194 HISTORY OF FRAS'CE. [chap. and concluded an alliance with him. Russia, Prussia, and Sweden were thus joined against France. Napoleon raised an army of young conscripts, and led them into Germany. On the old battlefield of Lii izen, where Gustavus Adol- phus had been slain, there wa; a terrible battle, in which the Russians had indeed to retreat, but without leaving one colour or one cannon in the hands of the French. Bautzen was such another dearly bought victory, obliging the allies to fall back. Saxony was on the French side, and Buonaparte had his headquarters at Dresde n. There Austria offered terms of mediation, proposing that Napo- leon should give up the North-German coast-district which he had taken in i8ii,and restore to Austria the Illyrian Provinces, and to Prussia the territory taken from it in 1807. This Buonaparte refused. On this Francis of Austrts: joined the allies against his son-in-law, who declared he had found the marriage with Maria Louisa a precipice crowned with flowers, since it made him trust over much to the support of Austria. A series of battles were fought in August in the neighbourhood of Dresden, in which Buonaparte had the advantage, and Moreaii, who was now in the Russian service, was killed. But his generals were unsuccessrul in other parts. Bavaria for- sook him and made peace with Austria, and his German allies began to fall off. At last, at Leitzif , on the i6th and iSth of October, 1813, was fought the deadliest battle on record. Russians, Prussians, Austrians, and Swedes were arrayed against the common enemy, and the Saxons forsook Buonaparte in the battle. Yet the fight was desperately conte.^ted by the French till they were entirely worn out, and had spent every round of ammuni- tion. They were then forced to retreat, with the more terrible loss from the only stone bridge on the river Elster having been blown up. Fifteen thousand men were thus cut off; many of these were drowned, in trying to swim the river, and the rest had to lay down their arms. The killed and wounded on the side of the allies numbered 54,000. The French now withdrew beyond the Rhine ; but when Austria ag<iin offered peace on the condition of France taking the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees as its boundaries, Buonaparte again refused. 30. Entrance of France by the Allies, 1814. — Fortune was now turning against France everywhere. In Spain, King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan were utterly routed by Wellington at ViUotJu, and Joseph had to flee to th«'.
