St. Gotthard. arrived in Fluelen to find that the enemy had 

 done away with all the boats, thus compelling them to take 

 once more to the mountains ; there they were obliged to 

 cross the Kinzigkulm pass, the Axen road along the 

 lake not being yet constructed. The passage over the 

 Alps lasted three days and three nights. Early on 

 Sept. 28 th Souvoroff arrived in the Muota valley and was 

 informed, by the abbess of the cloister, of the fall of Zurich, 

 arid of the Austrians' hasty retreat from Switzerland. 

 Most unwillingly Souvoroff resolved to make his troops 

 retreat over the Pragel, His rear-guard arrived in the night 

 of the 29 th -30 th Sept. into the valley of the Muota. 



Meanwhile some French troops occupying- the entrance 

 of the valley, attacked the Russians at daybreak on the 

 1st of October. The Russians resisted for a long- time, but 

 General Lecourbe's army appeared suddenly in the direction 

 of Brunnen, and threatened to cut off the Russians. 



They were obliged to withdraw behind the bridge. In 

 the Qro8smatt, before coming- to the church and the cloister, 

 Rosenberg placed his starving troops for the decisive battle. 

 At the risk of their lives the Cossacks ventured into the 

 waves of the high swollen Muota, and the cavalry of both 

 sides charged each other with terrible violence. A frightful 

 slaughter followed, but the impetuosity of the Russians, 

 that bordered on despair, conquered in the end. Our model 

 illustrates this part of the battle. Step by step the French 

 were obliged to yield. In vain do the officers attempt to 

 restore order, and to renew the fray. Disorder sets in 

 among the ranks of the French, and all flee in the utmost 

 confusion towards the end of the valley. Resistance against 

 the war-like courage of the Russians was no longer pos- 

 sible. The warmly contested stronghold was at last taken 

 and the Russian flag planted thereon. With this Russian- 

 feat of arms the utter defeat of the French was completed. 

 Henceforth their impetuous flight took a terrible form. A 

 powder waggon stopped the small entrance to the bridge. 

 The fleeing masses pressed ever harder and harder on the 

 now partly repaired bridge, which the Russians had burnt 

 after their retreat in the morning. On this shaky bridge 

 the fugitives and the fresh reinforcements from Massena 

 met. The shock was terrible. Cannons, waggons full of 

 wounded men and horses were hurled in great numbers 

 into the roaring waves of the Muota, down into the dreadful 

 abyss. Already a half -brigade had thrown down their 

 weapons, when, with the approching night, general Lecourbe 

 came from Brunnen with a second division of his brigade 

 and the Russians withdrew into the ravines of the mountain- 



10 



