Note I — INDEX.

The French cavalry followed up their success, and then it was that Blucher so narrowly escaped captivity,—a fate that, to him, would have been worse than death itself. His horse, a beautiful grey charger, the gift of the Prince Regent of England, had been wounded: it broke down, and fell just as the lancers turned to fly from the pursuing enemy. “Now, Nostitz, I am lost!” said the gallant rider to his aide-de-camp, at the moment that he sunk beneath the dying steed. Count Nostitz, who, in the confusion, had alone remained by his side, instantly leaped to the ground, and, sword in hand, stood over his fallen chief, while the whole body of the French cavalry passed on, totally unmindful of the group. Before, however, the count could take advantage of the calm, and extricate the general from beneath the dead charger, the Prussians had turned upon their pursuers, and forced the cuirassiers to retrograde as fast as they had come: so that the whole of the broken rout again rushed by the fallen marshal. As soon as the Prussians (who knew nothing of what had happened to their leader) arrived, Nostitz seized the bridle of a non-commissioned officer’s horse, and, with the aid of the soldier, placed the bruised and almost insensible commander in the saddle, and hurried him from the field.