for four persons, I and my boy
stowed ourselves. The opposite places were soon taken by our countryman
and the Prussian, and away we went.

Our journey, in the early part of this day, had lain over the field of
the great battle of Dresden; we were now about to traverse the scene of
another conflict scarcely less desperate,--the affair, as by the French
writers it is designated, of Kulm. It would have been strange indeed,
had I failed to look round with more than common interest while
traversing these scenes of mighty strife. I endeavoured also to look at
them with a soldier's eye. I did my best to trace the positions of the
several columns of attack and defence; and I think that I succeeded. At
all events, I am certain that never till I saw the ground, was I able,
from the accounts given, whether by French or German writers, to form
any correct idea either of the battles themselves, or of their results.
Let me endeavour to supply to others the deficiency of which I have
myself experienced the pressure, by describing the localities, in
connexion with a brief narrative of the events which have immortalized
them.

The battle of Dresden, as well as the combats of Gross-Beeren,
Katzbach, and Kulm were, as I need scarcely observe, the immediate
consequences of the termination of the armistice in August, 1813.
Napoleon, weary of the war, had yielded to the demands of the
Prussians, and, evacuating Breslau, and abandoning the line of the
Oder, had fallen back upon Liegnitz. He himself declared, that he made
these sacrifices,--for such they unquestionably were,--in the hope
that, out of the armistice, a treaty of peace would spring, and there
is no great cause to doubt that he spoke sincerely. What could he hope
to gain by a continuance of the struggle? France was exhausted in every
pore; the best and ablest of her warriors were slain, such as survived
longed for rest, and were ready to sacrifice even their national vanity
in order to obtain it. On the other hand, the strength of the Allies
seemed to accumulate from day to day; and Austria assumed such an
attitude as to render her neutrality less than doubtful. I think, then,
that we may give Napoleon credit for having spoken the truth once in
his life, when he said, that he yielded much, by the evacuation of
Silesia, from an earnest desire for peace; but his desire was not to be
gratified. The Allies judged, and judged wisely, that a season of
repose would, by him, be employ