of the situation of affairs; and at day-light, on the 21st, the Rippon took the advantage of a breeze to close with the enemy. The Le Weser bore up to the Rippon and struck her colours, after having exchanged two broadsides with the Scylla. She was so much crippled, that sir C. Cole took on board the greater part of the prisoners, and towed her into port. No great loss of men was sustained on either side; and the principal credit of the action was given to capt. Macdonald for his perseve rance in attending on the enemy's

motions.

A success of a similar kind was obtained in the same month by the capture of the frigate La Trave, of 28 French 18 pounders, and 16 18 pound carronades, with a crew of 321 men, nearly all Dutch. While sailing under jury_masts, near the entrance of the English Channel, she was chased on Oct. 23rd by the Andromache, captain Tobin, upon which she opened a fire from her stern guns; but it was not returned till a position was taken by the Andromache on her weather quarter. She made a feeble resistance for about 15 minutes, and then struck her colours; and her captor observes, that such was the disabled state of her masts, previously to the encounter, that

any further opposition would have been the extreme of rashness.

The part taken by the British squadron commanded by captain Farquhar, of the Desirée, in reducing the French batteries near the mouth of the Elbe, is reported by that officer in a letter, dated off Cuxhaven, Dec. 1. In co-operation with a body of Russian troops, a line of gun-boats cannonaded Fort Napoleon on Nov. 29th, and in the meantime the ships were employed in landing guns, and constructing a seaman's battery within 400 yards of the strong battery of Phare, or Cuxhaven. This was completed on the 30th ; but before it began to fire, a flag of truce was hoisted by the enemy, and both batteries were surrendered, mounting 26 heavy guns and two mortars, with a blockhouse, and a garrison of 300 men, who became prisoners of war. Within the last ten days (says capt. Farquhar) the small detachment of Russian troops, commanded by col. Rodinger, assisted by his Majesty's squadron, have reduced four strong batteries, consisting of 50 heavy guns, 4 mortars, and 800 men and officers, all made prisoners of war. This success was obtained without any loss on the part of the navy, and a trifling one on that of the Russians.

VOL. LV.

[1]

CHAPTER

out the empire, with the exception of some provinces which had been particular sufferers. That the losses of the Russians, as well as those of their invaders, must have been very great during the campaign, cannot be doubted; and it was highly important that the blow inflicted on the French should be followed up with vigour, and that such a countenance should be shown, as would deter their ambitious ruler from any future at tempt to carry the war into the Russian territory.

The pursuit was eagerly continued, and few days occurred in which the fugitives did not experience some disaster. General Platoff destroyed a column of the enemy near Wilna, on Dec. 11th, took a general and upwards of a thousand soldiers. On the 14th, coming up with the French at Kowno, a town on the Niemen, in which was a garrison defended by entrenchments, and redoubts on the heights, a cannonade was opened on each side, which was maintained till dark. Platoff having sent a regiment of Don Cossacks across the Niemen on the ice, in order to menace the enemy on the opposite bank, two columns of French made a sortie at the approach of night, which were attacked by the Cossacks, and thrown into disorder with considerable loss. One part of them fled along the river, while the other took the road to Wilkowski, still pursued by their indefatigable foe. Kowno was captured with all the French who remained in it; and in the pursuit of three successive days, 5,000 prisoners were made, and 21 pieces of cannon fell into the hands of the victors. The total losses of

the French by capture, up to the 26th of December, are stated in the Russian accounts to amount to 41 generals, 1298 officers, 167,510 non-commissioned and privates, and 1131 pieces of cannon. The Emperor Alexander, on Dec. 22nd, re-entered Wilna, which he had quitted to the invader about six months before. He issued thence various regulations and decrees for restoring order in the provinces which had been occupied by the enemy, and for the prevention of infectious diseases from the wretched prisoners, and the heaps of unburied carcasses. He attentively visited the hospitals, in which a shocking mortality long prevailed.

Marshal Macdonald retreated from Riga, and was pursued by the Marquis Paulucci, who, on Dec. 27th, occupied Memel, making the garrison prisoners, and taking possession of the magazines. The main retreating army in the meantime was followed by general Witgenstein, and the Hetman Platoff. The former, advancing along the Niemen towards Tilsit, succeeded in cutting off Macdonald from the body of Prussians under general D'Yorck, and reduced the latter to enter into a convention, by which he agreed to remain neutral with the troops under his command, consisting of about 15,000 men, infantry and cavalry. The terms were highly liberal towards the Prussians, who at this time were scarcely regarded as enemies by the Russians; and though the king of Prussia was at present necessitated to seem to disapprove the conduct of D'Yorck, it can scarcely be doubted that he secretly concurred in it. On the other hand the French, who probably regarded

