rd, he himself took the command, and
marched with it towards Krasnoi, the first town on the way to Minsk: the
second corps was that of Eugene Beauharnois; the third, Davoust's; and
the fourth, destined for the perilous service of the rear, and
accordingly strengthened with 3000 of the guard, was entrusted to the
heroic guidance of Ney. The Emperor left Smolensko on the 13th of
November, having ordered that the other corps should follow him on the
14th, 15th, and 16th, respectively; thus interposing a day's march
between every two divisions.

It is not to be questioned that Napoleon, in thus arranging his march,
was influenced by the pressing difficulty of finding provisions, and
also by the enfeebled condition of the greater part of his remaining
troops. The division of his force, however, was so complete, that had he
been opposed by a general adequate to the occasion, his total and
immediate ruin could hardly have been avoided. But Kutusoff appears to
have exhausted the better part of his daring at Borodino, and
thenceforth to have adhered to the plan of avoiding battle--originally
wise and necessary--with a pertinacity savouring of superstition. It
must be admitted, that hitherto, in suffering the climate to waste his
enemy's numbers, and merely heightening the misery of the elemental war
by his clouds of Cossacks, and occasional assaults of other light
troops, he had reaped almost every advantage which could have resulted
from another course. But the army of Napoleon had been already reduced
to a very small fragment of its original strength; and even that
fragment was now split into four divisions, against any one of which it
would have been easy to concentrate a force overwhelmingly superior. It
seems to be generally accepted that the name of Napoleon saved whatever
part of his host finally escaped from the territory of Russia; in a
word, that had Kutusoff been able to shake off that awe which had been
the growth of a hundred victories, the Emperor himself must have either
died on some bloody field between Smolensko and the Beresina, or
revisited, as a prisoner, the interior of the country which, three
months before, he had invaded at the head of half a million of warriors.

He himself, with his column, reached Krasnoi unmolested, although the
whole of the Russian army, moving on a parallel road, were in full
observation of his march. Eugene, who followed him, was, however,
intercepted on his way by Milarodowitch,