sentiments less generous and humane than they did.  It behoved them to gain possession of Leipzig at any rate; and this object they might have accomplished in the shortest way, and with inconsiderable loss to themselves, if they had bombarded it for one single hour with shells, red-hot balls, and Congreve rockets, with which an English battery that accompanied them was provided.  Their philanthropic spirits, on the contrary, revolted at the idea of involving the innocent population of a German city in the fate of Moscow and Saragossa.  They resolved to storm the town, and to support the troops employed in this duty with artillery no farther than was necessary to silence the enemy, and to force their way through the palisaded avenues and gates.  Meanwhile the discharges of artillery, quite close to us, were so tremendous, that each seemed sufficient to annihilate the city.  The king of Saxony himself sent flags of truce, entreating that it might be spared.  The allies replied that this should be done in as far as the defence of the enemy might render it practicable:  they promised, moreover, security to persons and property after the place should be taken, and to enforce as rigid discipline as it was possible on such an occasion.  To these assurances they annexed the condition that no French should be secreted in the city, declaring that every house in which one or more of them should be found would run the risk of being reduced to ashes.  The cannon, though only in a proportionably small number from the north and east, immediately began to play.  They were partly directed against the palisades at the gates, partly against the French artillery which defended the avenues.  For more than two hours balls and shells from the east and north frequently fell in the city itself, and in the suburbs.  Many a time I was filled with astonishment at the effects of one single ball, which often penetrated through two thick walls, and pursued its course still farther.  Though they seldom fell in the streets, it was impossible to venture abroad without imminent hazard of life, as these tremendous visitors beat down large fragments of roofs, chimneys, and walls, which, tumbling with a frightful crash, threatened to bury every passenger beneath their ruins.  Still greater havoc was made by the shells, which, bursting as soon as they had descended, immediately set their new habitations in flames.  Fortunately for us, but few of these guests were sent into the city.  The most that fell came from the north, that is, in the direction of Halle.  Three times did fires break out in the Bruehl, which, in a short consumed several back buildings contiguous to the city wall, and nothing but the instantaneous measures adopted for their extinction prevented farther damage.  The allies had no other object, in dispatching these ministers of destruction, than to shew the retreating enemy, who, in the general confusion and bustle, could no longer move either forward or backward, that, if they now forbore to annihilate him, it was because the innocent citizens might be involved in equal destruction with the fugitives.  Pfaffendorf, a farm-house near the north side of the city, had previously been set on fire, when the Russian jaegers had penetrated thither through the Rosenthal, and was consumed to the very walls.  As this place had been converted into an hospital, many poor fellows there fell a sacrifice to the flames.