Though Napoleon was as ignorant of the movements of Brunswick as he was of the flank march of Bluecher at Waterloo, yet the enterprise and tenacity of Davoust and Lannes yielded him, on the Thuringian heights, a triumph scarcely paralleled in the annals of war.

It is difficult to overpraise those Marshals for the energy with which they clung to the foe and brought on a battle under conditions highly favourable to the French: without their efforts, the Prussian army could never have been shattered on a single day.
The flood of invasion now roared down the Thuringian valleys and deluged the plains of Saxony and Brandenburg.

Rivers and ramparts were alike helpless to stay that all-devouring tide.

On October the 16th, 16,000 men surrendered at Erfurt to Murat: then, spurring eastward, _le beau sabreur_ rushed on the wreck of Hohenlohe's force, and with the aid of Lannes' untiring corps compelled it to surrender at Prenzlau.[112] Bluecher meanwhile stubbornly retreated to the north; but, with Murat, Soult, and Bernadotte dogging his steps, he finally threw himself into Luebeck, where, after a last desperate effort, he surrendered to overpowering numbers (November 7th).
Here the gloom of defeat was relieved by gleams of heroism; but before the walls of other Prussian strongholds disaster was blackened by disgrace.

Held by timid old men or nerveless pedants, they scarcely waited for a vigorous attack.