Meanwhile, on the west side of Leipzig, Bertrand had beaten off the attack of Giulay’s Austrian corps on the village of Lindenau.  But, further north, Marmont sustained a serious reverse.  In obedience to Napoleon’s order, he was falling back towards Leipzig, when he was sharply attacked by Yorck’s corps at Moeckern.  Between that village and Eutritzsch further east the French Marshal offered a most obstinate resistance.  Bluecher, hoping to capture his whole corps, begged Sir Charles Stewart to ride back to Bernadotte and request his succour.  The British envoy found the Swedish Prince at Halle and conjured him to make every exertion not to be the only leader left out of the battle.[376] It was in vain:  his army was too far away; and only after the village of Moeckern had been repeatedly taken and re-taken, was Marmont finally driven out by Yorck’s Prussians.[377]

In truth, Marmont lacked the support of Ney’s corps, which Berthier had led him to expect if he were attacked in force.  But the orders were vague or contradictory.  Ney had been charged to follow Macdonald and impart irresistible momentum to the onset which was to have crushed Schwarzenberg’s right wing.  He therefore only detached one weak division to cover Marmont’s right flank, and with the other divisions marched away south, when an urgent message from Moeckern recalled him to that side of Leipzig, with the result that his 15,000 men spent the whole day in useless marches and counter-marches.[378] The mishap was most serious.  Had he strengthened Macdonald’s outflanking move, the right wing of the allied Grand Army might have been shattered.  Had he reinforced Marmont effectively, the position on the north might have been held.  As it was, the French fell back from Moeckern in confusion, losing 53 cannon; but they had inflicted on Yorck’s corps a loss of 8,000 men out of 21,000.  Relatively to the forces engaged, Albuera and Moeckern are the bloodiest battles of the Napoleonic wars.

On the whole, Napoleon had dealt the allies heavier losses than he had sustained.  But they could replace them.  On the morrow Bennigsen was near at hand on the east with 41,000 Russians of the Army of Reserve; Colloredo’s Austrian corps had also come up; and, in the north, Bernadotte’s Army of the North, 60,000 strong, was known to be marching from Halle to reinforce Bluecher.  Napoleon, however, could only count on Reynier’s corps of 15,000 men, mostly Saxons, who marched in from Dueben.  St. Cyr’s corps of 27,000 men was too far away, at Dresden; and Napoleon must have bitterly rued his rashness in leaving that Marshal isolated on the south-east, while Davoust was also cut off at Hamburg.  He now had scarcely 150,000 effectives left after the slaughter of the 16th; and of these, the German divisions were murmuring at the endless marches and privations.  Everything helped to depress men’s minds.  On that Sabbath morning all was sombre desolation around Leipzig, while within that city naught was heard but the groans of the wounded and the lamentations of the citizens.  Still Napoleon’s spirit was unquenched.  Amidst the steady rain he paced restlessly with Murat along the dykes of the Pleisse.  The King assured him that the enemy had suffered enormous losses.  Then, the dreary walk ended, the Emperor shut himself in his tent.  His resolve was taken.  He would try fortune once more.[379]