this step as the commencement of a general defection on the part of their ally, were loud in its condemnation as a piece of treachery. D'Yorck, in acquainting Macdonald with the convention, said, "As to the judgment which the world may pass on my conduct, I am indifferent to it. Duty to my troops, and the most mature deliberation, dictated it; and whatever be the appearances, I was guided by the purest motives." Macdonald, now left alone with his corps, was closely pursued by Witgenstein, whose advanced guard took possession of Koningsberg, the ancient capital of Prussia, without resistance, on the 6th of January, the retreating French passing by the town with out halting. There were taken in it 1,300 prisoners, besides 8,000 sick, and 30 pieces of the battering cannon employed at Riga. The French directed their flight to the Vistula, pursued by Witgenstein. On the 12th the Russians, under Tchitschagoff and Platoff, entered Marienwerder, from which, the Viceroy of Italy and Marshal Victor narrowly escaped. They afterwards occupied Marienburg and Elbing; and crossing the Vistula and its branch, the Nogat, they pursued the French in different directions. Platoff with his Cossacks pushed on to the suburbs of Dantzic, and cut off all communication between that city and the surrounding country. Operations in the meantime were carrying on by the Russian commanders against the Saxons and Austrians. General Sachen marched against Regnier, who was at the head of the Saxons, and proceeded along the Bug to Grannym; and Wasillchikoff, reinforced by a body of Cos

sacks, obliged Schwartzenburg with the Austrians to retreat along the Narew to Pultusk.

3

The situation of Prussia was at this period singular and critical. Its capital was possessed by a French garrison, while the inhabitants, looking out for the arrival of the Russians as their deliverers from an odious yoke, displayed their hatred of their oppressors by frequent popular insurrections against the French, who were at length constrained to keep within their barracks. At Koningsberg a regency. was established in the name of the king, which issued a proclamation calling upon the loyal people of Prussia to come forwards for the rescue of their king and country · from French bondage; and a number of young men obeyed the. call, and joined the troops under D'Yorck, who had been declared commander-in-chief of the patrio-. tic army. The king himself, having now probably made his determination as to the part he meant to act, withdrew in the end of Ja-› nuary from Potsdam, where he felt himself entirely in the power of the French garrison of Berlin, and suddenly removed to Breslau. At that city he issued proclamations, summoning his subjects to take up arms in defence of their king and country, but without declaring against whom they were to be employed. Eugene Beauharnois, however, who was left commander of the French armies, and was now at Berlin, comprehending the purpose of these levies, forbad the recruiting in that capital. The Russians continued to advance, the emperor being at the head of the. main army. They spread over a large extent of country, and carried

on a variety of operations at once, which might have been regarded as imprudent, had they not relied upon a general insurrection in their favour. The Austrians gradually retired before general Miloradovitch, abandoning their posts on the Narew; and that commander, on the 8th of February, entered Warsaw, being met at some distance by a deputation from the different orders of the city, who presented him with the keys. On the same day, the town of Pillau was surrendered to the Russian arms, the French garrison, by a convention, being allowed to retire, under an obligation not to act till they should have reached the left bank of the Rhine. Thorn, as well as Dantzic, was invested; and on February 6th, Alexander, with his army, arrived at Polotzk. The Austrians concluded an unlimited truce, and withdrew into Gallicia. The Saxons, under Regnier, endeavoured to profit of this circumstance by retiring towards their own country behind the Austrians; but being pursued and overtaken at Kalitch by general Winzingrode, as they were endeavouring to form a junction with a body of Poles, they were attacked, and a general, many officers, and 2,000 privates, with seven pieces of cannon, fell into the hands of the Russians.

The king of Prussia, now assuming the office of a mediator between the belligerent parties, made a proposal on Feb. 15th for a truce, upon the condition that the Russian troops should retire behind the Vistula, and the French behind the Elbe, leaving Prussia between them entirely free from foreign occupation. It does not appear, however, that either party paid atten

tion to this proposal, which was probably thrown out only for the purpose of a temporary demonstration of neutrality; for on Feb. 22nd a treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, between the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia, was signed, the plenipotentiaries being, on one side marshal Kutusoff, now raised to the title of Prince Kutusoff Smolensk, on the other, the Chancellor Baron Hardenberg. The two sovereigns had an interview in the next month at Breslau, from which place the king of Prussia issued a proclamation to his people, dated March 17th, briefly touching upon the motives which had induced him to join his arms to those of Russia, and animating his subjects to make the necessary sacrifices for a contest, which he represented as that which must be decisive of their existence, their independence, and their property. The true motive may be regarded as avowed in the following paragraph: "We bent under the superior power of France. That peace which deprived me of half my subjects, procured us no blessings; on the contrary, it was more injurious to us than war itself." It may indeed be added, that the occupation of the greatest part of his country by the Russian troops, and the impossibility of preserving a neutrality, were other powerful inducements for his Prussian Majesty to act as he did. The detailed justification of this measure presented by the Prussian minister at Paris, and its elaborate confutation by the Duke of Bassano, were therefore a mere formality. It was easy on one part to show the abuse of power exercised by the French in their