zines; and orders were given to Marshal Soult to march towards it, and make himself master of the bridge of Bergfried, with a view of taking the Russians in the rear, and cutting off their retreat. General Guyot was accordingly dispatched with the light cavalry to Gutstadt, where a great part of the Russian baggage and 1600 prisoners were taken.-The bridge was the object of attack, under the marshal's own inspection; and the importance of its possession by the Russians being well understood by them, twelve of their best battalions were appointed to defend it; the conflict was, of course, obstinate and bloody, but terminated in the route of the Russian battalions, leaving behind them four pieces of cannon, and a very considerable number of dead and wounded. Marshal Ney, in the mean time, made himself master of a wood, which covered the right wing of the enemy. An important position was gained also by the division of St. Hiliare; and several squadrons of dragoons, under the Duke of Berg, cleared the plain of the Russians in front. In these circumstances (the Russians repeatedly changing their ground, either driven from their positions, or retreating, with a view to more advantageous ones) night came on, the armies being still within a small distance of each other: at break of day, however, it was ascertained that the Russians had availed themselves of the darkness to retreat still further. On the ensuing day the different corps of the Duke of Berg, Soult, Davoust, and Ney, were early on their march towards Landberg, Heilsburg, and Wormdit, to prevent the retreat to Deppen of the Russian corps which had been cut off. The grand duke soon came up with the rear of the Russians, and attacked them between Glandau and Hoff; their front seemed to support their rear, posted upon the heights of Landsberg; their right and left wings were formed on a circular eminence, and in a wood, and were several times ineffectually attacked: after which a destructive charge was made by the division of General Hautpoult, by which two regiments of Russian infantry were nearly all destroyed or taken, together with their cannon and co

lours. The body of the Russian army was immediately in motion to succour its rear; but their exertions were incapable of preventing the enemy from possessing themselves of Hoffe, a place of such importance that ten battalions were appointed, by the Russian commander, to retake it; these were prevented from accomplishing their purpose, by a second charge under the orders of the grand duke, by which the Russian battalions were not only disappointed in their views, but experienced, also, a dreadful diminution of their numbers.

These contests occurred early in the month of February, and the evening of the 6th came on while both armies were in the presence of each other: during the night the Russians resumed their retreat, and took up their position behind Eylau. At a short distance from this place there is a flat eminence which commands the entrance into the town, and which it was deemed necessary, therefore, by the French emperor to gain. The Russian troops in possession of it were put into considerable confusion, by an attack made for this purpose under the direction of Marshal Soult; but, by a well timed and admirably conducted charge from a body of the Russian cavalry, some of the French battalions, thus employed, were completely thrown into disorder. During this vicissitude of fortune, attended with an important struggle, the result of which was the continued possession of the eminence by the Russians, the troops came to action in Eylau.Several regiments had been posted in a church and churchyard, which were maintained by the Russians with extraordinary pertinacity, occasioning, on both sides, the most dreadful carnage, till about ten at night, when they were abandoned to the French. The division of Le Grand passed the night in front of the village; that of St. Hilaire was on the right; Augereau was posted on the left; the corps of Davoust began its march early on the ensuing morning, of the eighth, beyond Eylau, with a view to fall on the left of the Russians, while that of Ney was on its march to outflank them on the right. At day-break on the eighth the attack

commenced, on the part of the Russians, by a cannonae the division of St. Hilaire. Bonaparte commanded in person at Eylau, during this eventful period, and stationed himself at the church which had been so obstinately defended the preceding day, whence he gave orders for the corps of Augereau to advance, and cannonade the eminence which had been before unsuccessfully attempted, with forty pieces of cannon belonging to the imperial guard. The Russian army was formed in columns, and only at the distance of half cannon shot; every ball, therefore, was attended with effect. To terminate the carnage occasioned by this dreadful cannonade, the Russians attempted to surround the left wing of the enemy. The corps under Davoust were, at this moment, perceived by the Russian commander in a situation highly favourable to an attack, and were in danger of being fallen upon by the whole force of the Russian army: to prevent this, Augereau advanced in columns across the plain, to attack the centre of the Russians, and thus to divide their attention. The division of St. Hilaire approached on the right, and was endeavouring to form a junction with Augereau on the plain; during the manœuvres necessary for this object, a thick fall of snow intercepted the view of the French divisions: their point of direction was lost; the columns deviated to the left, and were exposed, for a considerable time, to extreme uncertainty and danger. On the conclusion of the storm, which lasted for more than half an hour, the grand Duke of Berg immediately perceived the destruction to which the columns were exposed, and from which nothing but the boldest manœuvre could rescue them; at the head of his cavalry be instantly advanced, with Marshal Bessieres and the imperial guard, to the support of St. Hilaire's division, and attacked the main body of the Russians: by this vigorous and unexpected movement, the Russians were thrown into disorder, and sustained the most dreadful slaughter; two of their lines were penetrated, and the third was preserved entire only in consequence of its being supported by a wood. This splen

