guard, hardly more than a company, to form line, in order to check the enemy's advance, and despatched or ders to the Old Guard to attack the column on one flank, while a brigade of Murat's horse charged it on the other.* The Russians, disordered by success, and ignorant of the inestimable prize which was almost within their grasp, were arrested by the firm countenance of the little band of heroes who formed Napoleon's last resource; and before they could re-form their ranks for a regular conflict, the enemy were upon them on either flank, and almost the whole division was cut to pieces on the spot.† 67. The disorder produced by the repulse of St Hilaire's division, and the almost total destruction of Augereau's corps, however, was such, that the French Emperor was compelled to strain every nerve to repair it. For this purpose he prepared a grand charge by the whole cavalry and Imperial Guard, supported in rear by the divisions of Soult, which occupied Eylau and its vicinity, now stripped of any other defenders. The onset of this enormous mass, mustering fourteen thousand cavalry and twenty-five thousand foot soldiers, supported by two hundred pieces of cannon, was the more formidable, that the thick storm of snow, as favourable now to them as it had before been to the enemy, *"High on a turfy bank the chief was rear'd, Fearless, and therefore worthy to be fear'd." LUCAN, Pharsalia, v. "I never was so much struck with any; thing in my life," said General Bertrand at St Helena, as by the Emperor at Eylau at the moment when, alone with some officers of his staff, he was almost trodden under foot by a column of four or five thousand Russians. The Emperor was on foot, and Berthier gave orders instantly for the horses to be brought forward; the Emperor gave him a reproachful look, and instead ordered a In prevented them from being perceived till they were close upon the first line of the enemy. The shock was irresistible: the front line of the Russians was forced to give ground, and in some places thrown into disorder; their cavalry crushed by the enormous weight of the seventy squadrons which followed the white plume of Murat; and a desperate mêlée ensued, in which prodigious losses were sustained on both sides. The Russian battalions, though broken, did not lay down their arms or fly, but, falling back on such as yet stood firm, or uniting in little knots together, still maintained the combat with the most dogged resolution. stantly perceiving the extent of the danger, Benningsen, with his whole staff, galloped forward from his station in the rear to the front, and at the same time despatched orders to the whole infantry of the reserve to close their ranks, and advance to the support of their comrades engaged. These brave men, inclining inwards, pressed eagerly on, regardless of the shower of grape and musketry which fell on their advancing ranks, and uniting with the first line, charged home with loud hurrahs upon the enemy. But the onset of the French was at first irresistible. In the shock, the Russian division of Essen was broken, and Murat's horse, pursuing their advantage, swept through several openings, and got as far as the reserve cavalry of Benningsen. Already the last reserve batteries of the centre were discharging grape with the utmost vehemence on the terrible assailants; but no sooner did Platoff, who was in the rear of all, see them approaching with loud cries, and all the tumult of victory, than he gave orders to the Cossacks of the Don to advance. Regardless of danger, the children of the desert joyfully galloped forward to the charge, their long lances in rest, their blood-horses at speed: in an instant the French cuirassiers were broken, pierced through, and scattered. Retreat was impossible through the again closed ranks of the enemy, and eighteen only of the whole battalion of his Guard, which was at a little distance, to advance. He himself kept his ground as the Russians approached, repeating frequently the words, What boldness! what boldness!' At the sight of the grenadiers of his Guard the Russians made a dead pause; the Emperor did not stir, but all around him trembled."-LAS CASES, ii. 151. See also Relation de la Bataille d'Eylau, par un Témoin Oculaire. Camp. en Prusse et Po-body regained their own lines by a logne, iv. 45. long circuit; while five hundred and thirty Cossacks returned, each cased in the shining armour which he had stripped from the dead body of an opponent. At all other points the enemy were, after a desperate struggle, driven back, and several eagles, with fourteen pieces of cannon, remained in the hands of the victors. 68. The battle appeared gained: the French left and centre had been defeated with extraordinary loss; their last reserves, with the exception of part of the Guard, had been engaged, without success; to the cries of Vive l'Empereur! and the shouts of enthusiasm with which they commenced the combat, had succeeded a sullen silence along the whole line in front of Eylau; the Russians were several hundred paces in advance of the ground which they occupied in the morning; and a distant cannonade on both sides evinced the exhaustion and fatigue which was mutually felt. Lestocq had not yet arrived, but he was hourly and anxiously expected, and the addition of his fresh and gallant corps would, it was hoped, enable Benningsen to complete the victory. But while all eyes were eagerly turned to their right, where it was expected his standards would first appear, a terrible disaster, well-nigh attended with fatal consequences, took place on the left. Davoust, who was intrusted with the attack which was intended to be the decisive one in that quarter, had long been arrested by the firm countenance of Bagavout and Ostermann Tolstoy; but at length the increasing numbers and vigorous attacks of the French prevailed. Friant, whose division headed the attack, carried Serpalten, and, pushing on beyond it, the village of Klein-Sausgarten fell into his hands. It was again reconquered by the Russians, but finally remained in the possession of their antagonists. 