The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 5, November 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 5, November 1837
Various
Periodicals
After dinner, Mr. Tauchnitz ordered his barouche, with two beautiful
bays, and a footman in livery, (Mr. T. is a book-seller,) and we
rode out to the field of the memorable battle of 1813, about a mile
from the town. The whole vicinity of Leipsic, for several miles, is
one vast plain, which has always been, and probably will continue to
be, the theatre of battles, when the nations of Europe see fit to
fight at all. We walked to a slight elevation, where Napoleon had
his head-quarters during the battle. The French had garrisoned the
town for six years previous; consequently they had their choice of
position. Napoleon had made a _mouvement retrograde_ from Dresden,
after giving up his second expedition to Russia; he was followed
by the allied army, and here they met. Three days' hard fighting,
and the slaughter of twenty thousand men, was the consequence. The
French were routed; but their possession of the town enabled them to
proceed in their retrograde toward Frankfort, (the same route I had
come,) and on the fourth day the allies entered Leipsic. Mr. T. was
on the field during the fight, and he gave me a graphic description
of it. '_Here_ stood Blucher, with his Prussians; _there_, Prince
Swartzenberg and the Austrians.' What a scene of horror must that
field have been, when twenty thousand human beings lay there, bloody
corpses, and half as many more had fallen, wounded and mangled,
sighing for death as a relief from their misery!
Otho, the young king of Greece, is now in Leipsic on a visit. He
is shortly to be married to a German princess, whose name I have
forgotten.
* * * * *
MAYENCE, SEPT. 13.--At six, P. M., on the tenth, I was again in the
diligence. There were but three passengers; one of them asked me in
German to sit with him in the interior, but having persuaded him
in English into a _coupé_ seat, he complacently remarked that he
was pretty sure, from the first, that I was English. I declined the
honor, with equal good nature. 'Scotch?' No. 'Irish?' No. He looked
puzzled. 'You must have spoken English from childhood?' 'Yes. I never
spoke any other language.' 'Perhaps you have resided some time in
England?' Never was there but three months.' Curious whether he would
discover me, I kept mum.
'From the East Indies?' No. 'But you are a British subject?' Oh, no.
I acknowledge no king whatever.
'South America?'(!) No.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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