7^ 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



400 military. The march was in 

 three columns. On the 15th of 

 August last, they entered the great 

 Arabian Desert, in which they 

 journied seven days, and were al- 

 ready approaching its edge. A kw 

 hours more would have placed 

 them beyond danger ; baton the 

 morning of the 23rd, just as they 

 had struck their tents, and com- 

 menced their march, a wind rose 

 from the north-east and blew with 

 tremendous violence. They in- 

 creased the rapidity of their march 

 to escape the threatening danger; 

 but the fatal Kamsin had set in. 

 On a sudden, dense clouds were 

 observed, whose extremity obscur- 

 ed the horizon, and swept the face 

 of the desert. They approached the 

 columns, and obscured the line of 

 march. Both men and beasts, 

 struck by a sense of common dan- 

 ger, uttered loud cries. The next 

 moment they fell beneath its pes- 

 tiferous influence lifeless corpses. 

 Of 2000 souls composing the cara- 

 van, not more than 20 escaped this 

 calamity ; they owed their safety 

 to the swiftness of their dromeda- 

 ries." 



SEPTEMBER. 



Extract of a letter Jrom Toplkz. 

 Sept. 4. — " General Moreau died 

 yesterday. He was in the act of 

 giving some opinion on military 

 matters, while passing with the 

 Emperor of Russia behind a Prus- 

 sian battery to which two French 

 batteries were answering, one in 

 front and the other in flank, and 

 Lord CaiW^art and sir R. Wilson 

 were listening to him, when a ball 

 struck his thigh and almost carried 



his leg off, passed through his 

 horse, and shattered his other leg 

 to pieces. He gave a deep groan 

 at first, but immediately after the 

 first agony of pain was over, he 

 spoke with the utmost tranquillity, 

 and called for a segar. They bore 

 him off the field on a litter made 

 of Cossacks' pikes, and carried him 

 to a cottage at a short distance, 

 which, however, was so much ex- 

 posed to the fire, that they were 

 obliged, after just binding up his 

 wounds, to remove him further 

 off to the emperor's quarters, where 

 one leg was amputated, he smok- 

 ing the whole time. When the 

 surgeon informed him that he must 

 deprive him of his other, he ob- 

 served, without shewing any pain 

 or peevishness, but in the calmest 

 manner, that had he known that be- 

 fore his other was cut off, he should 

 have preferred dying. The litter 

 on which they had hitherto con- 

 veyed him was covered with no- 

 thing but wet straw, and a cloak 

 drenched through with rain, which 

 continued in torrents the whole 

 da}'. They now placed more cloaks 

 over him, and laid him more com- 

 fortably in a good litter, in which 

 he was carried to Dippoldeswalde; 

 but long before his arrival there, 

 he was soaked through and through. 

 He was brought, however, safely 

 to Laun, where he seemed to be 

 going on well, till a long confer- 

 ence, which took place between 

 him and three or four of the allied 

 generals, by which he was com- 

 pletely exhausted. Soon after this 

 he became extremely sick, and 

 hourly grew worse. Through the 

 whole of his sufferings he bore his 

 fate with heroism and grandeur 

 of mind not to be surpassed, and 



