t of the position. Such was the impetuosity of the charge that
they drove the Russians from their redoubts; but this was but for a
moment. They rallied under the very line of their enemy's fire, and
instantly re-advanced. Peasants who, till that hour, had never seen war,
and who still wore their usual rustic dress, distinguished only by a
cross sewed on it in front, threw themselves into the thickest of the
combat. As they fell, others rushed on and filled their places. Some
idea may be formed of the obstinacy of the contest from the fact, that
of one division of the Russians which mustered 30,000 in the morning,
only 8000 survived. These men had fought in close order, and unshaken,
under the fire of eighty pieces of artillery. The result of this
terrible day was, that Buonaparte withdrew his troops and abandoned all
hope of forcing his way through the Russians. In no contest by many
degrees so desperate had he hitherto been engaged. Night found either
army on the ground they had occupied at daybreak. The number of guns and
prisoners taken by the French and the Russians was about equal; and of
either host there had fallen not less than 40,000 men. Some accounts
raise the gross number of the slain to 100,000. Such was the victory in
honour of which Napoleon created Marshal Ney _Prince of Moskwa_.

Buonaparte, when advised by his generals, towards the conclusion of the
day, to bring forward his own guard and hazard one final attack at their
head, answered, "And if my guard fail, what means should I have for
renewing the battle to-morrow?" The Russian commander, on the other
hand, appears to have spared nothing to prolong the contest.--During the
night after, his cavalry made several attempts to break into the enemy's
lines; and it was only on receiving the reports of his regimental
officers in the morning, that Kutusoff perceived the necessity of
retiring until he should be further recruited. His army was the mainstay
of his country: on its utter dissolution his master might have found it
very difficult to form another; but while it remained perfect in its
organisation, the patriotic population of the empire were sure to fill
up readily every vacancy in its ranks. Having ascertained then the
extent of his loss, and buried his dead (among whom was the gallant
Bagrathion) with great solemnity,--the Russian slowly and calmly
withdrew from his intrenchments, and marched on Mojaisk. Napoleon was so
fortunate as to be joined exa