Shortly afterwards, it chanced that Wallenstein himself met a soldier straying in the field, whom he caused to be seized, as having violated the law, and condemned to the gallows without a trial, by his usual word of doom: "Let the rascal be hung!" The soldier protested, and proved his innocence.
"Then let them hang the innocent," cried the inhuman Wallenstein; "and the guilty will tremble the more." The preparations for carrying this sentence into effect had already commenced, when the soldier, who saw himself lost without remedy, formed the desperate resolution that he would not die unrevenged.

Rushing furiously upon his leader, he was seized and disarmed by the bystanders before he could carry his intention into effect.

"Now let him go," said Wallenstein; "it will excite terror enough.""-- ED.
{9} Poniatowski was the commander of the Polish legion in the armies of Napoleon, by whom he was highly respected.

At the battle of Leipzig, fought in October 1813, Poniatowski and Marshal MacDonald were appointed to command the rear of Napoleon's army, which, after two days hard fighting, was compelled to retreat before the Allies.

These generals defended the retreat of the army so gallantly, that all the French troops, except those under their immediate command, had evacuated the town.