69. Nor was the action less warmly contested at Serpalten. Supported by a battery of thirty pieces of artillery and part of the reserve, Bagavout returned to the charge, and there for long made head against the superior forces of St Hilaire and Morand at the head of one of Soult's and one of Davoust's best divisions. At length the were two lines advanced to within pistolshot, when the Russians gave way; the cannoneers, bravely resisting, bayoneted at their guns, and the pieces were taken. They were now reinforced by two regiments which Benningsen sent to their support, and the French, in their turn, were charged in flank by cavalry, broken, and driven back upwards of three hundred yards. But notwithstanding this success at Serpalten, the progress of the enemy at Klein-Sausgarten was so alarming, that the Russians were unable to maintain themselves on the ground they had so gallantly regained. Friant debouched from it in their rear in great strength; and, rapidly continuing his advance from left to right of the Russian position, he had soon passed, driving everything before him, the whole ground occupied by their left wing; the guns so fiercely contested were abandoned by the Russians; and, continuing his triumphant course in their rear, he carried by assault the hamlet of Auklappen, and was making dispositions for the attack of Kutschitten, which had been the headquarters of Benningsen during the preceding night, and lay directly behind the Russian centre. Never was change more sudden; the victorious centre, turned and attacked both in flank and rear, seemed on the point of being driven off the field of battle; already the shouts of victory were heard from Davoust's divisions, and vast volumes of black smoke, blown along the whole Russian centre and right from the flames of Serpalten, evinced in frightful colours the progress of the enemy on their left. 70. The firmness of Benningsen, however, was equal to the emergency. Orders were despatched to the whole left wing to fall back, so as to come nearly at right angles to the centre and right; and although this retrograde movement, performed in presence of a victorious enemy, was necessarily attended with some disorder, yet it was successfully accomplished; and after sustaining considerable loss, the Russian left wing was drawn up, facing outwards, nearly at right angles to the centre, which still retained its advanced position, midway between the ground | hamlet of Auklappen and the wood occupied by the two armies where the adjoining. The division of Friant, fight began in the morning. As the wearied by eight hours' fighting, was Russian left drew back to the neigh- little in a condition to withstand these bourhood of the centre, it received the fresh troops, flushed by so important support of the reserves which Benning- an advantage. The combat, however, sen wheeled about to the assistance of was terrible: Davoust was there; his the discomfited wing: and although troops, though exhausted, were more Friant carried Kutschitten, this was the than double the numbers of the enemy; last advantage he gained in that quar- and he made the utmost effort to mainter, and the victorious columns of Da- tain his ground. "Here," said the voust were at length arrested. marshal, is the place where the brave should find a glorious death; the cowards will perish in the deserts of Siberia." Notwithstanding all his exertions, however, Friant was driven out of the wood, after an hour's combat, with the loss of three thousand men; the Russians, by a bold attack of cavalry, regained the smoking walls of Auklappen, and the whole allied line was pressing on in proud array, driving the enemy before them over the open ground between that ruin and Sausgarten, when night drew her sable mantle over this scene of blood. 71. The battle was in this critical state, with the French victorious on one wing and the Russians on the centre and the other, but without any decisive advantage to either side, when the corps of Lestocq, so long expected, at length appeared on the extreme Russian right, driving before him the French battalions which were stationed near the village of Altholf. Orders were immediately despatched to him to defile as quickly as possible in the rear of the Russian right, so as to assist in the recapture of Kutschitten behind their centre, where St Hilaire had established himself in so threatening a man. ner. These directions were rapidly and ably performed. Moving swiftly over the open ground in the rear of the Russian right in three columns, he arrived in the neighbourhood of Kutschitten an hour before it was dark, with seven thousand men, having left two thousand to occupy Altholf, and lost nearly a thousand in the course of the march that morning, which had been a constant fight with Marshal Ney's corps. Dispositions for attacking the village and cutting off the retreat of the enemy were instantly made. A terrible cannonade was kept up on its houses, and the Prussians, under cover of the guns, charging in three columns, carried it with irresistible force, destroying or making prisoners the 51st and one battalion of the 108th regiments, stationed there, with an eagle, and recovering the Russian guns which had been abandoned on the retreat from Serpalten. Not content with this great success, Lestocq immediately re-formed his divisions in line, with the cavalry and Cossacks in rear, and advanced against the 72. The battle was over on the centre and left, and already the French lines were illuminated by the fire of innumerable bivouacs, when both armies were startled by a sharp fire, succeeded by loud shouts, on the extreme right of the Russians, towards Schloditten. It was occasioned by Marshal Ney's corps, which, following fast on the traces of Lestocq, had at nightfall entered Altholf, driving the Prussian detachments which occupied it before him, and had now carried Schloditten and even pushed on to Schmoditten, so as to interrupt the Russian communications with Königsberg. Benningsen immediately ordered the Russian division of Kamenskoi, which had suffered least in the battle, to storm the village, which was executed at ten at night in the most gallant style. The loud cheers of their victorious troops were heard at Eylau; and Napoleon, supposing that a general attack was commencing, for which he was little prepared, gave orders for his heavy artillery and baggage to defile towards Landsberg, and ordered Davoust to draw back to the position |