apoleon was prepared to cross the Niemen at the head of at least
470,000 men.

On the Russian side the plan of the campaign had been settled ere now;
it was entirely defensive. Taught by the events of the former war in
Poland, and of that which had already fixed the reputation of Wellington
in the Peninsula, the Czar was resolved, from the beginning, to draw
Buonaparte if possible into the heart of his own country ere he gave him
battle. The various divisions of the Russian force had orders to fall
back leisurely as the enemy advanced, destroying whatever they could not
remove along with them, and halting only at certain points, where
intrenched camps had already been formed for their reception. The
difficulty of feeding half a million of men in a country deliberately
wasted beforehand, and separated by so great a space from Germany, to
say nothing of France, was sure to increase with every hour and every
step; and Alexander's great object was to husband his own strength until
the Polar winter should set in around the strangers, and bring the
miseries which he thus foresaw to a crisis. Napoleon, on the other hand,
had calculated on being met by the Russians at, or even in advance of,
their frontier (as he had been by the Austrians in the campaigns of
Austerlitz and Wagram, and by the Prussians in that of Jena); of gaining
a great battle; marching immediately either to St. Petersburg or to
Moscow--and dictating a peace, after the fashion of Presburg or
Schoenbrunn, within the walls of one of the Czar's own palaces.

On the 24th of June, the grand imperial army, consolidated into three
masses, began their passage of the Niemen; the King of Westphalia at
Grodno; the Viceroy Eugene at Pilony, and Napoleon himself near Kowno.
The emperor rode on in front of his army to reconnoitre the banks; his
horse stumbled, and he fell to the ground. "A bad omen--a Roman would
return," exclaimed some one; it is not certain whether Buonaparte
himself or one of his attendants. The first party that crossed were
challenged by a single Cossack. "For what purpose," said he, "do you
enter the Russian country?" "To beat you and take Wilna," answered the
advanced guard. The sentinel struck spurs to his horse, and disappeared
in the forest. There came on at the same moment a tremendous
thunder-storm. Thus began the fatal invasion.

No opposition awaited these enormous hosts as they traversed the plains
of Lithuania. Alexander withdrew his armies