LUTZOW LUXEMBURG. 



587 



strength. Several reasons induced the allies to 

 attack Napoleon, though his army, according to the 

 best calculations, was much superior in numbers. 

 The French corps in Saxony amounted to about 

 150,000 men ; the allies had 55,000 Prussians and 

 30,000 Russians beyond the Elbe. The latter were 

 superior in cavalry, the French in artillery, and 

 each was desirous to decide by the species of troops 

 in which his superiority consisted. Count Wittgen- 

 stein commanded the allied forces. Napoleon's 

 troops were moving in the direction of Leipsic, and 

 had already advanced considerably, while they were 

 still supposed by the enemy to be near Lutzen. 

 General Kleist became engaged in a sharp conflict 

 with the French van, which was much superior to 

 him in numbers. The mass of the enemy was thus 

 directed against the flank and rear of the allies. 

 Between the allies and Lutzen lay the villages Star- 

 siedel, Kaya, Rana, Gorschen, hardly guarded by 

 Ney's corps, which was quietly bivouacked behind 

 them. Wittgenstein took this corps for Napoleon's 

 van, and ordered the attack accordingly. The 

 Prussian troops took these villages with great 

 promptness. It was necessary that Ney should sus- 

 tain himself until Napoleon could bring back his 

 masses from the road to Leipsic. The possession of 

 these villages was, therefore, warmly contested ; 

 they were taken and retaken with equal courage and 

 obstinacy; but the successive arrival of new bodies 

 of French caused some changes in Wittgenstein's 

 orders ; the allied cavalry could not operate so effec- 

 tually as had been hoped, and the want of infantry 

 began to be felt severely. Both armies displayed 

 great courage. The Prussian troops fought with a 

 resolution corresponding to the ardour which had 

 hurried them into the field, and its effect became 

 visible on the French centre, which did not escape 

 Napoleon's experienced eye. " The key of the posi- 

 tion," says the duke of Rovigo, " was the village of 

 Kaya, occupied by Ney, and through which ran the 

 road from Pegay to Lutzen. Had the allies suc- 

 ceeded in carrying this place, they could have ad- 

 vanced to Lutzen, and thus have divided the French 

 army into two portions, which could only have been 

 reunited on the other bank of the Saale. Great efforts 

 were therefore made by the French to maintain Kaya, 

 which was taken and retaken several times in the 

 course of the day." The emperor Napoleon now 

 ordered general Drouot, his aid-de-camp, to advance 

 in all haste, with sixty pieces of artillery, as near as 

 possible to the enemy's columns, and to attack him 

 obliquely, on his left flank ; for this, the course of 

 the Flossgraben, which had also been used to great 

 effect 200 years before, in the battle first described, 

 afforded an advantageous position. The artillery 

 made such ravages in the enemy's columns, for the 

 space of an hour, that he could not resist the vigor- 

 ous attack which Napoleon renewed on Kaya, by 

 means of marshal Mortier's corps. This village was 

 at last carried, as well as the others : night came on, 

 and the last attempt by the Prussian cavalry was 

 abortive. Thus both armies occupied nearly the 

 same ground after the battle as before. According 

 to the most accurate and impartial accounts, there 

 were about 69,000 of the allied troops engaged 

 against 102,000 French. The latter are said to have 

 lost 15,000 men, killed and wounded, among whom 

 were five generals ; the Russians are said to have 

 lost 2000, and the Prussians 8000. Generals Blu- 

 cher and Scharnhorst were wounded ; the latter died 

 in Prague a severe loss for the Prussians. The 

 French had lost Bessieres, duke of Istria, on the 

 preceding day. The allies were obliged to make 

 retrograde movements, and, owing to this battle, 

 Napoleon was again master of Saxony and the Elbe 



on May 10. The French say, that, had they pos- 

 sessed sufficient cavalry to pursue the enemy briskly, 

 the campaign might have been ended by this battle ; 

 the allies assert, that had they been better supplied 

 with artillery, they would have remained in posses- 

 sion of the villages, and the most serious consequen- 

 ces might have followed for the French. This battle 

 had the best effect on the spirit of the Prussian troops 

 and nation. It was the first in which the Prussian 

 forces had measured themselves with the French 

 since the disastrous campaign of 1806, and they 

 were now convinced of their ability to withstand 

 their former conquerors. The result of the battle 

 was, indeed, advantageous for the French ; but the 

 advantage was so dearly bought, and the Prussians, 

 whom the French troops had been taught to consider 

 as " schoolboys," and inexperienced peasants, had 

 conducted in such a manner as to show that cam- 

 paigns like those of 1804, 1806, and 1809, were no 

 longer to be expected. 



LUTZOW'S FREE CORPS, or VOLUNTEERS ; 

 a Prussian corps, during the war of 1813 and 1814, 

 which originated from the Tugendbund, and was 

 commanded by major Lutzow. Many young men of 

 'the best families, and most patriotic spirit, joined it. 

 Korner belonged to this corps, and celebrated it in 

 several of his poems. 



LUXATION, in surgery, is the removal of a 

 bone out of its place or articulation, so as to impede 

 or destroy its proper motion or office ; hence luxa- 

 tions are peculiar to such bones as have moveable 

 joints. 



LUXEMBOURG, PALACE OF ; one of the most 

 magnificent palaces in Paris, built in imitation of the 

 Pitti palace at Florence, completed in 1620, after 

 four years' labour, by Jacques Desbrosses, for Mary 

 of Medici, widow of Henry IV., on the site of the 

 hotel of the duke d'Epinay-Luxembourg, and suc- 

 cessively inhabited by mademoiselle de Montpensier, 

 the duchess de Guise, the duchess of Brunswick, and 

 mademoiselle d'Orleans. Louis XVI. gave it to 

 Monsieur, his brother ; during the revolution, it was 

 converted into a prison ; it was afterwards occupied 

 by the senate ; at present, the chamber of peers 

 assemble there. The building is very spacious, and 

 its rooms contain beautiful specimens of architecture 

 and statuary. 



LUXEMBOURG (Hotel du Petit); an edifice in 

 Paris, adjoining the garden of the Luxembourg pal- 

 ace. It was built by cardinal Richelieu for his 

 mother, and afterwards belonged to the prince de 

 Conde. During the republic, the directory was 

 established here, and here it received general Bona- 

 parte, on his return from Egypt, a few days before 

 the 18th of Brumaire. It was next occupied by the 

 first consul, during the first six months of his consul- 

 ship. Ney was confined here, and shot in the gar- 

 den ; and, more recently, prince Polignac, and his 

 colleagues were confined here, previous to their trial. 



LUXEMBOURG (Francis Henry de Montmo- 

 renci), duke of, marshal of France, was born in 

 1628. He was the posthumous son of the count de 

 Bouteville, who was beheaded in the reign of Louis 

 XIII., for fighting a duel. He served, when young, 

 under the prince of Conde; and, in 1662, he was 

 made a duke and peer of France ; and, in 1667, a 

 lieutenant-general. In 1672, he commanded during 

 the invasion of Holland ; and, having gained the 

 battle of Senef, in 1674, he was created a marshal of 

 France. In the war of France against England, 

 Holland, Spain, and Germany, he won the three 

 great battles of Fleurus (July 1, 1690), Steinkirchen 

 and Neerwinden (June 29, 1693). He died in 1695. 



LUXEMBURG ; a late province of the kingdom 

 of the Netherlands, with the title of grand duchy, 



