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But no diligence could accomplish this; the troops were two hours too late; for, on arriving at Ukersdorf, another corps of the enemy was discovered, that had already taken post at the Windberg, the right of which extended to the Trompeter Schloesgen. This was the corps of Haddick, who, with the Prince de Deuxponts, quitting Leipsic, had marched to Zeitz, and afterward to Rosswein.
"My own countreemen they thought they would not it do, and now my boys, they have the fort before Deuxponts has his," he went on, as he pointed into the darkness, out of which could be seen the flash of muskets. "Ah, we will teach the baron a lesson.
To end their destructive cross fire, as well as to complete the investiture, it was determined to carry them by assault; and as dark settled down on the evening of the 14th, two storming parties, one of French grenadiers and chasseurs, drawn from the brigade of the Baron de Viomenil and under the command of the Comte de Deuxponts, and the second, of American light infantry, taken from the division of the Marquis de Lafayette and commanded by Alexander Hamilton, were moved out of the trenches, and, followed by strong supporting battalions, were advanced as far as was prudent.
In execution of this plan he marched directly to the Elbe, which he passed at Pima, and advanced to Dresden, which he hoped would surrender without putting him to the trouble of a formal siege. The army of prince Henry had already retired to the westward of this capital before the prince de Deuxponts, who had found means to cut off his communication with Leipsic, and even invested that city.
The landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, being desirous of averting a like storm from his dominions, not only promised to renounce all connexion with the kings of Great Britain and Prussia, but even solicited the court of France to receive him among the number of its dependents; for, on the eighteenth day of October, the minister of the duke de Deuxponts, delivered at Versailles, in the name of the landgrave, the plan of a treaty founded on the following conditions: The landgrave, after having expressed an ardent desire of attaching himself wholly to France, proposed these articles That he should enter into no engagement against the king and his allies; and give no assistance, directly or indirectly, to the enemies of his majesty and his allies: that he should never give his vote, in the general or particular assemblies of the empire, against his majesty's interest; but, on the contrary, employ his interest, jointly with France, to quiet the troubles of the empire: that, for this end, his troops, which had served in the Hanoverian army, should engage in the service of France, on condition that they should not act in the present war against his Britannic majesty: that, immediately after the ratification of the treaty, his most christian majesty should restore the dominions of the landgrave in the same condition they were in when subdued by the French forces: that these dominions should be exempted from all further contributions, either in money, corn, forage, wood, or cattle, though already imposed on the subjects of Hesse; and the French troops pay for all the provisions with which they might be supplied; in which case the landgrave should exact no toll for warlike stores, provisions, or other articles of that nature, which might pass through his dominions: that the king of France should guarantee all his estates, all the rights of the house of Hesse-Cassel, particularly the act of assurance signed by his son, the hereditary prince, with regard to religion; use his interest with the emperor and the empress-queen, that, in consideration of the immense losses and damages his most serene highness had suffered since the French invaded his country, and of the great sums he should lose with England in arrears and subsidies by this accommodation, he might be excused from furnishing his contingent to the army of the empire, as well as from paying the Roman months granted by the diet of the empire; and if, in resentment of this convention, the states of his serene highness should be attacked, his most christian majesty should afford the most speedy and effectual succours.
Hulsen was obliged to pass the Mulde with some battalions. He took a position between Belzen and Gostevra, opposite the Prince de Deuxponts, whose army was at Taucha. Under the present circumstances the first thing necessary was to drive the troops of the circles to a distance, as well because they were on the rear of the Prussians as to prevent their union with the Austrians.
Indeed, his designs were still more extensive, for he proposed to reduce Dresden, Leipsic, and Torgau, at the same time; the first with the main body under his own direction, the second by the army of the empire under the prince de Deuxponts, and the third by a corps under general Haddick, while the forces directed by Laudohn should exclude the king from Lusatia.
Marshal Daun, however, had followed the King into Lusatia. He then approached Torgau, and, as it was known that he had left Laudon at Loewenberg, General Goltz had orders to return into Silesia, to oppose the attempts of the Austrians with his utmost abilities. On the 22d the army of the King arrived at Jessen. The troops of the Prince de Deuxponts extended wholly along the left shore of the Elbe.
Jerusalem, it cannot be doubted, will ever remain the appanage either of Israel or of Ishmael; and if, in the course of those great vicissitudes which are no doubt impending for the East, there be any attempt to place upon the throne of David a prince of the House of Coburg or Deuxponts, the same fate will doubtless await him as, with all their brilliant qualities and all the sympathy of Europe, was the final doom of the Godfreys, the Baldwins, and the Lusignans.
On this movement the Prince de Deuxponts abandoned the banks of the Elbe, and retired through Duben to Leipsic. He had left Ried in the rear, in a forest between Oranienbaum and Kemberg, where this officer had taken post, with little judgment; having garnished the woods with his hussars, and posted his pandoors in the plain.
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