The bridge
had been mined, to blow it up on the approach of the foe. This duty had
been carelessly trusted to a subaltern, who, frightened by seeing some
of the enemy on the river-side, set fire hastily to the train. The
bridge blew up with a tremendous explosion, leaving a rear-guard of
twenty-five thousand men in Leipsic cut off from all hope of escape.
Some officers plunged on horseback into the stream and swam across.
Prince Poniatowsky, the gallant Pole, essayed the same, but perished in
the attempt. The soldiers of the rear-guard were forced to surrender as
prisoners of war. In this great conflict, which had continued for four
days, and in which the most of the nations of Europe took part, eighty
thousand men are said to have been slain. The French lost very heavily
in prisoners and guns. Only a hasty retreat to the Rhine saved the
remainder of their army from being cut off and captured. On the 20th
Napoleon succeeded in crossing that frontier river of his kingdom with
seventy thousand men, the remnant of the grand army with which he had
sought to hold Prussia after the disastrous end of the invasion of
Russia.
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