ABSTRACT
The good use which Napoleon had made of the armistice may best be estimated from the fact that at its conclusion the forces under his command on German soil alone amounted to nearly 600,000 men, a total hardly inferior to that of the great host collected sixteen months before for the invasion of Russia. Macdonald had received orders from Napoleon to drive the Army of Silesia back beyond Jauer, and then take up a position behind the Bober to cover the principal operations against Bohemia from interruption by Blucher. If the advance of the Army of Bohemia had been conducted with rather more energy and definiteness of purpose a great deal more success might have been obtained. Schwarzenberg was somewhat loath to embark upon it, he would have preferred to leave to the enemy the difficulties of crossing the mountains in order to bring on a battle.
