of hunger.  It was a fortunate circumstance that many families had laid in a quantity of potatoes, which indeed might yet be purchased, though at an exorbitant price.  The bakers of this place were obliged to work up the small stock of flour in their possession for the use of the troops; and all other persons were driven from the doors by the guards with the butt-ends of their muskets; though the citizen who came in quest of bread had perhaps twenty men quartered upon him, who all expected him to find wherewith to satisfy their craving appetites.

Such was what might be termed the prologue to the grand tragedy which was about to be performed in an amphitheatre of many square miles, and to the catastrophe of which we looked forward with an anxiety that had risen to so high a pitch, because, in case of the longer continuance of this state of things, our own annihilation might be hourly expected.  That the grand armies of the allies were approaching Leipzig, on every side, we had heard through several private channels.  Napoleon had quitted Dresden, which he had been compelled to abandon almost solely by the want of all the means of subsistence.  We were long uncertain respecting his route, and so perhaps was he himself at first.  Many, who were qualified to form a judgment respecting military operation’s, were of opinion that he would make a push with his whole force upon Berlin and the Oder.  They supposed that those parts were not sufficiently covered, and considered the fortresses on the Elbe as his point d’appui in the rear.  This opinion, however, seemed to lose much of its probability, as other French corps, under Ney, Regnier, Bertrand, and Marmont, kept arriving here, and were afterwards joined by that of Augereau.  We had received authentic information that prince Schwarzenberg had already advanced to Altenburg with the grand combined army of Austria, Russia, and Prussia; and also that the crown-prince of Sweden had his head-quarters at Zoerbig.  Upon the whole, however, our intelligence was unsatisfactory.  For several days (that is to say, from the 10th) it was reported that the emperor of the French would certainly remove his head-quarters hither; that he had taken the road to Wurzen, and was coming by way of Duben.  This account was confirmed by several detachments of the French guard.  It is universally known that this general preferably chooses those days on which he founds his claim to glory, in order to distinguish them by new achievements.  His proximity to us, and the approaching 14th of October[2], strengthened the anticipation of some important event in our neighbourhood.  The light troops of the allies, whom we took for the advanced guard of the crown-prince of Sweden, were distinctly to be seen from the steeples of the city, on the north side of it, towards Breitenfeld and Lindenthal.  Daily skirmishes ensued, and wounded French were hourly brought in.  The bustle in the city increased; the king of Naples had arrived, and fixed his head-quarters