oleon, whose temper was by this time
embittered into ungovernable rage, charged the General with being the
leader of the Cossacks, and threatened to have him shot, on the instant,
as a brigand. Witzingerode replied, that "he commanded not the Cossacks,
but a part of the regular army; and that, in the character of a Russian
soldier, he was at all times prepared for a French bullet." Napoleon,
now ascertaining the name, country, and rank of his prisoner, pursued in
these angry ejaculations: "Who are you? A man without a country--You
have ever been my enemy--You were in the Austrian's ranks at
Austerlitz--I now find you in the Russian! Nevertheless, you are a
native of the Confederation of the Rhine--therefore my subject--and a
rebel.--Seize him, gens-d'armes! Let the traitor be brought to trial."
The Emperor's attendants were wise enough to foresee the effects of such
violence, if persisted in: they interposed, and Witzingerode was sent
on as a prisoner of war towards Smolensko.[62]

On the 28th of October, Napoleon himself, with 6000 chosen horse, began
his journey towards Smolensko; the care of bringing up the main body
being given to Beauharnois, while Ney commanded the rear. From the
commencement of this march, hardly a day elapsed in which some new
calamity did not befall those hitherto invincible legions. The Cossacks
of Platoff came on one division at Kolotsk, near Borodino, on the 1st of
November, and gave them a total defeat. A second division was attacked
on the day after, and with nearly equal success, by the irregular troops
of Count Orloff Denizoff. On the 3rd, Milarodowitch reached the main
road near Viasma, and after routing Ney, Davoust, and Beauharnois, drove
them through the town, which he entered with drums beating and colours
flying, and making a passage for the rest of the army over the dead
bodies of the enemy. Beauharnois, after this, separated his division
from the rest, and endeavoured to push for Vitepsk, by the way of
Douchowtchina, and Platoff followed him, while Milarodowitch continued
the pursuit on the main road. The separation of troops so pressed is a
sufficient proof that they were already suffering severely for want of
food; but their miseries were about to be heightened by the arrival of a
new enemy. On the 6th of November, the Russian winter fairly set in; and
thenceforth, between the heavy columns of regular troops which on every
side watched and threatened them, the continued assaults