sent Ney with new troops, and gave him the chief command, with strict orders to force his way to Berlin; so placing Bernadotte between the Leipsig army and himself at Dresden.  Ney endeavoured to pass the Swedes without a battle, but failed in this attempt.  A general action was forced on him on the 7th of September, at Dennewitz.  He also was wholly defeated; 10,000 prisoners and forty-six guns remained in the hands of Bernadotte; and Ney retreated in confusion upon Torgau.

Napoleon had now recovered his health and activity; and the exertions which he made at this period were never surpassed, even by himself.  On the 3rd of September he was in quest of Blucher, who had now advanced near to the Elbe; but the Prussian retired and baffled him as before.  Returning to Dresden he received the news of Dennewitz, and immediately afterwards heard that Witgenstein had a second time descended towards Pirna.  He flew thither on the instant; the Russian also gave way, according to the general plan of the campaign; and Buonaparte once more returned to Dresden on the 12th.  Again he was told that Blucher, on the one side, and Witgenstein on the other, were availing themselves of his absence, and advancing.  He once more returned to Pirna:  a third time the Russian retired.  Napoleon followed him as far as Peterswald, and, having contemplated with his own eyes the scene of Vandamme’s catastrophe, once more returned to his centre-point.

Not all Ney’s exertions could prevent Bernadotte and Blucher from at length effecting their junction to the west of the Elbe.  The Marshal, having witnessed the combination of these armies, retreated to Leipsig.  Napoleon ordered Regnier and Bertrand to march suddenly from Dresden on Berlin, in the hope of recalling Blucher; but the veteran persisted.  Meantime Schwartzenberg was found to be skirting round the hills to the westward, as if for the purpose of joining Blucher and Bernadotte, in the neighbourhood of Leipsig.  It became manifest to all that Dresden had ceased to be the key of Napoleon’s defence:  yet he clung to the Elbe, as he had done to the Kremlin.

He lingered at Dresden at least three weeks after all rational hope of holding that river was gone; and even at the last, when he perceived the necessity of transferring his person to Leipsig, he could not be persuaded to call in his garrisons scattered down the valley, which he still hoped some turn of events would enable him to revisit in triumph.

Towards Leipsig, however, as on a common centre, the forces of France, and all her enemies, were now at length converging.  Napoleon reached that venerable city on the 15th of October, and almost immediately the heads of Schwartzenberg’s columns began to appear towards the south.  It was necessary to prepare on the northern side also, in case Bernadotte and Blucher should appear ere the grand army was disposed of; and, lastly, it was necessary to secure effectually the ground to the west of Leipsig;—­a series