The Washington herald., 1914-09-20

: troops through the gates, while theip
artillery rained their shells upon the
roofs of Leipzig.
Napoleon passed that night Of horror
at the Hotel de Prusse. whose doors are
stin open. Although the Gar slept in
the hotel the next night. il is the room
OF the conquered, not the conCJueror,
/ which has been set apart through the
generations. and the Napoleon thinner"
remains to this day the special boast and
exhibit Of the landlord.
II was about in the morning when
the Emperor came out OF the Prusse and
/ Joined in the retreat. II was an even
year that very morning since he had
taken flight from Moscow. and now as
/ then he had 10 night his way through an
/ other mob OF fleeing soldiers and he
( whistled his war song as lie vent
/ After escaping from the town. he came
! to a village nearby aRd lay down to
| sleep. He had passed three almost sleep
/ less nights and now that the strain was
/ over. nature would be put OF no longer
/ But while he slept, the loud report of an
| explosion startled him. II was the sig
| nal that his catastrophe had received its
| coronation.
! A French corporal who was left in
| charge OF mine under the bridge over
| the Elster River, with instructions to
] hre it when his comrades were all safely
, across had lost his head in his terror
OF some yelling. charging Russians and
l"@o French. with hundreds Of cannons
and wagons, were stranded on the shore
tors.
Many Ieaped into the river 10 swim
their way to the other bank but most
OF them only dragged one another be-
meath the water. Marshal Macdonald
succeeded in crossing. but Poniatowski
the knightly Pole. who had won a mar
shafs baton only two days before was
among the drowned. Now when the
Elster is but a mere canal flowing
through the present-day city the pil-
grim who stands by the monument which
marks the place where the princes body
was recovered. can hardly believe that
the narrow. placid stream could have
been SO fatal a barrier to the soldiers Of
Napoleon.
With this disaster. the sum Of the En-
perors losses around Leipzig amounted
twenty-eight flags and eagles and 525 !
suns And the allied loss was not far
from 5000
100000 Men lost.
Fate's latest thrust only served fully
to arouse Napoleon. and reorganizing the
disorganized remnants Of his army. he
FASTENED it away from the disastrous
scene. with Blucher 50 close on his heels
that the pursuer usually drank his beer in !!
the afternoon at the inn where the pur-i
sued had drunk his coffee in the morn-i
ing The road was crowded with the I,
dying. the sick, the stragglers, and I
abandoned guns and wagons. Some Ba- /.
varians and Austrians attempted to bar
the way Of the fugitives through a for
est near Frankfort but they were read ,
fly beaten OF with a loss Of 1000 men.
When at last Napoleon had put the I
Rhine behind him at Mayence. he had 4
only 5000 or 5000 men under arms. OF |
the rest Of the nearly 5OoO0O, whom he 4
had rallied to his standard for the war.
perhaps half were captives or besieged |
in their fortresses. The remainder were I
dead Of wounds and disease. Thousands !
had perished on the retreat from the cold ]
and from hunger and fever. In Russia [.
and Germany together above 10000 men /
had been lost in sixteen months. and now
for the second time in a year France was l
tCoryrzht. Isl5IsH By James MorE.nl
Next Sunday-NapoIeon at Bay. with