did and successful operation, however, was by no means decisive; the Russian army contended with a firmness and perseverance which rendered the contest long doubtful:-during three hours, three hundred pieces of cannon were scattering death on this scene of conflict and horror.-The brilliant achievements of the Duke of Berg served only to keep the fate of the day suspended, and prevent its termination at the time, in favour of the Russians, instead of deciding it positively for the French. The success of Marshal Davoust at length made the scale completely preponderate on the side of Bonaparte; his march was retarded by several falls of snow, and the junction of his columns proved an affair of extreme difficulty; but at length he was enabled to outflank the Russians, and gain possession of the level height. This possession was disputed with all the vigour and ardour of military combat. After the Russians were obliged, in the first instance, notwithstanding exertions of uncommon energy to abandon it, they attempted to recover it with a vehemence bordering upon rage, and a perseverance approaching to desperation. Their reiterated attempts, however, were found ineffectual. They were compelled, finally, to leave it with the enemy, and to secure as orderly a retreat as possible.

This appears to have been one of the most vigorous and obstinately-contested battles in the history of the present war. It was celebrated at Warsaw and Paris, with all the usual accompaniments of triumph, and the losses of the Russians were stated at the immense amount of 20 generals, 900 officers, and 30,000 men killed, wounded, and taken. Their own loss, however, was admitted by the French to be considerable, and General Dohlman was killed in the field, and General Hautpoult died of his wounds. That the victory rested with the French can scarcely be doubted, as the possession of the town, and of the eminence which commanded it, remained indisputably with them, and they continued on the field of battle for some days after the Russians had found it expedient to retreat behind the river Pregel. That the vic

tory, however, was, in their own language, dearly obtained, is equally clear; and that no considerable permanent or immediate advantage resulted from their success may be presumed, as, instead of passing the Pregel in pursuit of a routed enemy, and instead of pushing on to Koningsberg, (which, in a moment of incorrect prophecy, Berthier informed the empress Josephine that the French army would reach on the morrow,) they were content to retrace their steps to their former cantonments, and to defy the enemy again to disturb them in their winter quarters.

The havoc resulting to both armies from this sanguinary contest occasioned great exertions to be made for reinforcements. The Emperor Alexander and the Archduke Constantine not long after joined the Russian army with upwards of sixty thousand troops; and the efforts of Napoleon to repair his loss and accumulate a force fully equal to the great struggle which still remained, were unremitting; the greater part of the eighth corps of the grand army, which had been employed under General Mortier in the north of Germany, was ordered to march to the more critical theatre of hostility; and from the different recruiting stations throughout France and the conquered countries, multitudes were repeatedly sent off to join the imperial standard on the Vistula. It appears, as already intimated, to have been the expectation of Bonaparte that his arrangements, previously to the battle of Eylau, would have secured to him the possession of Koningsberg: this anticipation, however, being by no means verified, he adopted the plan of caution and prudence, and bent his efforts particularly now, to the reduction of Dantzic. This place had, for some time, been invested, but the siege was now urged with extreme pressure and perseverance. The garrison consisted of 16,000 men, under the command of the Prussian general Kalkreuth, an officer of tried loyalty and skill.— The difficulties attending the besiegers, from the nature of the ground, so easily inundated, were far from inconsiderable; the battering train was obliged to be conveyed from