way, fled pell-mell down
the slopes, and made for the fords of the Neisse and the Katzbach,
where many were engulfed by the swollen waters. Meanwhile the Russians
on the allied left barely kept off Lauriston's onsets, and on that
side the day ended in a drawn fight. Macdonald, however, seeing
Lauriston's rear threatened by the advance of the Prussians over the
Katzbach, retreated during the night with all his forces. On the next
few days, the allies, pressing on his wearied and demoralized troops,
completed their discomfiture, so that Bluecher, on the 1st of
September, was able thus to sum up the results of the battle and the
pursuit--two eagles, 103 cannon, 18,000 men, and a vast quantity of
ammunition and stores captured, and Silesia entirely freed from the
foe.[355]

We now return to the events that centred at Dresden. When, on August
21st and 22nd, the allies wound their way through the passes of the
Erz, they were wholly ignorant of Napoleon's whereabouts. The
generals, Jomini and Toll, who were acquainted with the plan of
operations agree in stating that the aim of the allies was to seize
Leipzig. The latter asserts that they belie