The next day witnessed the same sight, the allies drawing steadily back, showering shot from every post of vantage, and leaving not a prisoner or a caisson in the conquerors’ hands.  “What!” said Napoleon, “after such a butchery, no results? no prisoners?” Scarcely had he spoken these words, when a cannon-ball tore through his staff, killing one general outright, wounding another, and shattering the frame of Duroc, Duc de Friuli.  Napoleon was deeply affected by this occurrence.  He dismounted, went into the cottage where Duroc was taken, and for some time pressed his hand in silence.  Then he uttered the words:  “Duroc, there is another world where we shall meet again.”  To which the Grand Marshal made reply:  “Yes, sire; but it will be in thirty years, when you have triumphed over your enemies and realized all the hopes of your country.”  After a long pause of painful silence, the Emperor mournfully left the man for whom he felt, perhaps, the liveliest sympathy and affection he ever bestowed.  Under Duroc’s cold, reserved exterior the Emperor knew that there beat a true heart, devoted and loyal ever since they had first met at Toulon.  He received no one else for the rest of that night, and a hush of awe fell on the camp at the unwonted signs of grief of their great leader.

Possibly this loss strengthened the Emperor’s desire for a truce, a feeling not lessened by a mishap befalling one of his divisions, which fell into an ambush laid by the Prussians at Hainau, and lost 1,500 men and 18 guns.

For their part, the allies equally desired a suspension of arms.  Their forces were in much confusion.  Alexander had superseded Wittgenstein by Barclay, who now insisted on withdrawing the Russians into Poland.  To this the Prussian staff offered the most strenuous resistance.  Such a confession of weakness, urged Mueffling, would dishearten the troops and intimidate the Austrian statesmen who had promised speedy succour.  Let the allies cling to the sheltering rampart of the Riesengebirge, where they might defy Napoleon’s attacks and await the white-coats.  The fortress of Schweidnitz would screen their retreat, and the Landwehr of Silesia would make good the gaps in their ranks.  Towards Schweidnitz, then, the Czar ordered Barclay to retreat.

There two disappointments awaited them.  The fortifications, dismantled by the French in 1807, were still in disrepair, and the 20,000 muskets bought in Austria for the Silesian levies were without touch-holes!  Again Barclay declared that he must retreat into Poland, and only the offer of a truce by Napoleon deterred him from that step, which must have compromised the whole military and political situation.  What would not Napoleon have given to know the actual state of things at the allied headquarters?[300] But no spy warned him of the truth; and as his own instincts prompted him to turn aside, so as to prepare condign chastisement for Austria, he continued to treat for an armistice.