334

LIFE OF COLONEL MACERONI.

Iiohenlohe and Blucher, Murat had detached generalLasalle to attack the fortress of Stettin which was taken,with two hundred pieces of cannon in the place. TheLieutenant General Erfust at the same time, obliged thePrussian General Bila to surrender with all the remains ofhis division.

The Emperor upon hearing of the capture of all thesefortresses by Murat, wrote to him jocosely :—“ As you takefortresses so easily with your cavalry, I suppose I may dis-band the engineers, and melt down all my battering train.”

Such a monotonous recital of similar events, charges andcharges, and charges of cavalry must I fear be tiresome tomy readers, but my limits and my object will not allow meto give any other particulars but such as relate to the im-mediate achievements of Murat, a sketch of whose biographyI am writing.

Upon the capitulation of Blucher an armistice wassigned, which allowed Murat to take a part of his cavalryto Berlin for the purpose of a brief repose. But the Kingof Prussia being then on the constant move, from one placeto another, the ratification of the armistice did not arrive.Moreover, the King was seduced into further resistance bythe promise of large subsidies from England.

No further delay could be endured, inasmuch as theRussians were advancing in great force towards the Prussianfrontiers. Thus Napoleon was decided, indeed compelledto carry on the war into Poland ; in the then state of thingshe could not remain inactive.

Murat driving the Russians before him and causing themdaily losses, arrived almost simultaneously with the pursuedbefore Warsaw . The Russians burned the bridge across theVistula , but Murat had the hardihood to pass that largeriver with his cavalry swimming ! A list of the daily routsto which he put the Hying Russians would be tii’esome to