For the present Napoleon indulged the hope that the bribe of Silesia would range Austria’s legions side by side with his own, and with Poniatowski’s Poles.  Animated with this hope, he left Paris before the dawn of April 15th; and, travelling at furious speed, his carriage rolled within the portals of Mainz in less than forty hours.  There he stayed for a week, feeling every throb of the chief arteries of his advance.  They beat full and fast; the only bad symptom was the refusal of Saxony to place her cavalry at his disposal.  But, at the close of the week, Austria’s attitude gave him concern.  It was clear that she had not swallowed the bait of Silesia, and that her troops could not be counted on.

At once he takes precautions.  His troops in Italy are to be made ready, the strongholds of the Upper Danube strengthened, and his German vassals are closely to watch the policy of Vienna.[293] He then proceeds to Weimar.  There, on April 29th, he mounts his war-horse and gazes with searching eyes into the columns that are winding through the Thuringian vales towards Leipzig.  The auguries seem favourable.  The men are full of ardour:  the line of march is itself an inspiration; and the veterans cheer the young conscripts with tales of the great day of Jena and Auerstadt.

At the close of April the military situation was as follows.  Eugene Beauharnais, who commanded the relics of the Grand Army, after suffering a reverse at Mockern, had retired to the line of the Elbe; and French garrisons were thus left isolated in Danzig, Modlin, Zamosc, Glogau, Kuestrin, and Stettin.[294] Napoleon’s first plan of an advance direct to Stettin and Danzig having miscarried, he now sought to gather an immense force as secretly as possible near the Main, speedily to reinforce Eugene, crush the heads of the enemy’s columns, and, rolling them up in disorder, carry the war to the banks of the Oder, and relieve his beleaguered garrisons by way of Leipzig and Torgau.  The plan would have the further advantage of bringing a formidable force near to the Austrian frontier, and holding fast the Hapsburgs and Saxons to the French alliance.

Meanwhile the allied army was pressing westwards with no less determination.  The Czar and King had addressed a menacing summons to the King of Saxony to join them, but, receiving no response, invaded his States.  Thereupon Frederick Augustus fled into Bohemia, relying on an offer from Vienna which guaranteed him his German lands if he would join the Hapsburgs in their armed mediation.[295] For the present, however, Saxony was to be the battlefield of the two contending principles of nationality and Napoleonic Imperialism.

They clashed together on the historic ground of Luetzen.  Not only the associations of the place, but the reputation of the leaders helped to kindle the enthusiasm of the rank and file.  On the one side was the great conqueror himself, with faculties and prestige undimmed even by the greatest disaster recorded in the annals of civilized nations.  He was opposed by men no less determined than himself.  The illness and finally the death of the obstinate old Kutusoff had stopped the intrigues of the Slav peace party, hitherto strong in the Russian camp:  and the command now devolved on Wittgenstein, a more energetic man, whose heart was in his work.