these animals had stood for some days in the stable, and been supplied
with forage by the peasant, the rider had frequently the impudence to
require his host to pay for the dung. Woe to the field of cabbages,
turnips, or potatoes, that happened to lie near a bivouac! It was
covered in a trice with men and cattle, and in twenty-four hours there
was not a plant to be seen. Fruit-trees were cut down and used for fuel,
or in the erection of sheds, which were left perhaps as soon as they
were finished. Though Saxony is one of the richest and most fertile
provinces of Germany, and the vicinity of Leipzig has been remarkable
for abundance, yet it cannot appear surprising, that, with such wanton
waste, famine, the most dangerous foe to an army, should have at length
found its way into all the French camps. Barns, stables, and lofts, were
emptied; the fields were laid bare; and the inhabitants fled into the
woods and the towns. Bread and other provisions had not been seen in our
markets for several days, and thus it was now our turn to endure the
pressure of hunger. It was a fortunate circumstance that many families
had laid in a quantity of potatoes, which indeed might yet be purchased,
though at an exorbitant price. The bakers of this place were obliged to
work up the small stock of flour in their possession for the use of the
troops; and all other persons were driven from the doors by the guards
with the butt-ends of their muskets; though the citizen who came in
quest of bread had perhaps twenty men quartered upon him, who all
expected him to find wherewith to satisfy their craving appetites.

Such was what might be termed the prologue to the grand tragedy which
was about to be performed in an amphitheatre of many square miles, and
to the catastrophe of which we looked forward with an anxiety that had
risen to so high a pitch, because, in case of the longer continuance of
this state of things, our own annihilation might be hourly expected.
That the grand armies of the allies were approaching Leipzig, on every