from Auerstadt, another tide of fugitives from the battle won by Davoust, also directing their frantic course upon Weimar. It was at this period that the King of Prussia, finding himself entangled in the almost inextricable maze, escaped across the fields, escorted by a small body of cavalry. He had shewn great courage in the battle, but courage was no longer of any avail. The situation of the inhabitants of Weimar on this dreadful day, and the high-minded conduct of the duchess, have been finely described by Falk. We take the following description from the work published by Mrs. Austin, under the title of "Goethe and his Contemporaries :"

"It was on the 14th of October of the year 1806, at half-past six in the morning, that the thunder of the artillery awakened the inhabitants of Weimar out of their sleep. The report came with the wind; all the windows in the houses clattered and shook, and universal consternation spread through the town. Young and old rushed into the streets, on the heights, up the towers, out at the gates; whenever the roll of the cannon, which grew nearer and nearer, permitted favourable conjectures to their hopes, or suggested unfavourable ones to their fears.

"The face of events changed rapidly. Disordered troops of horse soon galloped through the town; and, in their hurried course, assured us the victory was ours. Then appeared a party of French prisoners, whom the people and the soldiers, left to guard the town, in their fancied triumph, would have maltreated, had they not been restrained by a provident law. But a noble Prussian officer would not suffer it. He took a thaler out of his pocket, and gave it to a wounded and bleeding chasseur, saying, Drink to the health of your Emperor.'

"The French prisoners were followed but too soon by Prussian cavalry, mortally wounded, hanging athwart their horses. The multitude were still occupied with this saddening spectacle, when several artillery-men, begrimed with the smoke of gunpowder, and stained with blood, with faces as if covered with black crape, rushed, in a troop, through the Kegelthor into the town, spreading alarm and horror wherever they went, by their terrific aspect: for the anxious expression, visible on their marred and distorted features as they looked around from time to time, and the dreadful marks-gashes of the sabre, and stabs of the lance-which they brought from the field, told but too plainly that death was close at their heels. He was

indeed at hand.

"The Webicht, the avenues leading to it, as well as the high road from Jena to Weimar, was filled with a thousand voiced war-cry, in which the rush and shock of steeds and horsemen, the roll of the drum, and the call of the trumpet, the tramp and the neighing of horses, were,

at times, to be distinguished. The firing, at length, totally ceased: then came that fearful pause, in which cavalry, charging on the enemy's rear, breaks through his ranks, and commences a noiseless carnage.

"The French now planted a few guns on the heights above Weimar, from which they could fire into the town. It was a calm, bright October day. In the streets of Weimar everything appeared dead. The inhabitants had retreated into their houses. Now and then was heard the boom of one of the guns, posted at Ober Weimar. The balls hissed through the air, and not unfrequently struck the houses. In the intervals, the birds were heard singing sweetly on the esplanade and the other public walks; and the deep repose of nature formed an awful and heart-appalling contrast with this scene of horror.

"The first who occupied the market-place of Weimar, were a party of French chasseurs; they were followed by a large body of infantry. Order and discipline were altogether out of the question. The work of plunder was systematically begun. The crash of doors burst in, the shrieks of the inhabitants, were heard on every side. I shall only add here, that at seven o'clock in the evening, when the houses opposite to the palace were in flames, the light was so intense, that people could see to read hand-writing, both in the palace-court and in the market-place. None could believe other than that the French would execute their threats, and lay the whole town in ashes.

"When, therefore, at this terrific crisis, the report was suddenly spread, that the Grand Duchess was still in the palace, the effect which it produced on the hearts of the citizens was such, that wherever a few met together, their despair and anguish were changed to rapturous joy. How beneficently this noble picture of princely and womanly courage and magnanimity wrought upon all hearts and minds, from the highest to the lowest, at this juncture; what it prevented, and what it held together, it is just to dwell upon, and to take care that she, who lighted us as our beacon in this fearful storm, should be held up as a model of the lofty intrepidity and constancy of women."

We extract the remainder of the narrative from the account of the period given by the Chancellor Von Müller:

"The duke, at the head of his troops, was at a distance on the other slope of the Thuringian chain. Before his departure, he had sent the hereditary prince and princess to Schleswig; but so overwhelming a calamity as the loss of a decisive battle in a few days, so near to Weimar, was beyond the reach of any foresight. On the 14th of October, about mid-day, when the defeat of the Prussian army was no longer doubtful, the duchess made instant arrangements for removing her daughter, and the duchess-mother, out of the wild tumult To escape from it herself, did not for a moment enter her

of war.

thoughts. She afforded to many persons of the town, nay whole families, with their valuables, an asylum and protection in her own part of the palace;" (which was respected by the French:) "the most considerable lay about her ante-chamber in confused and motley groups. French officers and their suites had taken possession of the greater part of the palace. They had seized on all the provisions, and the duchess was left in absolute want; but her courage and firm enduring constancy remained erect. After four and twenty hours of fearful expectation, Napoleon entered Weimar in person.

"With the same simple dignified serenity of manner which she wore in the days of prosperity, did she, surrounded by her court-servants, receive the haughty conqueror. He addressed to her, it is true, but a few hasty salutations; but his surprise at her reception of him, and at her calmness in so fearful a scene, was sufficiently expressed in the words he addressed to General Rapp:-'Here is a woman whom, with our two hundred guns, we have not been able to make tremble!'

"In this, the most momentous conversation of her life, with what serene dignity she met the violence with which the Emperor denounced her husband for his participation in the war, and declared his intention of driving him from his throne and states; with what high-minded freedom she urged the ties of honour and of fidelity which bound him to Prussia; with what noble ardour she defended his cause, and that of her country; and to what a degree she thus extorted from the Emperor respect and admiration, and led him to milder measures;—all this he attested so fully, by word and deed, that it remains a portion of history. 'You possess the ornament of German princesses,' said he, a few weeks afterwards, in Berlin, to the Weimar deputies; 'whatever I may do for the country, or for the duke, is done purely for her sake; her conduct ought to serve as a model to every throne in Europe."

Napoleon did, in fact, treat Weimar with the highest generosity. He not only gave immediate orders that all plundering should cease, and enforced the strictest discipline, in consequence of his interview with the duchess, but he soon afterwards restored the nominal independence of the state, and declared it a part of the Rhenish league. When this most advantageous treaty was presented to the duke by a French officer, he refused to take it into his own hands, saying, "Give it to my wife: the Emperor intended it for her."

Those writers who catch at every chance of depreciating Napoleon, attribute his lenient treatment of Weimar to mere motives of policy, and a wish to conciliate the Emperor of Russia, whose sister was married to the hereditary prince: but how can this be the case, when it required all the high-minded conduct of this noble duchess to prevent his executing the vengeance he had threatened. They cannot have it