with his new army, and, proceeding from Stoetteritz, to turn his enemies on the right flank, and, as he had often done before, to attack and annihilate them.  I was however egregiously mistaken.  The emperor went with his retinue scarcely a thousand paces, to the first houses of the Kohlgaerten, where he took up his quarters, and quietly passed the night.  The guards and the whole train likewise stopped in that neighbourhood, and there bivouacked.  It grew dark.  The palisades at the gate had left but a narrow passage, through which troops and artillery kept pouring without intermission.  People on horseback and on foot, who wanted to return into the city, had been already detained for several successive hours; the crowd every moment increased, and with it the danger.  To seek another entrance was impracticable, as a person would run the risk of being detained by the thousands of pickets, and shot, or at least dragged to the filthiest bivouacs.  The night was dark as pitch, and no hope left of getting home.  It rained fast, and not a corner was to be found where you might take shelter.  I was in the midst of more than a thousand horses, which threatened every moment to trample me under their feet.  Fortunately for me, they were all tolerably quiet The thunder of the artillery had long ceased; but, had it even continued, it could not possibly have been heard amidst the rattling of carriages and cannon; the shouts of soldiers and officers, as sometimes cavalry, at others infantry, wanted to pass first; the incessant cursing, cracking, pushing, and thrusting.  Never while I live shall I witness such a scene of confusion, of which indeed it is impossible to convey any conception.  It continued without intermission from four in the afternoon till twelve at night, so that you may figure to yourself the disagreeable situation in which I was placed.  No sooner had the first columns arrived at their bivouacs in the neighbouring villages, than a thousand messengers came to announce the intelligence in a way that sufficiently proved what unwelcome visitors they were.  Weeping mothers with beds packed up in baskets, leading two or three stark-naked children by the hand, and with perhaps another infant at their back; fathers seeking their wives and families; children, who had lost their parents in the crowd trucks with sick persons forcing their way among the thousands of horses; cries of misery and despair in every quarter:—­such were the heralds that most feelingly proclaimed the presence of the warriors who have been celebrated in so many regions, and whose imposing appearance has been so often admired, all these unfortunates crowded into the filthy corner formed by the old hospital and the wall at the Kohlgaerten-gate.  Their cries and lamentations were intermingled with the moans and groans of the wounded who were going to the hospitals, and who earnestly solicited bread and relief.  A number of French soldiers, probably such as had loitered in the rear, searched every basket and every pocket