ns to support General
St. Cyr, who with fifteen thousand, was to occupy the fortified
positions near Dresden. Meanwhile, the Duke de Reggio, from his camp at
Dahme, was to march upon Berlin with five-and-thirty thousand men of
all arms; the Prince of Eckmuhl, from Bagedorf, was to co-operate with
him; while General Lemon, the governor of Magdeburg, was to keep open
the communication between them with a corps of six thousand men. These
movements were designed to accomplish a two-fold object. First, they
were to find for the Prussians work enough at home; and to put
Napoleon, if possible, in possession of the Prussian capital. Secondly,
advantage might be taken of the distraction thereby caused in the
counsels of the Allies, while Napoleon, in person, with the Guards,
and the mass of his army, threw himself upon the Austrians. For
Napoleon,--the armistice being virtually at an end,--became impatient
of inactivity, and hoped, while retaining Dresden, and looking to it
throughout as his pivot during the campaign, to find time, ere the
Allies should have perfected their arrangements, to strike a blow both
against Berlin and in Bohemia.

Napoleon had calculated less than he ought to have done on the activity
of Blucher and of the Russians. The former, instead of waiting to be
attacked, took the initiative in Silesia, and drove the French, with
great loss, behind the Bober.

Some time previously,--so early, indeed, as the 10th,--several large
masses of Russians and Prussians had entered Bohemia; and on the 13th,
the junction with the Austrians, which it was one of Napoleon's objects
to prevent, had been accomplished. Meanwhile, he himself, being
ignorant of this fact, set out on the 15th, for the bridge at
Koenigstein, whence he pursued his march by Bautzen and Richenbach to
Goerlitz. He reached it on the 18th, and being met there by M. de
Vienne, his plenipotentiary from Prague, he had the fact communicated
to him of the formal adhesion of Austria to the Grand Alliance. Though
he heard, at the same time, of the reverses in Silesia, he instantly
chose his part. He faced round towards Bohemia, penetrated the defiles
of the mountains, spread himself over the valleys behind Gabel and
Rombourg, and learned at the former of these places, that he was too
late. The Grand Army of the Allies was already among the hills that
border upon Saxony; and to the number of one hundred and fifty thousand
men, threatened Dresden with an attack.