Their resources were far less developed than his own.

At Bautzen, their army was much smaller; and Boyen states that had the Emperor pushed them hard, driven the Russians back into Poland and called the Poles once more to arms, the allies must have been in the most serious straits.[342] Napoleon, it is true, gained much by the armistice.

His conscripts profited immensely by the training of those nine weeks: his forces now threatened Austria on the side of Bavaria and Illyria, as well as from the newly intrenched camp south of Dresden: his cavalry was re-recovering its old efficiency: Murat, in answer to his imperious summons, ended his long vacillations and joined the army at Dresden on August 14th.
Above all, the French now firmly held that great military barrier, the River Elbe.

Napoleon's obstinacy during the armistice was undoubtedly fed by his boundless confidence in the strength of his military position.

In vain did his Marshals remind him that he was dangerously far from France; that, if Austria drew the sword, she could cut him off from the Rhine, and that the Saale, or even the Rhine itself, would be a safer line of defence .-- Ten battles lost, he retorted, would scarcely force him to that last step.