ightening
his griefs, he only aggravated them by those acts of injustice for which
he reproached himself, and which he was afterwards anxious to repair.

It was only to Count Daru that he unbosomed himself frankly, but without
any weakness. He said "he should march upon Kutusoff, crush or drive him
back, and then turn suddenly towards Smolensk." Daru, who had before
approved this course, replied that "it was now too late; that the
Russian army was re-enforced, his own weakened, and his victory
forgotten; that, the moment his troops turned their faces towards home,
they would slip away from him by degrees; that each soldier, laden with
booty, would try to get the start of the army, for the purpose of
disposing of it in France." "What, then, is to be done?" exclaimed the
emperor. "Remain here," replied Daru; "make one vast intrenched camp of
Moscow, and pass the winter in it. He would answer for it that there
would be no want of bread and salt: the rest foraging on a large scale
would supply. Such of the horses as they could not procure food for
might be salted down. As to lodgings, if there were not houses enough,
the cellars might make up the deficiency. Here we might stay till the
return of spring, when our re-enforcements and all Lithuania in arms
would come to relieve, to join us, and to complete the conquest."

After listening to this proposal the emperor was for some time silent
and thoughtful: he then replied, "This is a lion's counsel! But what
would Paris say? What would they do there? What have they been doing
there for the last three weeks that they have not heard from me? Who
knows what would be the effect of a suspension of communication for six
months? No: France would not accustom itself to my absence, and Prussia
and Austria would take advantage of it."

Still Napoleon could not make up his mind either to stay or to depart.
Though overcome in this struggle of pertinacity, he deferred from day to
day the avowal of his defeat. Amid the threatening storm of men and
elements which was gathering around him, his ministers and aids-de-camp
saw him pass whole days in discussing the merits of some new verses
which he had received, or the regulations for one of the French theatres
at Paris, which he took three evenings to finish. As they were
acquainted with his deep anxiety, they could not but admire the strength
of his genius, and the facility with which he could take off the whole
force of his attention from,