Prussia led in
the movement to free all the German-speaking people from French
domination. From Prussia the national enthusiasm spread to the other
states. Mecklenburg, which had been the last addition to the
Confederation of the Rhine, was the first to secede from it. All
northern and central Germany was speedily in popular revolt, and the
Prussian army, swelled by many patriotic enlistments, marched southward
into Saxony. Austria, divided between fear of Napoleon and jealousy of
the growing power of Russia, mobilized her army and waited for events
to shape her conduct. In these trying circumstances Napoleon acted with
his accustomed promptness and vigor. Since his arrival in France late
in 1812, he had been frantically engaged in recruiting a new army,
which, with the wreck of the _Grande Armee_ and the assistance
that was still forthcoming from Naples and southern Germany, now
numbered 200,000 men, and with which he was ready to take the offensive
in Saxony. On 2 May, 1813, he fell on the allied Russians and Prussians
at Luetzen and defeated them, but was unable to follow up his advantage
for want of cavalry.
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